A1-The Great North Road

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Newark

Newark's history goes back a long way.  Or at least this area as a site of human inhabitation does.  The thighbone of a woman who died about 7,700 years ago, found in a dried-up channel of the River Trent in Nottinghamshire, has undermined a popular belief that people of the Mesolithic era lived near the sea and had a diet of shellfish and nuts. The poor lady, it seems, never saw the sea, and never ate a shellfish or perhaps even a hazelnut in her life.

Stable isotope analysis - a laboratory technique for measuring the source of protein in bone - conducted by Mike Richards of Bradford University found that the woman's diet was virtually as meat-rich as that of a carnivorous wild animal.  Nitrogen levels were measured as 9.3, on a scale running from herbivore cattle at 6 to carnivore wolves at about 10.  Carbon levels showed that her diet had been purely terrestrial, involving no marine food.  The bone, radiocarbon dated to between about 5735-5630 BC, was excavated from a gravel quarry at Staythorpe near Newark by Glyn Davies of the Sheffield University-based unit, ARCUS.  Close to the thigh bone, archaeologists found a group of butchered Mesolithic animal bones, including aurochs, roe deer and otter. Elsewhere, in a river channel dating to the Bronze Age, a cut-marked deer antler was found which had been used as raw material for tools.

Just to the north-west of Newark, around Langford and Brough, a number of archaeological finds were made in 2002-2003 whilst the A46 dual carriageway was being built .  Neolithic arrowheads and various Bronze and Iron Age settlements were discovered.  A summary of the finds is available from the Highways Agency. 

Approaching Newark from the south, the old road from Grantham through Long Bennington is now the A6065.  The new course of the A1 lies to the west.  The two roads meet just south of Balderton where the A1 swings eastwards to bypass Newark, crossing the Trent downstream from the town between Winthorpe and the Muskhams.  Meanwhile, the the real Great North Road heads through Balderton for Newark.  But even this has changed its route in the past.  What is called London Road is the turnpike road built around 1767 by-passing the centre of Balderton.

A detailed account of the earlier route through Balderton is given by Walmsley: 'The Civil War Siege Works' written by the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments says:- "The Great North Road...formerly passed through the centre of Balderton... The old course as shown by Clampe and Ogilby is consistent with a line along Cowpasture Lane (i.e. Sibey Lane), Pinfold Lane, Bullpit Lane, and the footpath from Brisbane to New Balderton". (Written in 1956 before the Grove Estate was developed.)

Clampe's drawing of the siege plan (in the British Museum) shows the road passing the church, but with no obvious bend like the one now at the junction of Pinfold and Sibey Lanes.  The writer believes it is likely that the junction of the old road and the new turnpike might have been on the south side of the toll bar, the old road then passing to the rear of where the present houses on the east side of Sibey Lane now stand, then crossing to Pinfold Lane.  This theory would also fit in with the siting of Toll Bar House which would need to be on the turnpike north of the junction.

The old road continued up Pinfold Lane, across into Bullpit Road, turning west where Macaulay Drive now starts, across the end of Tennyson Road to the rear of the houses on the west side of Macauley Drive between Tennyson and Warwick roads.  (Parts of the fence of the old footpath can still be seen at the bottom of some gardens.)  I then crossed 'Little' Warwick Road onto the 'cinder path' at the side of the playing field, crossing Coronation Street into Mount View Road, across Smith Street and diagonally across the front of Grove School, rejoining the present London Road somewhere between Smith Street and Highfields, most likely were the bend near the Sports Centre would be straightened out if the road led to the cinder path.  In 'The Great North Road of Notts' (Venerable F.H. West) mention is made of a gibbet, erected in the 15th cent. near Highfields, which indicates that to be a part of the original road.

According to this Wikipedia entry a section of the old road was known as The Ramper, a street name perhaps derived from rampart, a name repeated in a section of Ermine Street near Ancaster.

And so on to Newark.

Newark's Trent Bridge in an 18th Century engraving.

