Sowerby

A1-The Great North Road

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Sowerby

The Great North Road from York enters Old Thirsk along the Roman line, as the A170, on the east side of the Cod Beck. There is another route, a little to the west, followed by minor roads or in some places just a footpath that may mark an old drove road or packhorse route avoiding the turnpike tolls, that enters Thirsk through the neighboring village of Sowerby.

This pretty painting of World's End Bridge can be purchased from the artist, R. E. Bennett

At the southern end of Sowerby there is an old packhorse bridge over the Cod Beck, known as World's End Bridge. The road now uses a modern bridge nearby but a little upstream another road uses another old crossing called Blakey Bridge. Further upstream again is another ancient bridge but in a sad state of dereliction. Medieval stonework supports 18th century brickwork which has been overlaid by 20th century concrete and tubular steel railings for a footbridge. Nice spot for the kids to paddle though.

Pudding Pie Hill, also near the southern end of Sowerby, is the legendary haunt of fairies. Actually it is a bronze age burial mound but re-used in early Saxon times, as revealed by an excavation near the top in 1855 which found three skeletons, some cremation urns, weapons and other grave goods indicating a pre-Christian origin. The bronze age burials probably lie preserved at a lower, perhaps water-logged level. Edmund Hogg provided the instructions for listening to the little folk. It involves a certain amount of running around the hill widdershins in a waxing moon but I fear it will be all to no avail. This has become a very noisy place. Now recall how in the Coaching Days there were two alternative routes for the Great North Road hereabouts. From York the road went through Thirsk to Northallerton, whereas from Boroughbridge the road left Dere Street, the present A1, at Dishforth and then turned again at Topcliffe to head directly for Northallerton, missing out Thirsk. But now the A168(T) connects the A1 at Dishforth with the A19 from York just east of Sowerby and south of Thirsk, taking all the world's traffic to Teeside and the Tyne Tunnel. As some crazy example of how not to build a by-pass the new dual carriageway is raised on an embankment, a stone's throw from the ancient monument of Pudding Pie Hill, in an apparently deliberate attempt to broadcast as much road noise as possible. For what it is worth, the area is classed as an Environmentally Sensitive Area and farmed under a Countryside Stewardship Scheme.

Pudding Pie Hill in April 2002 after scrub clearance.

The A19 viewed from the top of Pudding Pie Hill

Sowerby has an unusually well-preserved group of old farm buildings. You'll see them if you take a walk along the main street, the whole of which is a delight of 18th and 19th century vernacular architecture. The church has some substantial Norman parts.

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