Great North Road (Great Britain)
Encyclopedia
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
and Edinburgh. The modern A1 mainly follows the Great North Road. The inns on the road, many of which survive, were staging posts on the coach routes, providing accommodation, stabling for the horses and replacement mounts. However, virtually none of the surviving coaching inns can be seen while driving on the A1, because the modern route now bypasses the towns in which the inns are to be found.
Route
A traditional starting point of the Great North Road was SmithfieldSmithfield, London
Smithfield is an area of the City of London, in the ward of Farringdon Without. It is located in the north-west part of the City, and is mostly known for its centuries-old meat market, today the last surviving historical wholesale market in Central London...
in Central London. Distances on the road were computed from the now demolished Hicks Hall, situated at the south end of St John Street, just to the north of Smithfield Market. The route ran from Smithfield up St John Street to the Angel Islington. However, with the building of the General Post Office at St Martin's-le-Grand in 1829, coaches started using an alternative route, used by the modern A1, beginning at the GPO building and following Aldersgate Street and Goswell Road
Goswell Road
Goswell Road is a road in the south of the London Borough of Islington. It runs north from the border of the City of London through Clerkenwell, crossing Old Street to The Angel....
before joining the old route at the Angel. The Angel was an important staging post on the route. The next important stages were Highgate, Barnet, Hatfield, Baldock, Biggleswade and Alconbury
Alconbury
Alconbury is a village in the English county of Cambridgeshire.-Geography:It is in the district of Huntingdonshire and gives its name to RAF Alconbury. It is near to the point where a major north/south road, the A1, crosses the only major east/west road: the A14...
, all replete with traditional coaching inns.
At Alconbury, the Great North Road joined the Old North Road, an older route from London which follows the Roman Ermine Street
Ermine Street
Ermine Street is the name of a major Roman road in England that ran from London to Lincoln and York . The Old English name was 'Earninga Straete' , named after a tribe called the Earningas, who inhabited a district later known as Armingford Hundred, around Arrington, Cambridgeshire and Royston,...
. Here a milestone records mileages to London via both routes: 65 by the Old North Road and 68 by the Great North Road. From Alconbury the Great North Road follows the line of Ermine Street north, through Stilton
Stilton
Stilton is a village in Cambridgeshire, England, and within the historic county boundary of Huntingdonshire.-Geography:Stilton lies south of the city of Peterborough. It lies on the old Great North Road, from London and was an important coaching stop in the days before motorised transport. It...
and Stamford as far as Colsterworth (at the A151 junction). Inns on this section include the George at Stamford and the Bell Inn at Stilton, the original sellers of Stilton
Stilton (cheese)
Stilton is a type of English cheese, known for its characteristic strong smell and taste. It is produced in two varieties: the well-known blue and the lesser-known white. Both have been granted the status of a protected designation of origin by the European Commission, together one of only...
cheese.
At Colsterworth the Great North Road diverges west of the Roman road and continues through Grantham, Newark, Retford and Bawtry to Doncaster. North of Doncaster the Great North Road again follows a short section of Ermine Street called Roman Rigg
Roman Ridge, South Yorkshire
The Roman Ridge is that part of the Roman road of Ermine Street located in the Doncaster area of South Yorkshire, England. Although in places, Ermine Street follows the modern Great North Road , there is a stretch between Sunnyfields and Red House which is known as the Roman Ridge.The Roman Ridge...
or Roman Ridge
Roman Ridge, South Yorkshire
The Roman Ridge is that part of the Roman road of Ermine Street located in the Doncaster area of South Yorkshire, England. Although in places, Ermine Street follows the modern Great North Road , there is a stretch between Sunnyfields and Red House which is known as the Roman Ridge.The Roman Ridge...
. Further north the Great North Road crossed the Roman Dere Street
Dere Street
Dere Street or Deere Street, was a Roman road between Eboracum and Veluniate, in what is now Scotland. It still exists in the form of the route of many major roads, including the A1 and A68 just north of Corbridge.Its name corresponds with the post Roman Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Deira, through...
near Boroughbridge
Boroughbridge
Boroughbridge is a small town and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated northwest of York. Until its bypass was built, it was on the main A1 road from London to Edinburgh...
from where it went via Dishforth
Dishforth
Dishforth is a village and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It is near RAF Dishforth, a local Army Air Corps helicopter base. The village is close to the A1 and the A168. The original route of the Great North Road runs through the village but an airbase was built...
