A1 in West Yorkshire

Aerial photograph with image numbers
JPEG file (82.6kb) aerial.jpg

1: Direction sign on A63, Boot and Shoe Inn

A very old Worboys sign, probably dating from the mid-1970's (since this was when the M62 opened). This is made up of strips, a technique no longer used in making large signs, and some letters have lost their reflectiveness. In the background, a sign pointing to the car park of the Boot and Shoe Inn can be seen: this was, in 1922, specified as the start of the A1/A63 multiplex, and it still is today: the Inn building is fronted directly onto the A1.

2: Old A1 alignment, A63 to Micklefield

Now rather neglected, this is a local road connecting to Micklefield from the south and also providing access to the A1 northbound from the A63, but it was once the main carriageway of the A1. Through the hedge to the right is the A1 - literally a few feet away. There were some steps through the hedge and I stepped out the other side and practically onto the carriageway, which shocked a few drivers.

3: Micklefield junction

The grade-separated A1 bypass wasn't built to terribly high standards - with no acceleration or deceleration lanes, this is the northbound side access between Micklefield and the A1. There is no access to the southbound side except at the A63 junction further south, and even there there isn't an exit from the A1. Note the hopeful Give Way sign here - probably invisible to A1 traffic.

4: Micklefield junction

Another shot from the same place. Unusual signing here - surely these diagrammatics should be ahead of the junction, not at it - but the same sign is on the other side too! The blue sign facing traffic heading for the A1 reads "A1(M) - No entry to non-motorway traffic 1/2 mile". This is because of the ridiculous situation that will be explained later. For now, onward to Micklefield. And yes, that's my bike on the footpath.

5: Church Lane, Micklefield

I was amazed to spot this sign - I thought Micklefield's main street would be "Main Street" as it is in most places, but no - it's the Great North Road! This highlights the reason for building the Micklefield bypass and accompanying sections of grade-separated dual carriageway - the road crossing here is completely inadequate as the A1, especially considering M1/M18 traffic used to join the road far south of here.

6: Old Micklefield

A view from the northern edge of the village - that bypass was built very close, and simply upgraded when the A1(M) was added. The result is that the peaceful house in photo 5 has a back garden about 50 yards from a motorway.

7: View south from Old Micklefield

From here the bypass can be seen leaving the original line of the A1. Invisible, but definitely there, I promise, are two blue signs - the end of motorway restrictions, but without a junction. The A1(M) ends halfway along the Micklefield bypass, a good mile or so beyond the last junction - explaining the blue sign in photo 4. As a cyclist I had every right to cycle the A1 up until that point, where I would have been stranded because I couldn't go forward or backwards.

8: View south from Old Micklefield

A lower down shot from the same place - this is now a gated access road to a pond holding drained water from the motorway, but as these dashed lines show it was once part of a sliproad for another junction at the north of Micklefield - both Micklefield and Aberford had the junction as seen in photo 3 at each end of their bypasses, though now all but one are removed.

9: The new M1 bridge

The road north of Micklefield has been largely realigned, as the aerial photos show, and the A656 was diverted completely to make it end at the new M1 junction. This is the new bridge over the M1, and the next overpass is the northbound A1 crossing it in order to merge with it from the left. What is now the northbound carriageway takes the line of what used to be the full 1960's dual carriageway.

10: The new M1 bridge

View west from the same bridge, towards what is now the end of the A642 and A656. They both used to end at Hook Moor, the A656 ending opposite the road into Aberford and the A642 passing under for a loop around as part of a trumpet interchange. This junction was removed to build the new M1/A1 junction, and the two A-roads now end on the M1 with the B1217 extended over the top to close the gap. We will see more of the old junction later.

11: View south from the Hook Moor crossroads

We look south here from the crossroads at what used to be the sliproad from northbound A1 to the A642 as part of the trumpet interchange. I have brightened an area of the photograph where the boundary fence is still visible - the Highways Agency still owns this land and the land slopes gently up to the A1, so this was clearly the site of a sliproad. There is no trace of the sliproad back up to the A1 since the overpass just to the north was rebuilt away from its original location, covering over where the northbound entry sliproad once stood.

