Stage-coach History
Stagecoach history is intertwined with societal changes in travel habits, technical innovation, the roots of industrial revolution, population growth and...
London Coaching Inns
By the early 19th century there were 120 stage coach inns within a city which was far more compact than today. Many of the coach services were aligned with specific...
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is the northerly “bookend” of the Great North Road as St Paul’s Cathedral is in the south. Not strictly on the road but both...
Celia Fiennes
Celia Fiennes was an early travel writer. She toured extensively through England in the late 17th century. Her diaries describe many of the towns...
Markham Moor – Service Station
Few 20th century landmarks along the Great North Road are as distinctive as the concrete roofline of the former petrol filling station at Markham...
Then & Now
"The Great North Road - Then and Now" is the title of an excellent 2013 book by lorry driver and roads enthusiast, Chris "Wolfie" Cooper. I suspect many of his loads were not...
The Battle of Barnet
The Battle of Barnet may sound like a dispute between commuters on the Northern Line but in fact took place in 1471 and some 3,000 people died. It was one of the...
1832 Time Travel – London to York
James Fox, alias the Time Travel Artist, includes a little gem of a video amongst his many animated history timelines. Our journey from London to York traces the route of the Great...
Lincoln
Lincoln was a key staging post for the Romans as they pushed north following the invasion of AD43. It was a focus of the Roman Road network and was a primary...
York Minster
York Minster history spans two millennia and provides direct linkage from Roman times to the present. Its history parallels that of the Great North Road...
The Eleanor Crosses
The Eleanor Crosses constructed in the 1290s to commemorate the passing of the queen were prominent landmarks alongside the Great North Road at Grantham...
Dere Street
Dere Street is the name generally used to describe the Roman road leading from York to the Firth of Forth. It was constructed by the military to secure the colonisation...
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe was an early travel writer who wrote with descriptive detail about what he saw. Most of the towns and cities along the Great North Road are recorded...
Whittlesea Mere
Until the 1850s Whittlesea Mere was one of the largest lakes in England. It had long been a rich source of fish and wildfowl – and by the 18th century it was also attracting...
Daniel Albone
Daniel Albone’s family ran the Ongley Arms pub alongside the Great North Road in Biggleswade, just south of the bridge over the River Ivel. He became an entrepreneurial designer...
Edinburgh Coaching Inns
Arguably it was the Great North Road and the development of coaching services which was the precursor to the emergence of coaching inns and hotels in Edinburgh...
York Coaching Inns
York coaching inns flourished and had a major impact on the economic fortunes of the city for 200 years. The high point was after the road improvements associated...
The Rushey Inn, Babworth
Many coaching inns are long gone, falling victim to the ravages of time, changing habits and road widening. The Rushey Inn at Babworth near Retford has been...
The Angel Inn, Grantham
The Angel Inn traces its roots back to a hostel built in 1203 by the Knights Templar; this was a military/religious order which supported those fighting the Crusades or...
The George, Stamford
The George at Stamford vies with the Angel at Grantham as the country’s oldest surviving coaching inn. Its distinctive wooden arch over the Great North Road...
Coaching Inns
As horse drawn coaches and wagons multiplied during the 18th and early 19th centuries, they spawned a new network of coaching inns and support facilities...
Carlton Reid – 2021 Video
Journalist, historian and cycling enthusiast, Carlton Reid, took to the Great North Road in a Morgan open top car – and a fold-up bike. His video promises “oddities” about...
Baker Perkins
Engineering company, Baker Perkins, operated an overnight Great North Road trunker service between its factories at Peterborough and on Tyneside...
Ermine Street
The southern section of Ermine Street aligns closely with the Old North Road, merging with Great North Road near Godmanchester, before heading eastwards.....
Lindisfarne
The Holy Island of Lindisfarne lies 4 miles from the Great North Road between Berwick and Newcastle. The Northumberland coast is magnificent, and Lindisfarne is...
Buckden Palace
Buckden Palace sits directly alongside the Great North Road. In medieval times it straddled the road in Buckden with the Bishop’s Palace and Little Park to...
Dick Turpin
Dick Turpin, the “Flying Highwayman”, was famed for his bravery, resolution and generosity. A scoundrel and a thief but also a gentleman who minimised any...
Medieval Transport
Knowledge of medieval transport is decidedly patchy. There are precious few maps before that of Ogilby in the 17th century so we have to piece together the picture from...
King James I
A meandering but triumphant journey south along the Great North Road marked the start of the reign of King James I in 1603. It was his first visit to England...
Road Building Revolution
The growth of turnpikes after 1700 started to provide funding for investment but it was the road building revolution of the late 18th and the 19th centuries which...
Edmund Boulter
Edmund Boulter was a wealthy businessman and member of parliament who left his mark on the Great North Road. His properties came to include Wimpole and...
Turnpikes
The first turnpike in the country introduced charges to a section of the Old North Road. Over the next 100 years turnpikes were introduced the length of...
St Paul’s Cathedral
Saint Paul's Cathedral is not “on” the Great North Road – more one of its “bookends”. However, whether you define the London end of the road...
John Muir
John Muir was a 19th century conservationist who pioneered the national parks concept in the USA. He was born in Dunbar in 1838. The citizens of...
River Aire
The coaches of the Great North Road and todays vehicles on the A1 cross the River Aire at Ferrybridge. The Roman crossing was further west, by ford across the...
Angel of the North
The Angel of the North rose alongside the Great North Road in February 1998. The 20m high steel statue was deliberately sized and sited to be visible to those travelling...