and Topcliffe
Topcliffe, North Yorkshire
Topcliffe is a village and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. The village is situated on the River Swale, close to the A168 and about five miles south-west of Thirsk...
to Northallerton
Northallerton
Northallerton is an affluent market town and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Vale of Mowbray and at the northern end of the Vale of York. It has a population of 15,741 according to the 2001 census...
and then through Darlington
Darlington
Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, part of the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It lies on the small River Skerne, a tributary of the River Tees, not far from the main river. It is the main population centre in the borough, with a population of 97,838 as of 2001...
and Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
. A road forked off to the left at the bridge in Boroughbridge to follow Dere Street, thence from Scotch Corner to Penrith and on to Glasgow. Part of this route was used for the original A1, with a local road from Scotch Corner via Barton to Darlington making the link back to the old Great North Road.
In the first era of stage coaches York was the terminus of the Great North Road, on the route Doncaster–Selby
Selby
Selby is a town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. Situated south of the city of York, along the course of the River Ouse, Selby is the largest and, with a population of 13,012, most populous settlement of the wider Selby local government district.Historically a part of the West Riding...
–York but was later superseded by the route Doncaster–Ferrybridge
Ferrybridge
Ferrybridge is a village in West Yorkshire, England at a historically important crossing of the River Aire. It is linked to other communities by the A1, which follows the route of the Great North Road....
–Wetherby–Boroughbridge–Northallerton–Darlington, the more direct way to Edinburgh, the ultimate destination. The first recorded stage coach operation running to York was in 1658. This took four days to reach its destination. Faster mail coaches began using the route in 1786, stimulating a quicker service from the other passenger coaches. In the 'Golden Age of Coaching', between 1815–35 coaches could go from London to York in 20 hours and from London to Edinburgh in 45 and a half hours. In the mid nineteenth century coach services could not compete with the new railways. The last coach from London to Newcastle left in 1842 and the last from Newcastle to Edinburgh in July 1847.
Cultural references
The highwaymanHighwayman
A highwayman was a thief and brigand who preyed on travellers. This type of outlaw, usually, travelled and robbed by horse, as compared to a footpad who traveled and robbed on foot. Mounted robbers were widely considered to be socially superior to footpads...
Dick Turpin
Dick Turpin
Richard "Dick" Turpin was an English highwayman whose exploits were romanticised following his execution in York for horse theft. Turpin may have followed his father's profession as a butcher early in life, but by the early 1730s he had joined a gang of deer thieves, and later became a poacher,...
's flight from London to York in less than 15 hours on his mare Black Bess is the most famous legend of the Great North Road. Various inns along the A1 claim Turpin ate lunch there that night, or stopped for a respite for his horse. Harrison Ainsworth, in his 1834 romance Rookwood
Rookwood (novel)
Rookwood is a novel by William Harrison Ainsworth published in 1834. It is a historical and gothic romance that describes a dispute over the legitimate claim for the inheritance of Rookwood Place and the Rookwood family name.-Background:...
, immortalised this with a spirited account of this ride. Historians argue that Turpin never made the journey, claiming instead that the ride was by John Nevison
John Nevison
John Nevison , also known as William Nevison, was one of Britain's most notorious highwaymen, a gentleman-rogue supposedly nicknamed Swift Nick by King Charles II after a renowned dash from Kent to York to establish an alibi for a robbery he had committed earlier that day...
, known as "Swift Nick", born and raised at Wortley near Sheffield and a highwayman in the time of Charles II, 50 years before Turpin. It is claimed that Nevison, in order to establish an alibi, rode from Gad's Hill, near Rochester, Kent, to York (some 190 miles (305.8 km)) in 15 hours.
The Winchelsea Arms was an inn on a long straight section of the Great North Road near Stretton
Stretton, Rutland
Stretton is a small village and civil parish in the county of Rutland, England, just off the A1 Great North Road. The Ecclesiastical parish of Stretton shares the same boundaries and is part of the Rutland deanery of the diocese of Peterborough. The incumbent is The Revd Richard Jan...
which was reputed to be another haunt of Dick Turpin. It is now called the Ram Jam Inn after a story from those coaching days. A coach passenger undertook to show the landlady the secret of drawing both mild and bitter beer from the same barrel. Two holes were made and she was left with one thumb rammed against one and the other jammed into the other. The trickster then made off.
