A1-The Great North Road
The Great North Road runs along the fen edge; to the east and north-east lies the vast lowland, stretching to the Wash, to the west a rich landscape with a high density of of small villages with histories stretching back at least a millennium, often more. For the medieval church enthusiast this is a good hunting ground.
Armstrong describes the crossroads as "Kate's Cabin, by Overton Longville, to Peterborough." though he does not list it as an inn. Kate's Cabin is referred to in the1815 edition of Patterson's Roads but seems to have been demolished early in the 19th century. The name of this coaching inn remained on the maps at the junction of the Great North Road with what used to be the main Oundle to Peterborough road. A white painted building with a date stone of 1819 highlighted in blue, once known as the Dryden's Head, may have been on the site of the original inn known by the sign of Kate's Cabin. The name was taken up by the transport cafe, preserved in die-cast metal by Corgi. Just as well, since the road junction now marks the northern end of a motorway section of the A1 and has been transformed out of all recognition. Kate's Cabin lives on in the form of a rather larger transport cafe, accessible to northbound traffic. During rebuilding of the Dryden's Head in 1754 several Roman burials were found.
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Kate's Cabin, as interpreted by Corgi Toys. Thanks to Collectiques
for the picture and text below, from whom you can buy the model.
Guy Invincible Twin Axle Trailer - McCall and Greenshields (Kate's Cabin) Corgi Classics On the long haul from Scotland to the Channel ports, Kate's Cabin on the A1 near Peterborough became a popular allnighter with Scottish drivers. This set includes a vehicle from Kilmarnock-based McCall and Greenshields, adorned with tartan and individual name. |
Two small villages lie close to the road, Chesterton to the west and Alwalton to the east, by Kate's Cabin on the old Oundle - Peterborough road. The junction now has a bridge for the cross road and slip roads to connect with the A1. Alwalton has all but been engulfed by the spread of Peterborough, defended by its status as a Conservation Area. Nearby, to the south-east, is the East of England Regional Showground. The village was the birth place, in 1863, of Frederick Henry Royce, whose father was miller at one of the may water mills on the Nene. The milling business failed and Henry moved into the motor trade and eventually his ashes were returned to the churchyard and a new crescent to the northeast of the road junction has been called Royce Road.
Alwalton has a medieval quarry from which came the "Alwalton Marble", a dark shelly limestone from the Cornbrash, used in monumental carvings such as the tomb of Abbot Benedict in Peterborough Cathedral and a 15th century tomb in Sawtry church, 10 miles down the road. Outcrops of the stone can still be found in the banks of the Nene. A description of the geology of this area, many of whose rocks have been used as building materials and determine the landscape, both natural and built, is given by Peterborough RIGS (Regionally Important Geological Sites). Barnack and Collywestern stones came from the underlying Lincolnshire Limestone, quarried a little further up the road.
Just north of Kate's Cabin the A1 turns slightly westerly to leave the straight course of the Roman road, which hereabouts was known as the Fortyfoot Way. Before we reach Water Newton, in the fields to the north east of the A1, the Roman road passes through the site of a major Roman town, Durobrivae. Ermine Street runs straight through the site but it appears that there was a by-pass to the eastern side, perhaps the Great North Road's first town centre by-pass. Durobrivae was probably established soon after the Roman invasion. The Romans had reached Lincoln in AD47 and a fort guarding a crossing point of the river Nene is likely. Reporting an early bit of aerial archaeology in 1930, Collingwood suggests that, ...the Roman camp lately seen from an aeroplane near Castor is a relic of the Ninth Legion's progress. Durobrivae gradually developed into a large town, occupied throughout the Roman period and noted for its pottery industry and, to a lesser extent, some iron working. It is likely that pottery was exported from the Nene Valley far and wide but much may have moved by water rather than by road, the Nene, connecting with the Carr Dyke, leading to Lincoln. Numerous villas have been found in the surrounding area with a particularly palatial site just across the river at Castor. This may have been the second largest Roman building in Britain.
Reconstruction of Roman praetorium at Castor
Thanks to the Castor and Ailsworth Millennium Site for the picture.
| This silver bowl was found at Durobrivae in 1974. It bears a Chi-Rho symbol, probably indicative of a third century Christian community. Click to enlarge the image. |
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John Byng came this way in 1790: Near to the village of Water Newton, a pretty village two miles distant, [from Wansford] there has been a Roman station in the fields (still call’d Castle Fields), where coins are frequently found. I rode there this evening and applying to an old woman, she said that her children had lately brought her two, which she call’d mites. They are, I believe, of the Emperor Claudius, are very perfect, and I could easily discern Imperator.
