A1 road (Great Britain)


The A1 is the longest numbered road in the UK, at. It connects London, the capital of England, with Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It passes through or near North London, Hatfield, Welwyn Garden City, Stevenage, Baldock, Letchworth Garden City, Huntingdon, Peterborough, Stamford, Grantham, Newark-on-Trent, Retford, Doncaster, York, Ripon, Darlington, Durham, Sunderland, Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne, Alnwick and Berwick-upon-Tweed.
It was designated by the Ministry of Transport in 1921, and for much of its route it followed various branches of the historic Great North Road, the main deviation being between Boroughbridge and Darlington. The course of the A1 has changed where towns or villages have been bypassed, and where new alignments have taken a slightly different route. Several sections of the route have been upgraded to motorway standard and designated A1. Between the M25 and the A696 the road has been designated as part of the unsigned Euroroute E15 from Inverness to Algeciras.

History

The A1 is the latest in a series of routes north from London to York and beyond. It was designated in 1921 by the Ministry of Transport under the Great Britain road numbering scheme. The earliest documented northern routes are the roads created by the Romans during the period from AD 43 to AD 410, which consisted of several itinera recorded in the Antonine Itinerary. A combination of these were used by the Anglo-Saxons as the route from London to York, and together became known as Ermine Street. Ermine Street later became known as the Old North Road. Part of this route in London is followed by the current A10. By the 12th century, because of flooding and damage by traffic, an alternative route out of London was found through Muswell Hill, and became part of the Great North Road. A turnpike road, New North Road and Canonbury Road, was constructed in 1812 linking the start of the Old North Road around Shoreditch with the Great North Road at Highbury Corner. While the route of the A1 outside London mainly follows the Great North Road route used by mail coaches between London and Edinburgh, within London the coaching route is only followed through Islington.
Bypasses were built around Barnet and Hatfield in 1927, but it was not until c.1954 that they were renumbered A1. In the 1930s bypasses were added around Chester-le-Street and Durham and the Ferryhill Cut was dug. In 1960 Stamford, Biggleswade and Doncaster were bypassed, as were Retford in 1961 and St Neots in 1971. Baldock was bypassed in July 1967. During the early 1970s plans to widen the A1 along Archway Road in London were abandoned after considerable opposition and four public inquiries during which road protesters disrupted proceedings. The scheme was finally dropped in 1990. The Hatfield cut-and-cover was opened in 1986.
A proposal to upgrade the whole of the A1 to motorway status was investigated by the government in 1989 but was dropped in 1995, along with many other schemes, in response to road protests against other road schemes.

Inns

The inns on the road, many of which still survive, were staging posts on the coach routes, providing accommodation, stabling for the horses and replacement mounts. Few of the surviving coaching inns can be seen while driving on the A1, because the modern route now bypasses the towns with the inns.

Route

The A1 runs from New Change in the City of London at St. Paul's Cathedral to the centre of Edinburgh. The road skirts the remains of Sherwood Forest, and passes Catterick Garrison. It shares its London terminus with the A40, in the City area of Central London. It runs out of London via St. Martin's Le Grand and Aldersgate Street, through Islington, up Holloway Road, through Highgate, Barnet, Potters Bar, Hatfield, Welwyn, Stevenage, Baldock, Biggleswade, Sandy and St Neots.
Continuing north, the A1 runs on modern bypasses around Stamford, Grantham, Newark-on-Trent, Retford, Bawtry, Doncaster, Knottingley, Garforth, Wetherby, Knaresborough, Boroughbridge, Scotch Corner, Darlington, Newton Aycliffe, Durham and Chester-le-Street, past the Angel of the North sculpture and the Metrocentre in Gateshead, through the western suburbs of Newcastle upon Tyne, Morpeth, Alnwick, Berwick-upon-Tweed, into Scotland at Marshall Meadows, past Haddington and Musselburgh before arriving in Edinburgh at the East End of Princes Street near Waverley Station, at the junction of the A7, A8 and A900 roads.
Scotch Corner, in North Yorkshire, marks the point where before the M6 was built the traffic for Glasgow and the west of Scotland diverged from that for Edinburgh. As well as a hotel there have been a variety of sites for the transport café, now subsumed as a motorway services.