In literature the Great North Road features in The Pickwick Papers
The Pickwick Papers
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club is the first novel by Charles Dickens. After the publication, the widow of the illustrator Robert Seymour claimed that the idea for the novel was originally her husband's; however, in his preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens strenuously denied any...
by Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
. Part of the J.B. Priestley novel The Good Companions
The Good Companions
The Good Companions is a novel by the English author J. B. Priestley.Written in 1929 , it focuses on the trials and tribulations of a concert party in England between World War I and World War II. It is arguably Priestley's most famous novel, and the work which established him as a national figure...
features the Great North Road; represented to the northerner Jess Oakroyd as the gateway to such exotic destinations as Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
. The Lord Peter Wimsey
Lord Peter Wimsey
Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey is a bon vivant amateur sleuth in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, in which he solves mysteries; usually, but not always, murders...
short story "The Fantastic Horror of the Cat in the Bag" by Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy Leigh Sayers was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator and Christian humanist. She was also a student of classical and modern languages...
features a motorcycle chase along the Great North Road. Similarly, Ruined City by Nevil Shute
Nevil Shute
Nevil Shute Norway was a popular British-Australian novelist and a successful aeronautical engineer. He used his full name in his engineering career, and 'Nevil Shute' as his pen name, in order to protect his engineering career from any potential negative publicity in connection with his novels.-...
features an all night drive from Henry Warren's house in Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, along the Great North Road as far as Rowley and then up to Greenhead near Hadrian's Wall, where Warren is dropped off to go walking. His chauffeur, keen to get home for a date with the maid, is killed near Retford.
Dick Whittington and His Cat
Dick Whittington and His Cat
Dick Whittington and His Cat is an English folk tale that has often been used as the basis for stage pantomimes and other adaptations. It tells of a poor boy in the 14th century who becomes a wealthy merchant and eventually the Lord Mayor of London because of the ratting abilities of his cat...
are characters in an English story adapted to the stage in 1605 which since the 19th century has become one of the most popular pantomime subjects, very loosely based on the historical Richard Whittington
Richard Whittington
Sir Richard Whittington was a medieval merchant and politician, and the real-life inspiration for the pantomime character Dick Whittington. Sir Richard Whittington was four times Lord Mayor of London, a Member of Parliament and a sheriff of London...
, a medieval Lord Mayor of London
Lord Mayor of London
The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...
. Dick, a boy from a poor family in Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
, walks to London to make his fortune, accompanied by his cat. He meets with little success there. Discouraged, as Dick and Cat are making for home by way of Highgate Hill, they hear the Bow Bells from distant London; Dick believes they are sending him a message to "turn again" – and that he will become Lord Mayor of London. They return: Dick makes his fortune and indeed becomes Lord Mayor. A large hospital on Highgate Hill is named after the story, and a statue of Dick's faithful pet stands nearby.
The Great North Road is mentioned in Mark Knopfler
Mark Knopfler
Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...
's song, "5:15 AM", from the album Shangri La
Shangri-La (Knopfler album)
Shangri-La is the fourth solo album by Mark Knopfler, released on 28 September 2004. The album features Knopfler's signature storytelling style of songwriting. The album's first single, "Boom, Like That", was inspired by Ray Kroc's autobiography Grinding It Out and the starting of McDonald's, using...
.
St John Street
Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. From 1900 to 1965 it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance...
, Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...
, was part of the original route of the Great North Road. It runs from Smithfield Market and Charterhouse Street in the south to the junction of City Road
City Road
City Road or The City Road is a road that runs through inner north and central London. The northwestern extremity of the road is at the Angel, Islington where it forms a continuation of Pentonville Road. Pentonville Road itself is the modern name for London's first bypass, the New Road from...
and Pentonville Road (near Upper Street) in the north, close to the Angel tube station
Angel tube station
Angel tube station is a London Underground station in The Angel, Islington. It is on the Bank branch of the Northern Line, between Old Street and King's Cross St. Pancras stations. It is in Travelcard Zone 1. The tube stop serves as a portal to several Off West End, or fringe theatre, venues,...
. The Red Bull Theatre
Red Bull Theatre
The Red Bull was a playhouse in London during the 17th century. For more than four decades, it entertained audiences drawn primarily from the northern suburbs, developing a reputation for rowdy, often disruptive audiences...
was located on the street between 1604 and 1666, when it was destroyed in the Great Fire of London
Great Fire of London
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London, from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman City Wall...
. On an island location in the middle of the street, at the southern end, where St John's Lane branches off to the west, stood Hicks Hall which was the first purpose-built sessions-house for the Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
justices of the peace. This building was used as the initial datum point for mileages on the Great North Road, and continued in this role, even after the fabric of the building no longer existed when it was demolished, soon after 1778.