A1-The Great North Road
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Rudgate
The Rudgate Brewery, at
Tockwith, derives its name from a Roman road that provided a northward link
between the road from Castleford to York via Tadcaster and the York to
Aldborough road.
The Roman version of the Great North Road went through Lincoln and York,
first crossing the Humber by ferry via
Winteringham and Brough and then fording the Trent at Littleborough
and the Aire at Castleford. Either way, York lay on the route. From
Castleford, the Roman road ran northwards till just past Aberford
and then turned east to reach York via Tadcaster
instead of continuing directly northwards along what is now the route of the
A1. From York the road ran west-north-west, a line now followed by the
A69, over the Nidd at Skip Bridge,
to Green Hamerton where the road turned sharply to the north-north-west to
proceed towards Aldborough. This meant a considerable diversion for
traffic heading north from Castleford that did not need to call at York.
Eventually, the ten mile shortcut was built in the form of what became known as
Rudgate, meeting the old road at Providence Green. Here is Margary's
description:
From Toulston Lodge, 1
mile west of Tadcaster, a road called Rudgate runs due north near Walton to
Cattal and Whixley, where it joins the northern main road from York. It is
now a narrow and somewhat winding road to near Walton, but the rest of it runs
in straight lengths and is somewhat raised. Parish boundaries follow it
for considerable distances. The River Wharfe is crossed a mile to the east
of Thorp Arch, but the crossing has long been out of use and is now approached
from the south by a green lane. On the north it is obstructed for a mile
by wartime constructions, but beyond Walton it is in use throughout. Its
junction with the northern road makes it clear that Rudgate is the later of the
two.
And, from half a century earlier, is Codrington's
version:
The road to the north
by St. Helen's ford, called Rudgate, leaves the road to Tadcaster. It
passes through the fields, where the ridge is traceable, and falls into the
highway leading to St. Helen's Ford, now disused. From the north of the
ford the grass-grown road has a parish boundary along it, and from the turn to
Thorpe Arch there is a narrow modern road between hedges about 14 yards
apart. There are slight traces of the ridge further on, and the road is of
varying width as it has been more or less encroached upon, and it is not very
straight in general direction. From the cross roads about three-quarters
of a mile south of the river Nidd, the ridge of the Roman road is visible on the
west of the present road, in line with a road on the north of the river, and the
same line is continued on by the road straight for one and a half miles to
Providence Green. In 1736 the Roman road was very apparent (F. Drake,
Eboracum), and there are still signs of the ridge, and parish boundaries follow
the road. At Providence Green the road from York to the north seems to
have come in.
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On the south bank of the Wharfe, north-east of Newton Kyme, is a Roman fort
and vicus, sited on the east side of the road just before it crosses the
river. Aerial photography of the roman fort shows earlier structures in
the adjacent area including a henge. At the east end of Newton Kyme,
behind the church and within the grounds of the 17th century Newton Kyme Hall, a
short section of 13th century stone wall is all that remains of the Medieval Kyme
Castle. Nearby (at SE 465448) is Black Tom's Well,
described by Speight,
in his Lower
Wharfedale from 1900, thus:
Below the castle is a
curious low building covering an ancient well, approached through a passage of
stout masonry with arched roof. Legend has it that Black Tom Fairfax hid, whilst
being pursued, in the well and it is haunted by his fear. Noises and strange
unaccountable sounds have been heard issuing from the well.
Here is Speight again, this time from his 1883 Tadcaster
and Environs: Newton Kyme lay on Watling Street,
one of the four royal highways called in the Norman laws Quatuor Chirnini, which
traversed the country from south to north, and which from Doncaster lay through
Aberford across the Wharfe at Newton Kyme direct north to Aldborough (Isurium).
Tadcaster was on Ermyn Street, which crossed Watling Street in the neighbourhood
of Stutton, near to Headley Bar; the latter highway going due north by the road
known here still as Rudgate to St. Helen’s ford. On the other side of the
river the name of Rudgate is also retained for the old road by Wharton Lodge,
east of Bickerton, which runs northwards through Chapel Hill to Aldborough.
