The 50 year-old M6 sign passed by millions saved from the scrapheap

It stood for almost 50 years to become one of the oldest signs on the UK's entire motorway network. Millions of motorists on the M6 have passed by over five decades, but age inevitably intervened.

When the information sign for Keele Services, in north Staffordshire, suddenly disappeared one day, it sparked a social media buzz resulting in an investigation.

The blue and white sign - barely legible and rusting away - was taken down for safely reasons, but now has pride of place in a transport museum.

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Despite the many thousands of signs that National Highways has on its network, the information sign for Keele Services was unusual in that it was in the central reservation and is believed to be one of the oldest signs of its kind on the network, dating back to the mid-1970s.

With so many people asking where the sign had gone, National Highways' Matt Sparks launched a personal mission to rescue the piece of highways history from the scrap heap. And thanks to his efforts, the sign now has a new home at the Aldridge Transport Museum near Walsall in the West Midlands. It's also had a well-deserved spruce up after decades of motorway fumes and rain.

Matt, who works in the Network Occupancy Business Administration Team, discovered the sign was taken down for safety reasons because it was rusting away from its mounts. He said: "There were two tasks, essentially. The first was to see if we could prevent the sign from becoming scrappage and, secondly, where could it go?"

With the help of colleague Richard Hancox, the Network Availability Manager for the West Midlands, the sign was eventually located, stashed away in a highways depot.

Matt contacted the Aldridge Transport Museum, which jumped at the chance to add the sign to its collection. He said: “Obviously there was a need to balance time and resources against outcomes so this could only have worked with everyone's understanding and buy-in. But many would agree that it would have been a shame if National Highways couldn’t save this interesting artefact.

"Yes, it’s looking old, and is a little outdated, but I was so pleased we were able to get it to the museum. After all, many millions have observed it over the last 50 years. I just hope they’ll enjoy getting much closer to it, amongst all the other fantastic bits of history within the museum. You could say it truly is a sign of its time."

Martin Fisher, one of the museum's leads, said: "At Aldridge Transport Museum, we are delighted to have the Keele Services sign, donated by National Highways. It is the first motorway era sign in our collection and, like all the signs and notices we display, helps to put the vehicles in our collection into context.

"Our visitors like to feel that we transport them back in time with reminders of everyday sights from the past, and - being close to the M6 as we are - many will be familiar with Keele Services, so more memories will be triggered. The heritage is everyone's - we are just looking after it for now."