At Newark one can hardly see without regret the ruins of that famous castle, which maintain'd itself through the whole civil war in England, and keeping a strong garrison there for the king to the last, cut off the greatest pass into the north that is in the whole kingdom; nor was it ever taken, 'till the king, press'd the calamity of his affairs, put himself into the hands of the Scots army, which lay before it, and then commanded the governor to deliver it up, after which it was demolish'd, that the great road might lye open and free; and it remains in rubbish to this day.   So wrote Daniel Defoe but while Cromwell may have had the castle demolish'd, that the great road might lye open and free, Defoe was foremost in promoting the idea of tolls and turnpikes for road improvement.  English Heritage have made a museum of the castle and tidied things up so the remains are no longer standing in rubbish, rather in neatly kept lawns.

Cornelius Brown, in his 1896 History of Nottinghamshire, wrote:    From the time that the stage coaches crossed each other's courses as they bounded along the broad road from Lincoln to Nottingham, or swept along the grand highway, called the Great North Road, running from London to York, to these days of steam and electricity when the smoking expresses of the Great Northern rush from the Metropolis on their direct journey to the northerly points in Caledonia, Newark has always been familiar to the traveller: long may the good old town continue to show its hospitality to strangers, reminding them by its ancient buildings of the history of the past, and by its elegant modern structures of the prosperity and munificence of the nineteenth century!

And for how long has Newark been on the Great North Road?  If we accept the existence of an ancient trackway, a northerly continuation of Sewstern Drift, fording the Trent at Newark and heading north via Worksop, then the answer is a long time.  But evidence is thin.  Newark was not on the Romans’ early idea of a North Road.  They had Ermine Street, keeping east of Grantham, through Lincoln and to York via the Humber ferry or, alternatively, crossing the Trent at the Littleborough ford, north-west of Lincoln.  The Romans probably bridged the Trent at or near Newark but this was more likely to go to Southall rather than to head north.  The remains of a bridge over the River Trent have been found between Cromwell and  South Collingham, about four miles downstream from Newark and this is more likely to have served a north road.  This bridge is thought to have been mid-Saxon rather than of Roman age but it is still possible that here was a Roman crossing near Holme.  Another possible bridge site lies upstream, where a bend in the river brings it close to the Fosse Way near East Stoke.  This is likely to be the site of Ad Pontem, listed in the Antonine Itinerary VI.

After the civil war the bridge by the castle was rebuilt but was a fairly crude affair of about ten stone pillars with timber beams between them supporting a timber deck.  A century later a far superior structure was erected.  Brown tells us that:  Mr. Shilton says: 'From the termination of the Civil Wars there had been a wooden bridge very meanly constructed over the Devon a little below the castle.  In 1775 the Duke of Newcastle was advised to take down this ruinous old structure and erect one of more durable materials; accordingly the present one was built of brick and faced with stone.'  It was altered in 1748 to its present condition by adding the footpath and iron railings on each side.

In the Newark Advertiser in 1894, R. B. Hindley gives his recollections of 1837, the year in which Queen Victoria came to the throne:

Of course the Trent was a bustling scene of activity, and the wharves were hives of industry, but a good deal of carriage, especially to and from London and the North, was done by road.  The wagons were of the broad-wheeled capacious type.

The Post Office was next to the Corn Exchange...three persons managed the work.  The rate of postage from Newark to London was 10d, Nottingham 6d.  There were no envelopes in those days of wax and wafers, and a letter proper contained one sheet; if two sheets were detected double postage was charged.  Letter writing was a luxury very seldom indulged in.  A Member of Parliament had the privilege of 'Franking' a letter, which went free of charge.

The old Trent Bridge was a stone structure, and the parapets alongside were removed when the Midland station was opened, because of the narrowness of the roadway and the danger to foot passengers.  The present roadway is about the width of the old bridge, and the footpath and iron rails were added on either side.  Tolls were taken at the town side of the bridge by an old lady and her daughter, who lived in the Bridge House.  There was a massive chain put across the road to prevent those passing who refused to pay toll.  This chain was fastened at one end to a stout post, and then carried across the road and locked to another post on the opposite side.  There was another of these chains at the Devon Bridge, which was then called Muskham Bridge.  The Bridge House is still home to women, or at least offices of the Women's Intitute.