River Wharfe
The river flows for 65 miles before joining the River Ouse. Its source is in the centre of the Yorkshire Dales National Park - where Oughtershaw Beck and...
River Don
The Yorkshire Don is not to be confused with its more photogenic namesake near Aberdeen. That said, de-industrialisation and concerted efforts by environmental groups...
RAF Wittering
RAF Wittering is located just south of Stamford, Lincolnshire. It was the “Home of the Harrier” and for several decades has been marked by a Harrier Jump Jet anchored...
River Great Ouse
At 143 miles the Great Ouse is Britain's 4th longest river after the Severn, Thames and Trent. It has a catchment area of over 5000 sq miles. The modern A1 crosses...
River Swale
The Swale is crossed by the Great North Road at Catterick Bridge. The old bridge dates from the 1420s and was the primary crossing until the A1 was upgraded in...
John Nevison – Highwayman
John Nevison was one of the most infamous highwaymen operating along the Great North Road. His gang of outlaws met at the Talbot Inn at Newark and robbed...
Roman Catterick – Cataractonium
Roman Catterick, or Cataractonium, was a fort and settlement which was established just south of the crossing point of the River Swale. Until other military centres were.....
Stilton Cheese
King of Cheeses. Stilton is recognised across the world as a unique and special variety. Its initial commercial success was the direct result of its popularity with coach.....
River Wear
The River Wear used to be crossed three times by the Great North Road; twice where the river forms a meander around Durham and once a few miles.....
Danelaw
Danelaw arose from a peace deal in the late 9th century between King Alfred and Viking invaders. It placed half of England under Danish law and.....
River Trent
The River Trent at Newark marks where you cross from north to south, or vice versa, on the Great North Road. Well, that’s my view though some.....
Cycling
Cycling the Great North Road became a popular past time in the late Victorian and early Edwardian period. Today’s car and truck drivers should perhaps.....
Ferrybridge Power Station
The giant cooling towers of Ferrybridge power station represented an important psychological milestone for those travelling the Great North Road in.....
Emperor Hadrian
Hadrian visited Britain in the summer of AD 122 as part of his first major tour of the provinces. His primary concern was to to neutralise threats to.....
Wansford – Bauhaus
This Bauhaus inspired building has been a notable feature for travellers on the Great North Road since it was constructed in the early 1930s. It has seen.....
Ogilby’s Britannia
John Ogilby published an early road atlas of England and Wales. Each of his chosen roads was displayed in linear form. The route from London to Barwick....
History of The Post
The Great North Road developed as a means of faster and more frequent transport of people and goods, but it was the needs of the emerging postal service that....
De Havilland – Hatfield
Many who travelled the Great North Road during the 20th Century will recall the latest De Havilland prototypes being flown above and around Hatfield – and.....
Hadrian’s Wall
Hadrian’s Wall embodies one of the key reasons for the existence of the Roman Roads north through Britain which were the precursors to our Great North.....
The Banks of Scotland
Edinburgh's banks have long been at the heart of the city's success. The Great North Road was the basis of communication between Britain's two leading.....
E M Forster
The writer Edward Morgan Forster lived at Rooks Nest House near Stevenage between the ages of 4 and 14. His time there had a lasting impact on him. In.....
Burghley House
The route of Ermine Street runs through the Burghley estate and remains a public footpath. The Great North Road ran alongside the estate as the road winds.....
Henry Royce
Sir Henry Royce, a founding partner in Rolls Royce, was born at Alwalton in 1863 where his father was the miller. When the family business failed, they moved.....
River Tweed
The first record of a bridge over the Tweed near Berwick is of one that was destroyed by floods in 1199. A wooden bridge was in place during the following.....
River Tyne
The Romans built the first bridge over the Tyne in around AD 120 - at about the same time as Hadrian's Wall. It is sometimes referred to as Pons Aelius, after the.....
River Tees
The meandering River Tees is crossed by the Great North Road close to Darlington. Today the A1 intersects the Tees to the west of the town. In the past it was.....
River Welland
The River Welland is crossed by the Great North Road at Stamford. In Saxon times there was a fort alongside the river – and the route north was via a ford.....
River Nene
In Roman times, Ermine Street crossed the Nene to the west of modern Peterborough, close to Durobrivae. The site of the Roman bridge is still evident in.....
Alconbury Junction
Alconbury has long been an important junction of major routes. It is where the Old North Road and the Great North Road routes from London converged.....
Isaac Newton
Isaac Newton was born on 25th December 1642 at Woolsthorpe close to the Great North Road near Colsterworth. Woolsthorpe Manor is now a National Trust.....
King Harold
Perhaps the most famous return trip along the Great North Road was that of Harold in 1066. Faced with both Scandinavian and French challenges to his newly.....
Six Hills – Stevenage
Alongside the original route of the Great North Road just south of Stevenage town centre there are 6 rounded barrows. There was damage to the Six Hills.....
Norman Cross
Norman Cross is no major settlement but it has been a well known point of interest along the Great North Road for centuries. It is now necessary to make.....
London to Grantham – 1939 Film
This video was taken in 1939 and recently enhanced to improve quality. The video provides a glimpse of the Great North Road before many of the towns were.....
Sawtry Abbey
The site of Sawtry Abbey is squeezed between the Great North Road and the east coast mainline railway. Not far away you can find Monks Wood and Abbots.....
Stamford Canal
The Stamford Canal was the longest canal with locks in the country when it was opened, preceding the 'canal age' by around 100 years. By the 16th century.....
George Brown
George Brown was test rider for Vincent in their heyday and in 1961 took the Standing Start Kilometre World Record for up to 1000cc machines with an.....