12: Hook Moor crossroads

Directly ahead and behind us here is the Great North Road, though now sadly it gives way to the B1217 which crosses east-west. South of here the road has been rebuilt several times over, so the wide pre-1960's road vanishes until Micklefield, but reappears here on the road to Aberford as part of the Roman Road (the A656 follows this further south).

13: Direction sign, Hook Moor crossroads

Interestingly, though both directions here are the B1217, it is only shown in one direction - probably to stop motorists being confused since this was, until recently, the A642. East of here the road has always been the B1217. The sign is also set up with lots of detail to say that the road it is facing is signed for "local traffic only" - presumably this is done to help people who are used to being able to join the A1 here.

14: Direction sign, Hook Moor crossroads

In the background is the new A1 northbound overpass across the B1217. In the foreground, the sign reads "Micklefield - local traffic only" - once this was the northern terminus of the A656, and before that a part of the A1. How the mighty have fallen (and risen again, because there it is in the background)!

15: Inside the interchange

This photo gives some idea of the scale of the A1/M1 merge: it was taken from the field north of the B1217 in the middle of the junction, and I've cropped it down considerably to make it clear what is in the photograph. The signs that are visible here are around half a mile away, if not more.

16: Inside the interchange

Facing south from the field at the other side of the B1217, this shows the section of six-lane-wide carriageway where the M1 and A1 southbound split - next meeting in Borehamwood, within the M25!

17: The old trumpet interchange

I spent quite a while cycling around the B1217 here, looking at the interchange from various angles and trying t work out where the old trumpet interchange for the A642 had stood. I took this photo because the sudden, narrow embankment (in brown, middle distance here) up to where the old southbound carriageway would have been looked likely - I recalled that rather than having a smooth upward curve it did the whole thing in one jump. Checking the aerial photos later, it turned out that this is indeed very clearly where the trumpet was, though now it's part of a field.

18: Old A1 approaching Aberford

No real history to mention here, but something more personal - I took this photo with one hand while still cycling. Lucky it's not the actual A1 any more since by the time I'd taken it I had drifted across the centre line. Somehow on this piece of road it was very easy to imagine myself in a big, 1950's saloon car driving the Great North Road, with other cars being driven by men in trilby hats and women in floral dresses. Perhaps that's just me.

19: Old A1 approaching Aberford

Even more 1950's than the last photo - we just need a Miss Marple lookalike on a bicycle with a bell to go by now.

20: Great North Road through Aberford

The broad, brownish road surface and the setting here makes for a very 1930's/50's scene - the Great North Road in its heyday passing through a town like this must have been wonderful. Just like Micklefield, Aberford's bypass is disturbingly close by though.

21: Aberford Bypass, looking south

For this photo I found a small access road to the east of Aberford that rose up above the A1(M). Despite the slightly unnerving old man sat in a parked car on the road behind me, staring into space, I stopped and took some photos.

22: Aberford Bypass, looking north

From the same spot, looking north - the A1 leaves Hook Moor here (though arguably the A1/M1 junction now takes up so much of Hook Moor that it's a joke to call it a moor any more) and drops into this steep valley. The blue signs read "For Scarborough & East Coast follow York A64" and "Wide hard shoulder for 1 1/2 miles" - presumably a large expanse of tarmac to the left worries some people. I believe this was done to widen the A1(M) to six lanes northbound here, since southbound it is three lanes wide just after the M1 leaves and the wide hard shoulder exists on the northbound A1(M) too - the continuation of A1(M) south of here will probably be three lane therefore.

23: South from Lotherton Road underpass

I was standing outside the motorway boundary here, though the picture doesn't look like I was - the fence moves much closer to the edge of the road here since there's a bridge just behind me. This four lane carriageway widens to five then six lanes just south of here - and the homes of hundreds of people in Aberford are just beyond that embankment.

24: North from Lotherton Road underpass

Looking north from the same spot, another shot of an excellent but ugly road - efforts were made to make the A1(M) blend into the background where it passes close to the village, but high up gantries like this don't help - and besides, how do you make eight lanes of traffic blend into the background? The Great North Road, it seems, has stopped blending scenically into its surroundings and is now fighting them for space.