Opposite the Bridge House is a grand building known as the Ossington.  Its origin is related on a wall plaque.  Established to help those eschewing the demon drink, it  is now home to Zizzi's wine-bar.  An old horse-trough stands in front.

Here's an 1829 map of Newark.

The Great North Road used to run through the Market Square.

Coach travel in the early 19th Century.  "A fast mail coach leaves Newark via the Great North Road" Engraving first published in 1816.

Here's a account of the effect of the 1830 Beer Act on the development of Newark pubs.

If you are southbound on the A1 look out to your left, a couple of miles south of the Newark and A46 junction, for an old and very derelict fighter plane.  There is more information about it at Thunder & Lightnings

English Electric Lightning F.2A XN728 at Balderton

Photo by Damien Burke

North from Newark the road passes through a series of small villages: South and North Muskham, Cromwell, Carlton-on-Trent, Sutton-on-Trent and Weston before we reach Tuxford.  While the Great North Road ran through the centre of each of these they are now by-passed by the A1.

At Cromwell The Old Rectory houses The Vina Cooke Museum of Dolls & Bygone Childhood.  The Museum houses a large collection of dolls from the 18th century to the present day in a late 17th century Dower house of considerable interest. The collection includes: toys, prams, dolls' houses, books, games, railway models, christening robes, children's and adults' costumes and various domestic artefacts. Also on display are Vina Cooke's handmade portrait dolls from Robin Hood to Royalty (past and present), and stars of stage and screen. There are handmade dolls, crafts and gifts for sale and a Dolls' Hospital.  There is a spacious tearoom and a picnic area in the picturesque old-fashioned garden. A special event takes place annually on Easter Monday, an extravaganza with a craft fair, Morris and Clog dancing etc.

Carlton was by-passed in two stages, first a little to the west and then the A1 shifted further westwards.  Alison Fairhurst notes the changes, after being rather definite on origins: In 1200 the Great North Road came into existence.  It was not until 1931 that the road was diverted away from the centre of the village.  The building of the A1 in the mid 1960s cut down through traffic almost completely.

Fairhurst also records some reminiscences by Ann O'Brien from 1952, reminding us of the traffic half a century ago: Every morning during summer John and Ruby Sides would bring their small herd of Jersey cows through the villages to grazing land by Spittal Bridge sometimes stopping traffic on the A1 to take them across to fields on the other side.  What a catastrophe that manoeuvre would cause today.

North of Carlton the Great North Road continues its sinuous route as the B1164, wending its way past Sutton-on-Trent (which it never quite seems to have gone through)  and Weston (which it also just misses) towards Tuxford, with little scenery or history on the way, as Harper put it.  But he was writing almost a century before the opening, in 1990, of the Springhead Brewery, whose address includes a notable line;

Springhead Fine Ales,

Old Great North Road,

Sutton-On-Trent,

Newark,

NG23 6QJ

Notice the 'Old'.  The road used to run pretty straight in  north-westerly direction leaving most of the village to the east.  This involved a level crossing at the railway and the not quite so old Great North Road (now the B1164) was built to avoid this obstruction with a bridge over the railway, the road swinging in a gentle curve to the west.

And you can read about the day that The Beetles had lunch in Sutton-upon-Trent here.

Wikipedia says: There are many things called Weston, and proceeds to list the 26 places in England of that name, and one in Borneo.  Our one lies just off the Great North Road to the east.  Near the church and by the roadside there is a sundial on a pillar inscribed 1795.  It is built on the remains of the former village cross. Curiously, the OS maps mark a number of oil wells hereabouts.  Oil was first discovered at Eakring, a few miles to the west, and a number of small finds have been exploited in the area.  The Dukes Wood Nature Reserve and Oil Museum is its lasting legacy.

The area to the north of Weston is known as Scarthing Moor, famous in days long gone for a coaching inn.

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©Biff Vernon 2001, 2003, 2006, 2007