Overview and post-First World War developments

A section of the road in North Yorkshire, from Walshford to Dishforth, was upgraded to motorway standard in 1995. Neolithic remains and a Roman fort were discovered.
A section of the road from Alconbury to Peterborough was upgraded to motorway standard at a cost of £128 million, which opened in 1998 requiring moving the memorial to Napoleonic prisoners buried at Norman Cross.
A number of sections between Newcastle and Edinburgh were dualled between 1999 and 2004, including a section from Spott Wood to Oswald Dean in 1999, sections from Bowerhouse to Spott Road and from Howburn to Houndwood in 2002–2003 and the "A1 Expressway", from Haddington and Dunbar in 2004. The total cost of these works was some £50 million.
Plans to dual the single carriageway section of road north of Newcastle upon Tyne were shelved in 2006 as they were not considered a regional priority by central government. The intention was to dual the road between Morpeth and Felton and between Adderstone and Belford.
In 1999 a section of A1 between Bramham and Hook Moor opened to traffic along with the extension of the M1 from Leeds. Under a DBFO contract, sections from Wetherby to Walshford and Darrington to Hook Moor were opened in 2005 and 2006, taking the section to a junction.

Recent developments

A1 Peterborough to Blyth grade separated junctions

Between August 2006 and September 2009 six roundabouts on the A1 and the A1 to Alconbury were replaced with grade-separated junctions. These provide a fully grade-separated route between the Buckden roundabout and just north of Morpeth. This project cost £96 million.

A1(M) Bramham to Wetherby motorway

Upgrading the of road to dual three-lane motorway standard between the Bramham/A64 junction to north of Wetherby to meet the section of motorway at a cost of £70 million began in 2006, including a road alongside for non-motorway traffic. The scheme's public inquiry began on 18 October 2006 and the project was designed by James Poyner. Work began in May 2007, the motorway section opened in July 2009 and remaining work on side roads was still ongoing in late August and was expected to be completed by the end of 2009.

A1(M) Dishforth to Leeming motorway

Upgrading of the existing dual carriageway to dual three-lane motorway standard, with a local road alongside for non-motorway traffic, between Dishforth and Leeming Bar, began in March 2009 and opened to traffic on or about the scheduled date of 31 March 2012.

A1(M) Leeming to Barton motorway

It had originally been proposed that the road would be upgraded to motorway from Dishforth to Barton, which was the start of current northernmost section of A1. In 2010 the section between Leeming and Barton was cancelled as part of government spending cuts but it was reinstated in December 2012. Work began on 3 April 2014 and was expected to be completed by Spring 2017, but only reached completion in March 2018 due in part to significant Roman-era archaeological finds along the route of the motorway. Completion has provided a continuous motorway-standard road between Darrington and Washington, and given the North East and North Yorkshire full motorway access to London.
Councils in the north east have called for the section from Hook Moor in Yorkshire to Washington to be renumbered as the M1. They maintain that this would raise the profile of the north-east and be good for business.

A1 (Gateshead Western Bypass)

In his Autumn Statement on 5 December 2012, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the Government would upgrade a section of road from two to three lanes in each direction within the highway boundary at Lobley Hill, Gateshead at a cost of £64 m and create parallel link roads between the Lobley Hill and Gateshead Quay junctions. The same Road investment strategy announcement said that the remaining section of road between Birtley and Coal House will also be widened to three lanes each way, alongside the replacement of the Allerdene Bridge. A modified scheme commenced in August 2014 and was open to traffic in June 2016. The road is now three lanes each way with lane 3 narrower than lanes 1 and 2 so that all existing bridges remained as originally built.
The A1 around Durham, Gateshead and Newcastle has seen a number of incarnations, following routes through, to the east and to the west of both Gateshead and Newcastle. See A1 for more information.

Ongoing developments

There are currently no ongoing developments, though a number of proposed developments listed following are scheduled to begin in the near future. As a result of rerouting the A14, for which construction works have been underway since November 2016, the current junction of A1 and A14 at Brampton Hut will be completely redesigned and moved south of the service station. An odd result of rerouting is that the blue lines for the A1, formed by pictures taken for Google Streetview in 2018 seem to be running through fields, as Google's satellite maps still show the previous situation at Brampton Hut.

Proposed developments

A1(M) Red House to Darrington motorway

In the "Road investment strategy" announced to Parliament by the Department for Transport and Secretary of State for Transport on 1 December 2014, planning will begin to upgrade the road in South Yorkshire to raise the last non-motorway section from Red House to Darrington to motorway standard. Once completed, it will provide a continuous motorway-standard road between Blyth, Nottinghamshire and Washington, Tyne and Wear and will provide the North East and Yorkshire with full motorway access to London via the M1, M62 and M18. It will also improve safety along this route, as well as creating a new corridor to the North East, and reducing congestion on the M1 around Sheffield and Leeds.

A1 Scotswood to North Brunton

The same announcement said that the road from Scotswood to North Brunton would be widened to three lanes each way, with four lanes each way between some junctions.