The village of Water Newton is now by-passed to the west but makes a lovely place to stop just off the A1. In 1949 Garfoot-Gardner enjoyed her stop: Lovely trees by the wayside and wild gardens of summer scabious, lady's bedstraws, purple knapweed and yellow toadflax in delightful profusion lead to the pretty village of Water Newton. Villagers frequently find difficulty when wishing to cross the highway quickly, traffic being so very thick and continuous at times. A few farm houses and pretty cottages comprise the complete clustering of dwellings and an old village pump still stands in a little pathside alcove.
Webster points out that the church, vicarage and other buildings are set well back from the road close to the river. He claims they stood by an earlier course of the Great North Road which forded the Nene here and rejoined the Roman road just to the north before the bridge at Wansford was built. But there was a bridge at Wansford at least as early as the 12th century so the argument is not entirely convincing. Perhaps Webster was reading too much into Defoe's assertion that the 18th century road deviated from the still clearly visible Roman road to the North, known at the time as the 40 Foot Way. It remains a mystery when this section of the Ermine street was abandoned with the Great North Road lying to the west as it crossed the Nene at Wansford and to the east where it crossed the Welland in Stamford.
There is not very much at Sibson beyond the Sibson Inn. Once there was a church but it disappeared long ago. The road used to turn sharply to the north by the Inn along what is now a back road past the station but this section has been by-passed, making the A1 rather straighter than the old Great North Road.
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The Sibson Inn, built about 1762 and originally known as the Wheatsheaf, has a three step stone block standing outside.
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Harper writes By the wayside, on the left, against the wall of a farm-house residence, will be noticed an old milestone and horseman's upping-block combined. It marks the 81st mile from London, and bears the initials "E. B." together with the date, 1708. This is perhaps the only survivor of a series which, according to Defoe, a Mr. Boulter was projecting "to London, for the general benefit." Edmund Boulter was one of the family who were then seated at Gawthorp Hall near Leeds. According to Patterson's road book of the early 1800's: From Stilton to Grantham, at convenient distances, are stones with three steps, placed there by Mr. Boulter, for the easy mounting of his horse, he being a very corpulant man, and travelling this road every week for many years; on each stone was engraved E. B. 1708, several of which are now defaced. Gawthorpe Hall used to be next to Harewood house, north of Leeds, part of the Gascoignes' estate. There is a tomb in the church at Harewood inscribed In Memory of Edmund Boulter, who died in 1736, aged 57 years. That gives a birth date of 1669. There was an Edmund Boulter, who was Member of Parliament for Boston 1698 - 1700 and Boston Grammar School records that, In 1681, Mr. Edmund Boulter, citizen of London, presented the (Boston Grammar) school with the following books:- Scapula's Lexicon, Cooper's Phrases, ERasmus' Adagies, Goldman's Dictionary, Coxford's Epithets in Introduction to the Grammar, Screvelius' Lexicon, Greek and Latin. But this may have been another Boulter since the dates don't quite match up. In the RAC Routes to Scotland from the 1930s there's a reference implying the stone is near Wansford Station, or is this another one. Level crossing at Wansford Station. Look out for the old milestone and mounting block, only one left of an old series.
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I found this 1958 newspaper cutting inside a copy of Bessie
Garfoot-Gardner's Between Two Crowns at the page she discusses
the milestone/mounting block. Click the image to read it.
Here's Garfoot-Gardner's account: In 1708 a large milestone was set up by the roadside and adjacent to a farm building of this particular house (Sibson House). This is a relic recalling the account written by Daniel Defoe when recording his "Tour through the whole Island of Great Britain." It is the only milestone of a series set up by Edmund Boulter "for the general benefit." They were placed at intervals and led the way to the capital. This gentleman was one of a family which owned Gawthorpe Hall near Leeds, which circa 1709 was sold to Henry Lascelles, father of the first Lord Harewood. The relic is a horseman's Upping Stone and milestone combined, showing London 81 miles, also E.B. 1708. A few years ago, the stone was moved into the private yard by the resident of Sibson House. A native tells of this incident.But where is that stone now? Please e-mail me if you know.
