A little north of Morpeth the Great North Road seems to divide, the right fork taking the A1 to Alnwick and Berwick and keeping close to the coast on its way to Edinburgh, while a left fork takes the A697 through Wooler and Coldstream to reach Edinburgh by a slightly shorter but hillier inland route. It was the eastern road, with its gentler inclines, that was favoured by the stage coaches and has become the more important modern route but both have their part in the Great North Road. Had not the development of the railways come about just when it did, the western branch would have become pre-eminenent. Telford had surveyed and planned the project, Acts of Parliament in place, and some work begun but then the financiers switched to backing the railways. So the A1 goes east. But let's venture up Coldstream Road a little.
The roads diverged at the long gone Loaning Gate, Coldstream Road heading to Longhorsley with its peel tower.
Brinkburn Priory (good picture on this link), an Augustinian Priory founded in 1135 and restored in the 19th Century, sits by the River Coquet a couple of miles upstream from Weldon Bridge. Some say it is one of the finest Gothic priory buildings in England. There are some nice, not gothic, sculptures.
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Three picture postcards of Weldon Bridge and the Anglers' Arms. Thanks to Jeffers, who has a fine collection of old pictures of the area at the Rothbury Village Site. There are two bridges over the Coquet at Weldon. This old bridge is actually a little upstream from the bridge which takes the straight line of the A697 over the river, just off to the right of the aerial view. The road at the top is the B63444,which goes past Brinkburn Priory and on to Rothbury.
Webster recounts this little anonymous ditty:
"At Weldon Bridge there's wale o' wine,
If ye hae coin in pocket;
If ye can thraw a heckle fine,
There's wale o' trout in Coquet."
Inglis draws attention to the "Pretty scenery at Weldon Bridge" in 1911 but describes the descent to Weldon Bridge as "dangerous" and the road surface on to Aln Bridge as "very poor".
Much of the road had been improved in the 1750s when it was turnpiked but north of Longframilington the road used to run straight over Framilington Common and Rimside Moor, crossing the 1000 foot contour. It was diverted to the east to take the present longer but almost level route in 1831 just before the money was pulled out of roads. The old turnpike across the top still survives as a bridleway and its stone surface, side drains, bridges and boundaries can still be traced, ascending to the lonely ruins of the Swinburne Arms, an old coaching stop. Neither road follows the course of the Roman Devil's Causeway, which runs between the two. (Map) The 1831 road rejoins the older road at the cross roads with what is now the B6341. This road, turnpiked in 1751, used to be called the Corn Road on account of its importance as an export route for corn from south west Northumberland via the port of Alnmouth.
Margary describes the Devil's Causeway in this area thus:
"Across the valley of the River Coquet all trace is lost, but a lane soon takes up the line, passing half a mile to the west of Longframlington, and it is then marked by hedges. Soon after at Besom farm, the present main road joins it for a mile, after which the obvious green road continuing up the hill on the left is not the Roman road but an older course of the modern one, and the line of the original road has been traced over the moor between the other two, though it is now scarcely visible on the surface. It crosses the present road again diagonally, marked by a slight bank, 3/4 mile east of the cross-roads at New Moor House, and proceeds northward across the moor direct to Edlington Demesne, 1/4 mile west of the village."
Longframlington Gardens and Arboretum on the Swarland Road, east of the village has 12 acres of gardens, a nursery, plant centre and coffee shop.
5 miles north of Longframlington are Thrunton Woods. Run by the Forestry Commission, it is coniferous plantation on a long ridge from which there are great views to the north towards the Cheviots, particularly if you take the longest and highest of the 3 waymarked walks shown on the map in the car park and signed with coloured markers. Thrunton Crag is an outcrop of the Carboniferous Fell Sandstone, much used by rock climbers. It's a good spot for birds and butterflies. And for the night's entertainment, there's a traditional folk-dance tune, a polka, called Thrunton Woods.
A roman road connected Dere Street, some miles to the west, with the Devil's Causeway, which it joins just north of Thrunton, though there is not much to see of it hereabouts. So next stop is the Bridge of Aln Inn just south of the bridge. The bridge itself marks the same spot that the Devil's Causeway crossed the river though the modern road does not follow the Roman road exactly. South of the bridge the Roman road lies to the east while north of the bridge it runs west of the A697. More evident, east of the road, is the track of a railway that also shared the same river crossing.
This railway was the link between Alnwick and Coldstream, built in 1887. The line was never very profitable and when, in 1948, a flood washed out a section between Wooler and Ilderton it was not rebuilt. A service between Alnwick and Ilderton ran till 1953 and the Wooler to Cornhill part was closed in 1965.
The next village is Powburn, famous for its sheep Show at the beginning of August. Just past the Plough Inn the road crosses a tributary of the Till called the Pow Burn, again sharing the spot with the Roman crossing point while the old railway used to cross just downstream. And the roads keep together for the next river crossing, that of the Breamish. The Roman and modern roads run together for the next mile till the A697 turns to the north west at Percy's Cross. This is a monument to one of the several Alnwick Percys who died in battle. This one on Hedgely moor, just across the road, in 1464. (Not to be confused with another Percy's Cross - Sir Henry Percy, a.k.a. Harry Hotspur- commemorating the battle at Otterburn in 1388.) The Hedgeley Moor Battle took place on 25 April 1464, a Lancastrian Army led by Sir Ralph Percy on its way to escort ambassadors from Scotland was defeated by the Yorkists. Two stones, 30 foot apart, mark Percy's Leap, the distance reputedly covered by Percy's horse as his rider died.
The Countryside Agency provide a good introduction to the geography of this area.
Lincolnshire
©Biff Vernon 2002