Mapping the history of our A1 (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Mapping the history of our A1

11:33am Friday 11th December 2009

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A RECENT visit to Darlington reminded me of the continuing changes that affect the Great North Road, now more widely known as, or perhaps largely substituted by, either the A1 or the A1(M).

Some stretches of the A1 do not follow the route of the earlier Great North Road.

which means that the A1 is not a substitute name for the venerable Great North Road.

That old road has its own famous identity.

Its changes have been many and varied, and even as I write, work is being undertaken to the A1(M) in North Yorkshire around the Leeming area. I am old enough to recall the time when the Great North Road passed through some of our northern towns such as Wetherby, Tadcaster, Boroughbridge and Darlington but in former times it also visited York, Northallerton and Durham.

Changes have always been part of this highway and I recall driving south after being advised to pass through the centre of Doncaster to avoid the newly-opened Doncaster bypass. My adviser reckoned it was too busy! Even then – 50 years ago at a guess – drivers were by-passing the Doncaster by-pass, then part of the re-modelled Great North Road.

The problem with trying to compile a brief history of the Great North Road is that it has changed so much over the centuries. It is virtually unrecognisable from its early years and I was quite surprised to discover there used to be both a North Road and a Great North Road.

One author said they were two different ways of reaching the same place and the name Great North Road probably resulted from activity generated over a greater distance by the coaching era.

The A1 is the longest numbered road in Britain, being designed by the Ministry of Transport in 1921, but modified in 1927; it is 409 miles long (658 km) and links London with Edinburgh, the capital cities of England and Scotland. Its official start in London is often subjected to discussion and apparently by tradition it began at Smithfield, Central London and passed the famous Angel Inn at Islington while heading north.

When the General Post Office was built in London in 1829, however, that became the official beginning of the Great North Road and this modified route joined the older North Road near the Angel at Islington.

The North Road was an older route that followed the ancient Roman highway called Ermine Street that led to Lincoln from London, passing through Waltham Cross and Cheshunt before merging with the Great North Road at Alconbury. Further north, the merged route joined Dere Street and went through York, Boroughbridge, Northallerton, Darlington and Durham.

With the advent of coaches using those routes, busy coaching inns were established beside the highways and so the name of one route was the Great North Road that has become part of our transport history. But the name of Old North Road (minus the prefix Great) continues to appear in some topographical books.

I have a copy of a book of maps by John Ogilby published in 1695 and it shows the principal roads of England and Wales in his time. It makes interesting reading because he calculated there were some 40,000 miles of road at that time, and he had travelled over some two thirds of them. One of his selected routes was then called the London to Barwick Road.

Barwick was the old name for Berwick-on-Tweed and he explains how that road stretched north from London to York and then apparently took a route through the Yorkshire countryside via Poppleton, Moor Montague and Green Hammerton.

We might not recognise some of the period names but that road eventually reached what he called either Burrowbridge or Burrowbriggs, then shown as 209 miles from London.

Around the town we know as Boroughbridge were several intersections leading to (sic) Rippon, Cundall, Humberston, Kirby and others.

At Dishforth, this old route followed the line of Leeming Lane to Topcliffe from where, according to Ogilby, it went through Catton and bypassed Skipton-on-Swale, but included Sand Hutton and then followed the route of the River Wiske.

It passed Newsome Lane End, then went through South Otterington and Little Otterington before reaching Northallerton. Clearly, this was considered a large and important town but the road continued north through Great Smeaton into County Durham via Hurworth over the River Tees before passing through Darlington and heading for the city of Durham and on to Berwick.

And one of the prettiest villages recorded in this epic journey was Scruton, near Northallerton, that was described as being between Leeming Lane and the river.

The village church, dating to Norman times, is dedicated to St Radegund, a Catholic nun who was born at Erfurt in East Germany and died at Poitiers in France. She is renowned for her piety, self denial, charity, sweetness, humility, sweetness, faith and fervour. Her feast day is August 13 and she died in AD 587.

IN February this year, I received an interesting letter from a reader in Low Dinsdale, near Newsham, Darlington and it contained a query about the word cade that refers to a sheep tick.

I responded to that query at the time, but the letter also contained observations about holly berries.

My correspondent told me he had been collecting trees for many years and had started his own arboretum in the 1980s, specialising in oaks.

However, among his 250 species of trees, he has two hollies. One is growing on his land and the other is some two miles away on land approaching Neasham village.

Both trees retain their crops of berries throughout the year whereas other nearby holly trees are stripped by hungry birds some time before Christmas.

My correspondent asks whether the berries on his holly trees differ in taste from those nearby or whether there is some unknown factor that makes birds prefer one tree rather than others in the vicinity. My correspondent does add that when planting holly trees it is sensible to plant them in small groups, say less than five, so that a suitable mix of male and female is achieved.

This is a fine way of ensuring the females bear berries. Our local holly trees seem to be producing an abundance of berries this year and I thank my correspondent for his informative letter that I have kept on file since February.

IWAS intrigued to see in recent property columns of my local newspaper that a waterfall was for sale. It is above Stainforth, near Settle, and the entire deal includes 2.5 acres of very private land with a natural waterfall.

Although some of us can claim a stream in the garden, few can muster a waterfall of this standard. It is a gem set among unspoilt woodland in spectacular scenery.

Access is very difficult but the waterfall has a marvellous story to tell because it inspired our greatest English composer, Sir Edward Elgar.

His work is highly reminiscent of the Yorkshire Dales and it is wonderful to know that he was inspired by a visit to this place – and it could be yours for about £25,000.

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