A1 road
 |
Sign at Junction 1 of the A1(M) at South Mimms in Hertfordshire |
The
A1 is the longest numbered
road in the UK at 409
miles (658
km) long. It joins
London, the
capital city of the
United Kingdom, to
Edinburgh, the capital of
Scotland. For much of its path it follows the historic
Great North Road. The modern course of the A1 diverges somewhat, particularly where it passed through a town or village that has subsequently been
bypassed.
For the numbering rationale see: Great Britain road numbering schemeThe original A1 route was designated by the
Ministry of Transport in
1921, following the
medieval Great North Road. This ran from
St Paul's Cathedral in Central London through
Barnet,
Hertfordshire,
Bedfordshire, to
Alconbury, where it joined the route of a Roman road,
Ermine Street, as far as
Colsterworth, where it is joined by the
A151. The route was modified in 1927 when bypasses were built around
Barnet and
Hatfield, the latter being rebuilt in a tunnel during the 1980s. In 1960
Stamford was bypassed, as was
Retford in 1961 and
St Neots in 1971.
The Great North Road includes stretches of Roman Road including
Dere Street, and is mentioned in much
English literature, for example
Pickwick Papers by
Charles Dickens.
The A1 runs from the heart of the
City of London at
St. Pauls Cathedral to the centre of Scotland's capital, Edinburgh.
The A1 runs out of
London through
Islington (where
Upper Street forms part of its route), up
Holloway Road, through
Barnet,
Potters Bar,
Hatfield,
Welwyn,
Stevenage,
Baldock,
Biggleswade,
Sandy, and
St Neots. Continuing north, the A1 runs on modern bypasses around
Grantham,
Newark-on-Trent,
Retford,
Bawtry,
Doncaster,
Knottingley,
Garforth,
Wetherby,
Knaresborough,
Boroughbridge,
Darlington,
Scotch Corner,
Durham,
Chester-le-Street, past the
Angel of the North sculpture in
Gateshead, around
Newcastle upon Tyne,
Morpeth,
Alnwick,
Berwick-upon-Tweed, into
Scotland, past
Dunbar,
Haddington and
Musselburgh before finally arriving in Edinburgh at the East End of
Princes Street near
Waverley Station at the junction of the
A7,
A8 and
A900 roads.
A1(M)
Some sections of the A1 have been upgraded to
motorway standard. These are known as the A1(M). These include:
*a long stretch between the
M25 at
South Mimms to just north of
Baldock;
*the new four lane
Peterborough section from the
Alconbury junction near
Huntingdon to
Orton Southgate near Peterborough; this stretch starts just north of the A14 juction proper and receives traffic from the
A14 eastbound from the
M6 and westbound from the
A14 spur and
M11.
*a section bypassing
Doncaster and intersecting the
M18 (this was the first section of motorway on the A1 and one of the earliest sections of motorway built in the
United Kingdom);
*the new Hook Moor section, from Darrington, intersects with the
M62 adjacent to
Ferrybridge power station and is joined by the end of the
M1 at Aberford.
*a relatively new section which now runs from Wetherby to Dishforth, past
Harrogate,
Ripon and
Boroughbridge. The southern stretch to the
River Wharfe bridge opened in August 2005.
*another long stretch from
Scotch Corner in North Yorkshire to
Washington in
Tyne and Wear through
County Durham.
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Signs at the northern terminus of the A1 in central Edinburgh |
A proposal to replace the road with a parallel motorway between Baldock and Alconbury thus giving a continuous motorway to Peterborough, was dropped as too expensive, despite the very poor alignment and accident record on this section. The same decision dropped the proposed conversion to motorway north of Peterborough to Grantham (November 1996). However, grade separation of a number of roundabouts north of Stamford is proposed to take place.[
1] There is also a proposal to link with the main section of the A14 at Brampton Hut roundabout with a planned A14 southerly bypass of Huntingdon. [
2]
A motorway section has recently been built between
Darrington and
Hook Moor to join the existing section at the
M1 junction. The scheme is a dual 3-lane
motorway to replace the existing two-lane
dual carriageway, much of which was on a substandard alignment. The northern section of the upgrade, bypassing
Fairburn village opened to traffic in April 2005 with a temporary connection with the existing A1 between Fairburn and
Brotherton. The southern section, with a free-flow interchange with the
M62 motorway opened to traffic on
13 January 2006.
Further sections of motorway upgrades are planned, which would ultimately create a single motorway running from Doncaster to Gateshead.
The next two sections of motorway likely to be built are from
Bramham (the A1(M)/
A64 junction) to
Wetherby, and from
Dishforth (A1(M)/
A168 to
Barton (end of northernmost section of A1(M)). The Bramham to Wetherby scheme went to a public inquiry on
31 January 2006. Designed by James Poyner, construction of the Dishforth to Barton scheme is scheduled to start in April 2008.
Once these two schemes are complete, which is currently scheduled for 2011, then the
Newcastle upon Tyne area will be connected to the rest of the national motorway network. There will be a short section of normal dual-carriageway remaining on the A1 between
Doncaster and the
M62 motorway.
|
A single carriageway section of the A1 in Scotland |
Improvements to the road north of Newcastle upon Tyne were planned where the road consists mostly of
single carriageway sections as opposed to a combination of
dual carriageway and motorway to the south. Plans to dual the road from
Morpeth to
Felton and from
Adderstone to
Belford were shelved in
2006 as they were not considered a regional priority[
3]. There are no current plans to dual the whole of the A1 route between Newcastle and Edinburgh, despite fierce campaigns in the past to make this so.
A scheme is in place to replace all junctions between Orton Southgate and Gonerby Moor with grade separated junctions, remove all crossings and breaks in the central reservation, and reduce or eliminate minor turnings.
An upgrade of the Black Cat Roundabout at the junction with the
A421 (Bedford Road) is underway (
as of 2005) [
4].
There has been speculation that once the A1(M) has been completed that it could be renamed as M10, however at the moment there has been no official documentation found to support this prospect. The current designation of M10 is applied to a spur of the M1 near St. Albans which is shortly due do be downgraded to A-road status
Road signs
The A1 is the closest thing Britain has to a cult road, and so some of its road signs achieved some sort of mythical status.
* Near the southern end are signs saying "
Hatfield and the North". These signs gave their name to 70s rock band
Hatfield and the North.
* At the Northern end, signs used to say the opposite; "London and the South". The signs in Edinburgh have now been changed to just say "Berwick A1".
*
Leeds is exactly 198 miles on the A1 from both capital cities.
* At the northern end of the Doncaster bypass is a clearway sign with attached plate prohibiting stopping for 62 miles.
Other
The A1(M) is mentioned in the song
Gabadon by
Sheffield band
Haze.
* The
East Coast Main Line runs alongside the A1 for most of its length, and passes through most of the same principal towns as the road along the way. The railway also terminates at exactly the same places as the road either end -
Waverley station in Edinburgh is immediately adjacent to the A1's northern terminus on Princes Street, equally the southern terminus of the ECML,
King's Cross station, is next to York Way - the beginning of the A1.
*
British road numbering scheme*
CBRD Motorway Database - A1(M)*
BiffVernon: A1-The Great North Road *
Society for All British Road Enthusiasts entry for the A1