A1 Morpeth to Ellingham

The announcement then said that the road from Morpeth to Ellingham would be upgraded to dual carriageway. The selection of the preferred route was scheduled for the year 2017, with construction due to begin in 2019. In response to questions regarding transport in the north, Highways England stated that a new dual carriageway section between Morpeth and Fenton and also that of Alnwick to Ellingham would start in 2012 with full opening in 2023.

A1 North of Ellingham

Measures were also announced to enhance the performance and safety of the A1 north of Ellingham to include three sections of climbing lanes, five junctions with improved right turn refuges, and better crossing facilities for pedestrians and cyclists. Start of construction is scheduled for 2018.

Ellington to Fen Ditton scheme

The planned A14 Ellington to Fen Ditton scheme would require a new junction at Brampton, north of which the A1 will be widened to a three-lane dual carriageway from Brampton to the Brampton Hut interchange. The new two-lane dual carriageway section of the A14 would run parallel with the A1 on this section.

Black Cat roundabout replacement

The same announcement in December 2014 said that the A1/A421 Black Cat Roundabout would be replaced with a grade-separated junction, just a few years after this roundabout was expensively upgraded.

A46 Newark northern bypass scheme

It was then also announced that planning would begin to upgrade the Newark northern bypass to dual carriageway, and the A46 junction with the A1 will be replaced to support nearby housing growth and improve links from the A1 to Newark and Lincoln.

A1(M) Doncaster By-pass

It was also announced that the Doncaster By-pass, which is the oldest stretch of two-lane motorway still in service, would be upgraded to dual three lanes. This will relieve local congestion and provide the capacity needed to make the A1 an alternative strategic route to the north east.

Sandy-Beeston By-pass

In 2003 a proposal for a bypass of Sandy and Beeston, Bedfordshire, was put forward as a green-lighted scheme as part of a government multi-modal study, with a cost of £67 million. However, the Highways Agency was unwilling to confirm the information as the study was preliminary and intended for future publication. In 2008 the proposal was submitted for consideration in the pre-2013/14 Regional Funding Advice 2 Programme of the East of England Development Agency.

A1(M) technology enhancements and upgrades; A1 East of England feasibility study

It was also announced in 2014 that new technology would be implemented to bring the road to motorway standards, including detection loops, CCTV cameras and variable message signs to provide better information for drivers and active traffic management across Tyne and Wear, while Junction 6 to Junction 8 would be upgraded to smart motorway, including widening of a two-lane section to dual three lanes and hard shoulder running.
A strategic study will examine how to improve the safety and performance of the A1 between Peterborough and the M25, including whether to upgrade the old dual carriageway section to motorway standard.

Other proposals

The Highways Agency has been investigating an upgrade of the A1 Newcastle/Gateshead Western Bypass to dual three-lane motorway standard to alleviate heavy congestion which in recent years has become a recurrent problem.
Improvements to junctions near the village of Elkesley, Nottinghamshire are planned: the village's only access to the rest of the road network is via the A1.
Consideration is being given to widening the Brampton Hut interchange to Alconbury sections to a three-lane dual carriageway.

A1(M)

Some sections of the A1 have been upgraded to motorway standard. These are known as the A1 and are part of European route E15. These include:
;M25 to Stotfold
The M25 to Stotfold section is, and was constructed between 1962 and 1986. The main destinations are Hatfield, Welwyn Garden City, Stevenage, and Letchworth. It opened in five stages: junctions 1 to 2 in 1979; 2 to 4 in 1986; 4 to 6 in 1973; 6 to 8 in 1962; and 8 to 10 in 1967.
;Alconbury to Peterborough
The Alconbury to Peterborough section is, and opened in 1998.
;Doncaster By-pass
The Doncaster By-pass opened in 1961 and is one of the oldest sections of motorway in Britain. It is long, and runs from Blyth to Carcroft.
;Darrington to Gateshead
The Darrington to Gateshead section was constructed between 1965 and 2018. It is, and opened in sections:
The A1 is celebrated in song. It is mentioned by Jethro Tull on the title track of the album "Up on the A1 by Scotch Corner". "Scotch Corner," by the Welsh band Man, on the album Rhinos, Winos and Lunatics is about an encounter there. Near the southern end, signs saying "Hatfield and the North" inspired the eponymous 1970s rock band Hatfield and the North. The A1 is mentioned in The Long Blondes' song, "Separated By Motorways", along with the A14. The A1 is mentioned in the song "Gabadon" by Sheffield band, Haze. Andrew Blackman's 2009 novel "On the Holloway Road", inspired by Jack Kerouac's On the Road, centres on a road trip along the A1.

Junctions