Daniel Bates

Aug 106 min read

A1 PUB CRAWL - part three - Wetherby to Newcastle

Section 12 - Cattal to Darlington

Leaving Cattal, east of Wetherby in North Yorkshire on my A1 Pub Crawl (otherwise known as the Great North Road pub crawl), the weather overcast, my GPS watch not working, I knew today would be a tough slog cycling the Great North Road. After cycling through the grounds of Allerton Park, the road I was on goes alongside the motorway of the A1(M). I was on wide A-road and this was going to last some distance. I had a side wind which was slowing me up, I had the noise of the cars and lorries trundling along the motorway and I was stuck between the Yorkshire Dales on my left and the North Yorks Moors to the right. Slogging it I was.

Sections 1-8 of my Great North Road pub crawl can be found here.

Sections 9-11 of my Great North Road pub crawl can be found here.

I eventually got to my first destination of Boroughbridge which has a thriving High Street with inviting cafes, shops, pubs and restaurants. The pretty cobbled Hall Square was once the home of fishermen; today you will find the Butter Market Museum, an eclectic display of local artifacts, showing the history of the town’s people. My first stop was to see three ancient standing stones situated on the outskirts of the town. These are known as The Devil’s Arrows, based on the story that they were flung to earth by an enraged Lucifer in an attack on the nearby village of Aldborough. The tallest Arrow is 22ft 6in, topping anything at Stonehenge.

I actually got to the town quite early, so early that the pubs officially weren’t open. However the guy at the Grantham Arms let me in and for the next hour I was trying three different ales and talking about life down in the south. (The guy is originally from Cambridgeshire and the lady was born in Hitchin, a town located next to Stevenage. I was born in Hitchin also. We were both born where the potatoes now stand as that used to be the baby unit at Hitchin hospital, now a Waitrose). We had so much in common. I totally loved this pub and I hope to return very shortly for a meal with the family.

Across the road I checked out the Tap on the Tutt where I was served by a pretty young blonde barmaid whose mother came from Stevenage. Small world. I also love this pub for the decor and it had a real ‘northern’ pub vibe going on. This pub on Bridge Street was previously known as the Three Horseshoes until pub entrepreneur Simon Wade bought the Grade 2-listed building in the last couple of years and lavishly refurbished it. Simon also owns the Grantham Arms and the Fox and Hounds at nearby Langthorpe (all three pubs are on Cask Marque but I have to come back for Fox and Hounds as it was closed when I passed through Boroughbridge). As I checked out two of Simon's pubs, he and his team have done a grand job of refurbishing the places, having a great range of drinks to choose from and great staff with great service. I do have a top ten list of the best pubs I have visited in the UK and I can say both of these are in there as I was writing this.

Out of the town I rode, northwards, on that road next to the motorway (as well as a few country lanes to go on due to the crazy motorway junctions etc). The road seemed like it would never end. Twenty five miles from Boroughbridge to my next stopping point, Catterick Bridge (where I needed lunch, two hours in that saddle against the wind!). Near the main bridge which goes over the River Swale is the former Bridge House Hotel which stands derelict after a fire destroyed a lot of the building back in 2014. There had been a coaching inn at this site since the 16th century.

Did you know that Catterick was the northernmost Roman fort and settlement when they invaded and took control for much of the current-day Great Britain island. (They couldn’t go further north as they had trouble fighting those guys from present day Scotland and Hadrian’s Wall was built to keep the Scots adventuring south and ransacking the Roman settlement for treasure). Cataractonium was established just south of the crossing point of the River Swale. Until other military centres were secured further north (but were not succesful) it was an important and strategic location. It became a commercial centre specialising in tanning and leather working. A lot of stuff from the Roman times was found during digs in the 1950s when the A1 was being built. However, on my short visit, I couldn’t see any of the Roman Walls, but I think I may have been at the wrong location and on the wrong side of the River Swale. Doh!

Nearby I stopped in the village of Moulton for my third pub, The Black Bull Inn which looks old and rugged on the outside but very modern and fresh on the inside. Mostly catering for food, the bar is the amazing part for me. I stayed here for a while as I got talking to the barman, such a nice jolly chap he was. Very informative and gave me a lot of history of local beers and advice on the local area. I am having such luck coming across amazing pubs today.

It started to piss it down and by the time I arrived at Darlington train station, ten miles on from Moulton, I was a drowned rat. Darlington looked so run down to me as I walked around the train station and the town centre. It was miserable. However, like Doncaster earlier in my journey, the people were ever so nice here. I was knocking out several pubs from my Cask Marque pubs, but apart from the two Wetherspoons and a Hungry House, the stand out pubs for me was the Number Twenty Two (great decor, friendly staff, great range of drinks and the place was buzzing) and The Britannia Inn (where I brought people drinks so I could use my debit card to get over the minimum payment as I didn’t have cash with me. They were very happy and I ended up staying for a while talking about Darlington. The landlady even gave me some freebies from the pub, not sure why but looks great in my mancave back home).

As I was here, I learnt about the demise of The Great North Road’s coaching trade. This was the direct result of the transport revolution brought about by the steam train. The first public railway was opened in September 1825 between Darlington and nearby Stockton The original station at Darlington was right alongside the Great North Road, which then took a more westerly course than today. In 1856, the road was straightened, leaving the station some distance away. The North Road station lives on as the “Head of Steam” museum.

Anglo-Saxon Dearthington grew to become a small market town, immediately north of the Great North Road’s crossing of the Tees. It has always been somewhat in the shadow of its larger neighbour, Durham. It was derided in the 17th century as “Darnton i’ the Dirt”. This unfortunate name was probably due to the unpaved streets of the town which are said to have inspired King James of Scotland to write the following verse during a visit of 1603:

“Darnton has a bonny, bonny church

With a broach upon the steeple

But Darnton is a mucky, mucky town

And mair sham on the people.”

Darlington became famous for the manufacture of linen, particularly towels and tablecloths. Daniel Defoe noted that the town was eminent for “good bleaching of linen, so that I have known cloth brought from Scotland to be bleached here”. However he also disparaged the town, writing that it had “nothing remarkable but dirt”.

A1 pub crawl - Darlington Clock Tower — Darlington’s most famous landmark, the clock tower, was a gift to the town by the industrialist Joseph Pease in 1864.

Darlington also became a centre for engineering and bridge building. Bridges from Darlington include the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge, the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, the Nile Bridge, Egypt, the Victoria Falls Bridge in Zimbabwe and the nearby and very famous Humber Bridge. My time came to an end and I boarded the train back to Stevenage and now I am nearly ¾ of the journey done. I can’t wait to return to Darlington to commence my next leg from here to Durham via Spennymoor.