Could famous driving road close to cars?

Its breathtaking scenery makes it one of the UK’s most famous driving roads, but there have been warnings that Snake Pass could close to cars indefinitely. What is the future of this long and winding road?

Even if you’ve never driven on Snake Pass, you’ve probably heard of Snake Pass.

It’s regarded as one of the most scenic driving roads in the UK, or even the world, and it frequently features in traffic reports – mainly because it closes so often.

But closures due to landslips are becoming so frequent that Derbyshire County Council has warned it cannot afford to keep repairing the road, and has asked for government help to keep it open.

Work to build the road began in 1818 and it opened in 1821, so it’s just over 200 years old.

Roger Hargreaves, director of Glossop Heritage Trust, said it was built as a turnpike – or toll road – to connect Sheffield with Manchester.

“In the late 18th Century Sheffield was growing very rapidly, and the iron and steel trade had a lot of customers to the west in Manchester, and it had a big export trade with America through Liverpool,” he said.

Mr Hargreaves said it was a myth the road was built by renowned civil engineer Thomas Telford.

“It says all over the internet that it was built by Telford, but I’ve never seen any evidence that he had anything to do with it at all,” he said.

The road was financially unsuccessful from the start, and it did not make enough money to maintain itself.

“First of all the summit is at nearly 1,700ft, very exposed, and sometimes it was closed by snow for months in the winter,” Mr Hargreaves said.

“It was also built along ground which was not stable, and so it was really not a good idea to build a road along this route.

“I think if Telford had been consulted about it he would probably have realised what the problems were and would have advised against it.”

The road became even less viable when the railways arrived as competition in the 1840s.

“After that it was virtually abandoned for 80 years, until the first cyclists arrived, and then the first cars, and there was eventually a bus service in the 1920s,” said Mr Hargreaves.

It is often assumed the road is named Snake Pass due to its serpent-like winding route. However, it actually takes its name from a pub.

“It wasn’t called Snake Pass until the end of the 19th Century, when the tourists were the main traffic,” said Mr Hargreaves.

“The Snake Inn was a popular stopping point for tourists in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century. The Duke of Devonshire’s snake emblem was over the door, and the name of the pub was transferred to the road.”

The Duke of Devonshire owned most of the land where the road was built and had funded its creation along with the Duke of Norfolk, who owned the land at either end.

The pub was eventually renamed The Snake Pass Inn as the road became more famous.

The pub closed in 2019 but people can still stay in self-catering accommodation there.

Manchester band Inspiral Carpets filmed the video for This Is How It Feels, their first UK top 40 hit, at the summit of Snake Pass.

Over in Sheffield, The Human League had an album track called The Snake which was apparently inspired by the road.

“The moors stretch out along the way, by glow of night, by light of day, just read the signs,” the lyrics said.

Electronic musician Squarepusher also had a track called Snake Pass, which did not contain any lyrics.

Comic character John Shuttleworth has performed a song called Incident on Snake Pass, about an accident involving his Ford Anglia and an articulated lorry.

Snake Pass was also used as a filming location in the 2007 British drama film And When Did You Last See Your Father?, starring Colin Firth.

And a spot beneath the famous road was used as a location in the BBC’s 2006 adaptation of Jane Eyre, starring Ruth Wilson.

Snake Pass often closes in winter due to ice and snow making it too dangerous to drive along.

“One of the things we say in Glossop is that if it’s snowing hard in Glossop the Snake will already have closed,” said Mr Hargreaves.

The other issue with the road is landslips, which are a problem across Derbyshire.

“I think that Snake Pass because of the geology of the area has always been a bit of a challenge in terms of landslips and movement in the area,” said Charlotte Cupit, Derbyshire County Council’s cabinet member for transport.

“We seem to have a particular challenge in Derbyshire with landslips. We’ve got over 200 landslips that we’re trying to manage.”

She said the problems seemed to be getting worse due to more extreme weather conditions.

“Sadly with some of the floods, and some of the big snowfall events, Snake bears the brunt of that quite often because it’s one of the highest points in the county,” she said.

Derbyshire County Council said it was increasingly having to resurface Snake Pass following landslips, but it does not have enough money for bigger repairs.

“There’s one place on Snake, at Alport, where you can see that half the road has gone,” said Ms Cupit.

Traffic lights have therefore been installed so that cars can still use one of the lanes.

“We haven’t got the resources to be able to carry out the repair, because that’s many millions of pounds, and that would take it off the wider highways budget that we currently get,” said Ms Cupit.

Although the road links Sheffield and Manchester – which are not in Derbyshire – it is paid for by Derbyshire County Council rather than from a central budget.

“County-wide we only get about £27m a year as a base, and that’s for the whole county – 3,500 miles of roads,” said Ms Cupit.

The council has therefore asked the Department for Transport (DfT) for a “landslips fund” to keep the road open in future.

However, the DfT told the BBC it was “not responsible for Snake Pass” and “does not hold contingency funding for major repairs of this sort”.

Ms Cupit said in response: “We have specific challenges in Derbyshire with landslips, which have been recognised by the DfT in the past.

“Other areas just don’t have these issues to the same extent as us, and this is not recognised in our funding from the government.”

She warned the council would not have the resources to deal with a major landslip.

“There are four landslips along Snake Pass at the moment, of varying degrees of severity,” she said.

“That’s quite a big alarm bell that potentially there could be a bigger source of movement.”

Mr Hargreaves said there was precedent for closing the road, as part of another road in the Peak District – the A625 – was abandoned in 1979.

“The road through Hope Valley had to be closed in the 1970s for similar reasons, that it was collapsing at Mam Tor, and in the end the county engineers just gave up and said they couldn’t do anything more,” he said.

Snake Pass has frequently featured in the Tour of Britain cycling race.

Cycling campaign Harry Gray has also organised cycling events called Snake Pass Trespass when the road has been closed due to landslips.

“There’s a lot of people who wanted to experience Snake Pass, because it’s quite a famous climb in cycling to do in the Peak District, and it’s quite a daunting experience with cars flying past you,” he said.

If the road does close to cars, Mr Grey believes it could be turned into a cycling and walking route similar to the Monsal Trail.

“They have over 300,000 people use that a year, it boosts local tourism and the economy, there’s even local businesses that have opened up on that route,” he said.

“Snake Pass could become like that. It could become one of the most famous walking and cycling routes in Britain, if the road has to close.”