To some the Great North Road (GNR) goes from London to York. Others remember the Romans wanted to travel to Scotland and have the GNR ending in Edinburgh. Either way it has been a Yorkshire thoroughfare for centuries. It is now largely constrained by the A1.
Angel of the North
This large statue south of Newcastle but north of Yorkshire on the Great North Road was conceived and designed by Anthony Gormley. His Angel of the North rises above the A1 north of Yorkshire but not surprisingly the steel and fabrication for its construction came from Hartlepool. Anthony Gormley attended Ampleforth College a Yorkshire Benedictine boarding school.
Extract with Yorkshire distances from London …. ‘The
GREAT NORTH ROAD The Old Mail Road to Scotland’
By CHARLES G. HARPER LONDON TO YORK