Tadcaster consequently lay more than a mile east of Watling Street, and this is
confirmed by Leland, the State topographer (cii. 1540), who remarks “Tadcaster
standeth a mile from Watling Street, that tendeth more toward Cairivel
(Carlisle) and crosseth over Wherf at a place called St. Helensford, a mile and
a half above Tadcaster, and on the other ripe (bank) is St. Helen’s Chapel.”
|
This pillar stands in the grounds of Newton Kyme Hall on
the bank of the Wharfe. The Ebor Way passes it. |
Part of the arrangements for the coronation of Elizabeth I were made in a
small room in the rectory at Newton Kyme by Owen Oglethorpe, the rector, who
became Bishop of Carlisle and who crowned the new queen, and Lord Cecil who was
squire of Newton Kyme. An old commentary, printed in 1534 and signed by
Elizabeth after her coronation in 1559, is preserved at the rectory.
The Ebor Way, a
long distance footpath which runs (or walks) the 70 miles from Helmsley to
Ilkely crosses our road, actually following it for the half mile from the A659
to the Banks of the Wharfe from where Ebor Way heads upstream while Rudgate
plunges into the water.
Two hundred yards north of the Wharfe crossing, Rudgate enters Chapel Wood where once
stood a wayside chapel dedicated to St Helen. A nearby spring known as St
Helen's Well was famed for its healing properties but now seems to be
dry. Its position can be traced and could perhaps be restored. The
spring lies within the Permian Magnesian Limestone, though the overlying Lower
Triass Bunter Sandstone outcrops a little to the north and the Roman road
follows the Bunter outcrop northwards to Boroughbridge.
Bonser
recalls visiting St Helen's Well in Thorp Arch in the 1930s, when
...there were a number of rags and ribbons fluttering from the branches of bushes
overhanging the spring which bubbled out of the ground quite close to the banks
of the River Wharfe, at a ford where the Roman road, the Rudgate, crossed the
river. Now spring and bushes are engulfed by the far-spreading Trading Estate.
To the west of where the road was the land is occupied by Rudgate Prison, a
large estate of light industrial units and one of the world's biggest
libraries. Yes, here we are 200 miles north of the Euston Road, and we
find The British Library. This is where the other copy of every book the
BL holds is kept.
With the Wharfe now unbridged at the Rudgate crossing, one is obliged to
divert a couple of miles upstream to cross between Boston Spa and Torpe
Arch. Boston Spa owes its origin to its mineral rich springs. Here
is an account from Langdale's Topographical Dictionary of Yorkshire of 1822:
Boston, long celebrated for its Mineral Waters,
under the name of Thorpe Arch, on the opposite side of the water, is situated in
a romantic and beautiful vale, through which the river Wharfe runs with a rapid
current. The houses are extremely neat and good, built chiefly of stone,
with small gardens in front, and forming a row on each side of the road leading
from Wetherby to Tadcaster. The Mineral Spring, which was first discovered
in 1744, by John Shires, an inhabitant of Thorpe Arch, is situated on the south
banks of the river, and issues from the bottom of a lofty limestone rock, which
in some measure overhangs the river; it is conveyed by means of a pump, erected
in 1792, into a little room for the purpose, whither the visitors repair to
partake of this wholesome beverage. Hot and cold baths are erected
immediately adjoining the pump room. The village of Boston was begun in an
open field in 1753.
Boston Spa still has an air of faded fashionability but to take the waters
one now needs to travel on to Harrogate.
Most of the woodwork in the church at Thorpe Arch is by Robert Thompson.
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For the rest of this 1850 OS map, click on Old-Maps.co.uk |
At Cattal, the Roman line of Rudgate can be seen on the 1850
OS map. It is the dotted line seen approaching the River Nidd from
the south through the 'd' of Bridge and on to the 'Ancient Ford', this
line presumably having been abandoned when the bridge was built a little
upstream of the ford. The present road north from Cattal follows the
Roman line, a little west of north to Providence Green and then a little
east of north through Whixley, after which it meets the York-Aldborough (Isurium)
road.
Cattal Bridge
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According to Langdale's Topographical Dictionary of Yorkshire of 1822, most
of the houses of Whixley are built with stone taken from the remains of the
Roman road.
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©Biff Vernon 2002, 2003
