Photo: Truvelo
A1-The Great North Road
The old road ran between Cockburnspath and the sea and kept close to the coast all the way to Dunbar, while the modern A1 runs further inland to the west of Thorntonloch and bypsses south of Dunbar. Even in 1776, Armstrong's map showed an alternative road avoiding Dunbar as well as a couple of tolls. East of Dunbar the route has not changed much, turning inland to run fairly directly for Haddington and Edinburgh. Haddington town centre was by-passed long ago, removing a sharp left and right turn but the whole of the Great North Road from Haddington to Edinburgh has been replaced by a dual carriageway which snakes north round Tranent and south round Wallyford before heading north-west again to rejoin the old road at Portobello. The old road, now mostly the A199, passed through Musselburgh and kept close to the coast to Portobello before turning a right angle into Edinburgh. The latest piece of road building on the A1 has recently begun between Haddington and Dunbar. Here's a recent report of progress. The new road, a dual carriageway at last, will run along the southern side of the old, crossing the Tyne with a new bridge at East Linton, where the 16th century bridge had previously been superseded for the A1. East Linton must be rivaling Newcastle for bridges as well as for a river. This Tyne, variously named Tyne River, River Tyne or Tyne Water, sensibly rises near a village called Tynehead and flows to the sea at Tynemouth, just like its Northumbrian namesake.
The Nowhere Guide to East Linton highlights The Drovers with "The toliets in here are a must see!!!" (their spelling)
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Just west of East Linton are
some old trunk line telegraph poles, now used to carry some local
wires. Before the trunk lines were put underground in the 1960s and
70s such poles ran the length of the Great North Road. For more on
poles see Rossington Bridge.
Photo: Truvelo |
Here's a description of Haddington from 1903.
Macmerry, (perhaps named after a happy Scot), once on the Great North Road, had an airfield, established in the First World War and closed in 1953. Its site is now crossed by the A1 Macmerry bypass, in contrast to Gamston, in Nottinghamshire, and Scampton in Lincolnshire, where the old road has been diverted to accommodate airfields. Macmerry, once a small hamlet, expanded in the 1930s by council and coal board housing, for the nearby coalmines and the Gladsmuir Iron Works, which industrial development warranted the branch line of which Macmerry was the terminus.
B & B Lincolnshire B&B
©Biff Vernon 2002, 2003