It was developed in 1994 when the link to the A14 was added to the pre-existing M1/M6 junction by joining the M1, M6 and A14 to the country lane between Catthorpe and Swinford as part of the Trans European Road Network,.

Prior to reconfiguration in 2014, the previous layout was overloaded and had a poor safety record, meaning improvements were required.

[4] The Highways Agency acknowledged that the layout of the interchange resulted in a serious accident problem, inconvenience for those wishing to travel between villages in the area, and delays and congestion for both motorway and non-motorway traffic.

A non-standard layout was adopted and a sub-standard dumb-bell roundabout was created to handle the A14 traffic, and which became grossly inadequate before 2010.

At that stage traffic from Birmingham on the M6 wishing to travel north and east left the M6 at junction 1 to join the A426 road.