![\"Dere](\"http:\/\/www.reiverenglish.com\/midtees\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Dere-A1-Cades.jpg\")
<\/a>It would appear\u00a0 once its military purpose ended in the early 5th century, whilst probably remaining in use as west Durham local road, the next time we see the road as a published route in the medieval period, where it is recorded only as a route to Scotch Corner for\u00a0 access to the east west route across the Pennines.<\/p>\n
To the north of Scotch Corner,, the focus of medieval settlement\u00a0\u00a0 is in\u00a0 the productive lowland\u00a0 areas and coastal plains, and the strategic routes followed.\u00a0 On a purely practical level as a strategic route, the course of Dere Street in Durham was always a road to knowhere, once Hadrians Wall went out of use,\u00a0 subject even today to winter inaccesibility, and once north of Hadrians Wall a journey to Scotland would have required navigating\u00a0 across the equally inhospitable and at times inaccessible high Cheviot border country.<\/p>\n What is\u00a0 interesting is that if we take the Yorkshire stretch of Dere Street, and the Durham stretch of Cades road, join them with a wibbly wobbly bit of the Great North Road, and we end up with the A1 route pre-motorway upgrades<\/p>\n I would now like to\u00a0 introduce an excellent piece of unpublished research on the Great North Road by Hugh Gillespie.<\/p>\n The Great North Road (H R Gillespie)<\/a><\/p>\n I bumped into his website\u00a0 by accident which has a selection of chapters available online to read. I approached Hugh who kindly provided me with the chapters relating to Yorkshire and Durham, and gave me permission to publish them on the blog. They offer a fascinating insight into the development of the modern road system.\u00a0 Of particular interest to me\u00a0 is the reality\u00a0 that the link between Dere Street the Great North Road and the A 1 is quite recent in historical terms, contrary to what many of us believe, as recently as the 1920’s when the road system was named,\u00a0 the road we know as the A167 Topcliffe\u00a0 to Darlington road through Croft was actually designated the A1 for two years before it was transferred to Leeming Lane which we know\u00a0 today as the A1.<\/p>\n Fascinating reading, cracking research,<\/p>\n Thanks again to Hugh.<\/p>\n Great North Road History 1. Chapter 1<\/a><\/p>\n Great North Road 2, Chapter 7 (Doncaster to York by\u00a0 eastern route)<\/a><\/p>\n Great North Road 2, Chapter 8 (York to Northallerton)<\/a><\/p>\n Great North Road 2. Chapter 9 ( Doncaster to York by eastern route)<\/a><\/p>\n Great North Road 2.Chapter 10 ( Brotherton to Northallerton)<\/a><\/p>\n Great North Road 2, Chapter 11 ( Northallerton to Darlington)<\/a><\/p>\n Great North Road 2.Chapter 12 ( Boroughbridge to Darlington via Scotch Corner)<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A major part of our project is understanding the significance of Cades Road(Margary 80a), the eastern\u00a0 twin of Dere Street running north\/south through the Vale of York. Often in\u00a0 focusing on a defined historical period for research, it is easy to become out of sync with that which went before and after.\u00a0 Most will\u00a0 have … Continue reading The Great North Road<\/span> <\/a>