A1 road (Great Britain)

road in Great Britain

A1 is the official title of the Great Northern Road in England. It runs up the eastern side of England from London to Edinburgh in Scotland. It is six hundred and sixty kilometres long, making it the longest numbered road in the U.K.. The A1 has six major junctions with motorways, and over twenty major junctions with other A roads.

A1 shield
A1
Route information
Part of E15
Length410 mi (660 km)
Major junctions
South end A1211 in City of London[1]
Major intersectionsA40

A406
M1

A41

M25
A421
A428

A14
A141
A15
A47

A606

A43
A52
A17
A46
A57

M18
M62
A63

A64

A168

A61

A66

A66(M)

A689
A690

A194(M)

A1231

A19

A69
A167
A720 A900

A7
North endEdinburgh55°57′08″N 3°11′19″W / 55.9522°N 3.1886°W / 55.9522; -3.1886
Location
CountryUnited Kingdom
Primary
destinations
London, Hatfield, Stevenage, Biggleswade, Huntingdon, Peterborough, Stamford, Grantham, Newark-on-Trent, Retford, Doncaster, Pontefract, Leeds, Wetherby, Harrogate, Ripon, Scotch Corner, Darlington, Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne, Morpeth, Alnwick, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Haddington and Edinburgh
Road network
A1A2

The A1 follows, for much of the way, the course of a Roman road, Ermine Street, and the old coach route to Edinburgh. It is not a motorway, but a lot of it is now built to motorway standards. It is one of two main roads going from London to Northern England, the other being the M1 motorway.

Passing through Nottinghamshire, the road skirts the remains of Sherwood Forest. Scotch Corner, in North Yorkshire, marks the point where the traffic for Glasgow and the west of Scotland divides from that for Edinburgh, as it has for hundreds of years before car traffic. From North Yorkshire to Durham the road follows, for part of the way, another Roman road called Dere Street. This road ran from Eboracum (York) to the Antonine Wall in the lowlands of present-day Scotland.

Some parts of the A1 are motorways, and these parts are numbered A1(M).

References

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KML is from Wikidata