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This milestone (cast iron actually) is by the side of the old road in Water Newton. Not one of the Boulter stones, this is 19th century work. |
Wansford Railway Station, on the Great North Road at Sibson was built about 1845 in Jacobean style perhaps to match Stibbington Hall. The station, closed in 1957, is now the centrepiece of the Nene Valley Railway. There’s a café and shop and lots of engines and rolling stock, a turntable and other train things lying about even if you don’t actually want to go for a ride on the eight miles of steam-hauled line between Peterborough and Yarwell Junction, to the west of the Wansford Tunnel. The west entrance to the tunnel may be worth a look at if Romanesque details to round arch of west portal with two roll moulded and chamfered orders springing from attached columns with cushion capitals. excites you. That from the District Council’s listed building database.
On a similar theme and across the road from the station there’s a nice old signal box described as: Signal box, circa 1912. Brick ground storey with timber framed and boarded first storey. Welsh slated roof with gable bargeboards and finials. Wooden stair to signal box entrance with glazed door. Large four paned windows arranged in pairs or groups of three. Segmental brick arches to recessed ground storey panels and four paned windows shaped to arches. Signal box fittings complete.
Almost under the signal box, the railway crosses an 1845 cast iron, brick and stone bridge over the River Nene. While the river flows through two arches there are three to spare for times of flood and these are not blocked like at Wansford. You can walk across the bridge and watch the water flow.
What Sibson lacks is made up at Stibbington, a wonderful collection of stone buildings, ancient church and great trees, set well back off the main road, on a road that leads nowhere, to provide a real oasis of tranquility in contrast to the A1.
John Byng, was staying at Wansbeck, when he made a little excursion:
At the little village of Stibbington there is an ancient stone mansion inhabited by a farmer. This I asked leave to enter. In is a good old-fashioned parlour, and a picture of one monkey shaving another. Over the porch of the entrance is written:
Deo: Trin: Uni
Sit Gloria
1625
If a man were rightly to indulge a pursuit of antiquity, he should go from village to village, from church to church. Then would he frequently discover some curious monuments, some very ancient houses, some castellated ground. The worse the roads, the more, probably, of unexplored curiosity; for good roads have removed every stone and stick, as navigations have spoil’d the beauty of rivers.A hundred years on Harper didn't like it. Here's his little rant: Stibbington bears the mark of its ownership (the Duke of Bedford) distinctly visible in its severe and uncomfortable-looking "model" modern-gothic stone houses, with the coroneted "B" on the gables. In this manner the accursed Russells have bedevilled many of the villages and townlets unhappily owned by them, and the feelings of all who live in their ear-marked houses must be akin to those of paupers who inhabit workhouses and infirmaries, with the important exception that the Duke's tenants pay rent and taxes. A century on and it's another story.
The road junction, the only access to Stibbington, has been the site of many accidents, some fatal and the Highways Agency is now providing a new junction layout with a bridge to avoid the need for local traffic to cross the path of fast vehicles on the A1. Here's a map of the new layout. The wood named Toll Bar Spinney is a reminder of road developments almost three centuries ago and the Roman potteries marked behind the Stibbington Field Studies Centre take us back almost two millennia, to a time when this area played a key role in British industry.
E2 is not just the size of a packet of washing powder but a route, rather newer in conception than the Great North Road, though bits of it may be as ancient as walking. It is a long distance footpath stretching from Galway to Nice, a distance of 4850km or 3030 miles. The British section runs (or walks) from Stranraer to Harwich or Dover. It is basically a northwards extension of the famous GR5, linking the Low Countries with the Riviera via the French Alps. It was opened in 1999, though some short sections still remain to be waymarked. From Stranraer, the path takes in the Southern Uplands and the Pennines before splitting in two. The eastern route links the Yorkshire Wolds, the Humber estuary and the Fens to reach Harwich. The western alternative touches the Peaks, the Cotswolds, the Thames Valley and the North Downs on its way to Dover.
In this area the E2 follows a path called Hereward Way, along the banks of the river Nene, behind Water Newton and Stibbington and crossing the Great North Road at Wansford. We meet the E2 again in its various guises as the Viking Way, Cleveland Way and St. Cuthbert's Way as we head north.
Just north of Stibbington, across the river, is a little village called Upton. It is here that the Roman road forks, the north-west branch, heading for Stamford, is again taken up by the A1 north from Great Casterton, while the other turns north for Sleaford. Both roads meet again at Lincoln but we will leave them to another page.
©Biff Vernon 2001, 2003, 2008
