A1-The Great North Road

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Alconbury

The Great North Road used to turn north-westward as it approached Alconbury, leaving the village and the Alconbury Brook to the east.  The road then turned north-east to run through Alconbury Weston and up the hill to Alconbury Hill where it met the Old North Road from Huntingdon.  The A1 has been straightened, leaving both Alconbury and Alconbury Weston to the west.

Alconbury Hill

Harper tells of the Alconbury milestone: ...the old milestone still standing at the parting of the ways... This monumental milestone, now somewhat dilapidated, railed round and with some forlorn-looking wall-flowers growing inside its enclosure, is a striking object, situated at a particularly impressive spot, where the left-hand route by Huntingdon is seen going off on the level to a vanishing-point lost in the distant haze, rather than by any dip or curve of the road to right or left; the right-hand road diving down the hill to Alconbury Weston and Alconbury at its foot. 

Haines found it a century later:

Adjacent to the eastern carriageway of the A1M at Alconbury Hill is a square pillar topped by a spire and ball and protected by iron railings.  It marked the intersection of the Great North Road and the Old North Road and alternative routes and mileages to London - via Huntingdon, Cambridge and Biggleswade - are indicated on it by pointing hands.  Until the late 1990s when this part of the A1 became a motorway, the milepost stood in the central reservation of the dual carriageway.  Modern traffic makes it too dangerous to take a close look, and a letter in Country Life in 1952 records that this eighteenth-century milestones has been hit by vehicles at least once.

According to the Historical Buildings Register, the altercation with the motor vehicle took place in 1955 and it was in 1982 that the dualling of the A1 left it inaccessibly in a central reservation.  But the building of the motorway in the late 1990s has actually improved the situation.  The motorway lies in a cutting entirely to the west of the milepost which now stands on the western verge of what used to be the southbound carriageway but has become the delightfully quiet B1043 that runs along the eastern side of the A1(M) from Alconbury (junction 14) to Norman Cross (junction 16).  The stone stand a little north of junction 14's northernmost roundabout, opposite a big grey building on the Alconbury Cross industrial estate, by a bus stop (grid ref. TL 187782).  Sadly, Harper's forlorn-looking wallflowers are no more.  In fact it is has been very un-cared for, the railings are rusting and a sycamore sapling has been in danger of causing real damage to the soft limestone face of this venerable milestone though this has been trimmed back.  Highways Agency/Cambridge County Council/English Heritage please take note.

It was given a Grade II listing in 1983.  Here's the description: Late C18 limestone milepost. Square planwith plinth and moulded cornice, shaped cap with ball finial. Handscarved in shallow relief with inscriptions on two faces. North-eastface inscribed To London 64 miles through Huntingdon, Royston andWare, To Huntingdon 5 miles; TO LONDON 72 miles through Cambridge,To Cambridge 21 miles, To Stilton 7 miles. North west face inscribedTo LONDON 68 miles through Buckden, Biggleswade, Hatfield, To Buckden7 miles, To Stilton 7 miles. Post surrounded by railings with castiron fluer de lys finials. 1982 severely damaged in road accident.1955 resited when dual carriageway was built. Featured in drawings by S Grimm dated 1780, 1786, 1788 now in the British Museum.

There was an inn, the Wheatsheaf, at Alconbury Hill, now demolished, that had provided food and drink to travellers since at least the late 18th century. The hostelry was described by F. E. Baines as standing in it's own grounds a hundred yards north of the junction of the two great roads (Old North Rd & Gt North Rd). The building is recessed 60 yards from the trunk road and separated from it by a spacious garden and coach sweep.  Webster waxes rather lyrical at this confluence of North Roads.  His words from 1974 are worth recalling: 

The Old North Road, which ends here, deserves some attention. Unlike the Great North Road, a makeshift of a way which had somehow became the greatest of highways, it is mostly based on the Roman alignment known in later times as Frmine Street. The map shows a bold course in contrast to the wriggles of the Al. If today the Old North Road is arguably less convenient than the Great North Road, in that one's average speed of travel may be less, it is infinitely pleasanter. The Great North Road, it has been stressed, has been forcibly modernised, haphazardly in the past, drastically in recent years. Some new stretches have a beauty of their own but the sheer weight of traffic and its concomitants, the filling stations and the roadside cafes, the spilled oil, the wayside dirt and litter, have had their effect. The splendid aspect of the road apparent 40 years ago, before the car became predominant, has been largely dissipated. In parts its appearance is acquiring that squalid look associated with some old Continental highways which, harried by ceaseless, noisy, hurrying traffic concerned only with the destination and never with the road itself, have become lines of despair and tragedy. There is still beauty, charm and a wealth of interest on the Great North Road, but it has to be sought rather than being an integral part of the road's character.  The Old North Road suffers less from these defects. It is still the mail coach road, lined with deep green edges and long avenues of old trees. Crest after crest is breasted and still fresh vistas lie ahead. Less worried by traffic it gains on all counts, a startling reminder of what the Great North Road used to be; how long it can preserve its present innocence is conjectural.

During 1789, John Byng (later to become the 5th Viscount Torrington) toured the country staying at various inns along the way. After being delayed by a storm, The Wheatsheaf did not seem to meet with his approval:

This delay seemed to throw us out of our time of dinner; which was to be prepared for us at 3 o'clock at Alconbury; where we did not arrive till half past that time; and then dinner not ready! The dinner was better than I expected in this filthy inn, which to the miseries of a cold ale house, joins the charges of a London Tavern: for 2 small Tench stew'd in a black sauce were charged 7 shillings.

But in 1790 Byng was back again, in somewhat better humour.  He had stayed the night in Huntingdon and made an early start:

The road from Huntingdon is pleasant (at least, the morning sun made it appear so), passing thro’ the two Stuelelys; and before the night lodgers had got away from the Wheatsheaf on Alconbury Hill, I sat there at my breakfast.  Alconbury Hill inn, the Wheatsheaf, as standing single, high, and free from noise, is most agreeable; but as to furniture, waiting etc., it is little better than an alehouse; and in winter must be a cold abode.  My stay here was very pleasant.  The garden was fill’d with flowers, and the morning was gay.  These are the delights of touring.  I hence took a walk, endeavouring to make my dogs hunt, for above a mile, to the bottom of the hill below Monkswood; below which, to my right, stood Sawtry Abbey, where are now some cottages and many foundations of old buildings.

A faster form of Alconbury transport

Northrop F-5E Tiger II Freedom Fighter posing at jaunty angle on the side of the Old North Road at RAF Alconbury, Little Stukeley.

Northwards, to Norman Cross, the A1(M) is curiously big.  It has four lanes each way.  No one seems to know why.  To the east, the old road still exists as the B1043 and forms a pleasant, traffic-free alternative to the motorway with occasional reminders of a long gone age.  Junction 15 is the one connection between old and new roads at Sawtry.  A junction of two halves, the southbound section is a mile north of the northbound.

A sketch of Connington Castle Lodge was included in the Dunlop book but it is now boarded up.  It could still make a pleasant house though the noise from the A1(M) is relentless despite the carriageway being sunk in a cutting. 

Across the road from the parish marker is the old Crown and Woolpack, once a significant posting house.

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©Biff Vernon 2001, 2002, 2003