Tuesday 5 August 2014

NORTHERN HIGHWAYS

 
It is generally accepted that the A1 road is, more or less, the Great North Road, but there are areas along the way where the old Great North Road leaves the A1 route and then rejoins it further along, and other stretches where the A1 seems to follow Dere Street, the ancient Roman highway to and from northern Britain.
 
 
Our house overlooks one of these minor diversions, a humble B road, but, situated halfway between London and Edinburgh, almost certainly part of the ancient route to the North. We like to imagine those who, before the advent of motorways and dual carriageways, passed within a whisker of our front steps...
 
 
 
 
 
...perhaps.
 
Sometimes we still get a birds-eye view of a group of unusual voyagers; vintage cars in convoy, old steam-powered traction engines. On Saturday afternoon it was the noise that alerted us to this lot!





 
 


 
 
 
VROOM! VROOM!
 
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10 comments:

  1. I'm worried about the Beatles - who's driving? Great to think of all these travellers through the ages.

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    1. They don't look too worried! I think this was probably after they had met Bob Dylan in 1964...

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  2. We saw a HUGE convoy of bikers on our way back from Suffolk the other weekend. It seemed to go on for ever. Brilliant to see but not so good if you were stuck behind them I think.

    Jean x

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    1. Ha ha! Husband thought it was great fun leaning out of the window snapping them. He'd have been livid if he'd been in a queue behind them!

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  3. Good crack! Oh... the bikers were good as well!

    LLX

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    1. Should I organise a whip round for a new sheet!?!

      LLX

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  4. A lovely post, I love to people watch, think those bikers may have been headed up here.

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    1. Oooh, so do I - we had a great time today watching passers by through the glass front of MIMA in Middlesbrough!

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  5. Cool bikes!
    Interesting spelling of Piercebridge... Was that the old name perhaps?
    Julie x

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    1. The wonderful internet tells me that Piercebridge was named after a Roman bridge which in 1104 was called Persebrig - it was partly made of osier twigs and the old name for these was Pershe.
      The milestone is grade II listed and dates from the early 19th century - I would think it's a spelling mistake or just an alternative - my great grandfather sometimes spelled his name Piers, sometimes Pierce!

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