A1-The Great North Road
The Great North Road, now followed by the A1000, leaves Barnet and Hadley, enters the Hertfordshire and, leaving Wrotham park to the west, reaches Ganwick Corner. The name of Ganwick Corner is now used for the nearby Junction 24 of the M25 but the real Ganwick Corner is the triangle formed by Wagon Road, Hill Road and the Great North Road and occupied by the Duke of York, an old coaching inn turned Beefeater pub and restaurant. The Duke of York, as we know, marched his men up the hill... And this is an appropriate spot to honour his memory since, at 130 metres or 427 feet, this is about the highest place on the Great North Road south of Ferryhill in Durham, just over-topping the road north of Stretton in Rutland. Two miles south, at Hadley, the road actually crosses the 130 metre contour and is a tad higher here. The name "Hadley" is said to be derived from Saxon words "head high", the highest point between London and York. Andrew Crummy has, in 1993, produced a mural entitled "Barnet stands at the highest point between London and York"
Charles Harper's sketch of The Duke of York at Ganwick Corner about 1900.
The M25 sweeps over the old road just before it enters Potters Bar to form the High Street. At the north end of the old village the Great North Road forks to the left with the road to Northaw to the right. An old toll house, demolished in 1897, was an early victim of motoring, as Harper desrcibed: ...in the first twelve months of the new automobile era a car had dashed into it and done most of any demolition necessary. There's a war memorial there now. The Bar of Potters Bar is recorded in the 14th century, long predating the turnpike era, and may refer to a gate where the road crossed private land
The Great North Road's course seems to have wandered over the years. From the B157 junction, the old road seems to have taken a more westerly route, skirting the western side of George's Wood and into Bell Lane. But for the last two centuries the Great North Road has taken a line with gentler gradients, aided by a cutting, to the east of George's Woods to meet the old road at Bell Bar. A little curiosity, the 18th century OS maps mark hereabouts several "BM on Oak Tree". Evidently the early surveyors trusted to the permanence of the mighty oaks for their bench marks. There is little sign, save its name, of an ancient pub, The Bell, said to date from the mid 16th century. A Victorian pub, The White Swann, is now a private house but the 1930s Cock o' the North still thrives. The Brookman's Park Newsletter has some old pictures of the inns.
North of Bell Bar the Great North Road, now the A1000, again diverges from its former line. It used to head straight for Old Hatfield, coming close to Hatfield House. Let's let Harper take up the tale:
Immediately ahead is Hatfield Park, stretching away for over three miles. Through the park, by where the present south lodge stands, the highway used to run in former times, and brought wayfarers between the wind and the nobility of the Cecils. Accordingly the road was diverted at the instance of the then Lord Salisbury, and the public no longer offend him, his heirs, executors, or assigns. And now, for ever and a day, those who use the road between Potter's Bar and Hatfield village must go an extra half mile. This is indeed a free and happy country.
So now the Great North Road swings to the west to skirt round Hatfield Park, the Great Northern Railway running alongside.
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Could this be the Great North Road? In the centre of town, past Hatfield Station, the A1000 turns off to the north-east while the Great North Road proceeds straight ahead. But not for long. It did a sharp left and a right to cross over the railway. Until the bridge fell down. The old road bridge has been replaced by a footbridge but the road is closed to anything larger than a bike. |
| Onwards and northwards, we pass the Wrestlers, a pub whose sign has caused many a raised eyebrow. |
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The original Great North Road gets lost under the A1(M) just north of Junction 4, to re-emerge on the western side of the motorway now as the B197 northwards from The Bull roundabout at Stanborough. After crossing the River Lea, the Great North Road returns to the eastern side of the A1(M) at Lemsford at Junction 5, still as the B197, and running alongside the motorway, climbing and then descending Digswell Hill before re-crossing over the motorway as Welwyn is approached. The A1(M) lies in a deep cutting across the ridge.
But not so fast; let's go back to the Bull at Stanborough. There is a more north-westerly exit from the roundabout called Brocket Road. This is the pre-1833 route that led to Lemsford village from where the Great North Road crossed a 24 foot wide brick bridge over the Lea by Lemsford Mill where the simply named inn, The Sun, has been replaced by The Long Arm and Short Arm. Just downstream is the Lemsford Springs nature reserve. The road ran along the east wall of Brocket Hall Park and gave the name Brickwall Gate to a turnpike hereabouts before the road climbed Digswell Hill. Brickwall House, now a nursing home, is marked on Armstrong's map of 1776.
The area is now dominated by the A1(M) but as the traffic rushes on perhaps we can find traces of the old road and imagine what moved Harper to write: The brick wall of the park...is very old, substantial and beautifully lichened. Digswell Hill is beautiful, and so is Ayot Green, at the summit, with its giant trees and humble cottages stretching away on the left. Bessie Garfoot-Gardner was similarly struck: ...lovely open country, where Freisian herds feed in fresh green pastures. Then conifers upon tall slopes to the right, introduce a cameo scene of Switzerland.
I fear that golf courses have now been introduced to this alpine scene and fancy that Capability Brown, who laid out the Brocket Hall gardens might not have approved.
South of Ayot Green a cul-de-sac appropriately called Brickwall Close was once the Great North Road until the motorway cut it off short. The brick pillars attempt to lend an air of antiquity to the motorway bridge. A pub, The Waggoners, once passed by the nations traffic, now lies secluded with just the noise of motorway traffic to disturb its beer garden. A much older one time coaching inn, the Red Lion, stands at the top of Digswell Hill, close to where a railway crossed the road in a cutting. This, the Hatfield, Luton and Dunstable Railway, was closed in 1965 but some of it is now a cycle way known as the Ayot Greenway. National Cycle Route 12, The Great North Way, destined to run from London to Peterborough, crosses the A1(M) by the bridge photographed above.
At the end of Brickwall Close we find a brick wall, a gate, closed,
and beyond, mosses, their niche the abandoned tarmac.
Thanks to Stephen Clementson for the photos on this web-page.
Lincolnshire
©Biff Vernon 2004, 2005
