# The Great North Road - 1939



## prof20 (Jan 11, 2007)

The GNR (Great North Road)

'Driving Along The Great North Road' .. filmed in 1939 just before The War and well before any motorway's had been built. There were few routes north available and this film starts off the journey in London where the opening scenes show a Blimp or Barrage Balloon in the sky over London.

Everything about this film, the vehicles, the people the roads the street furniture, the towns and villages tells it's own story - a picture of a beautiful island that was once a beautiful place to live...... and still is, thankfully.

http://www.liveleak.com/ll_embed?f=c571875a21bb

A Happy New Year to All.

Roger


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## john56 (Oct 14, 2012)

Love this film, you can follow some of the route on google maps street view, interesting to see how much has changed over the years, i used the road signs as a reference.


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## Stanner (Aug 17, 2006)

I live very near it and if you do a bit of research it turns up the info that until the 19th century the_ real_ Great North Road, the one known as that to Dick Turpin et al, was the A.10 to Royston and then the "old" A.14 "Ermine Street" (now the A.1198) from there to Huntingdon and Alconbury where it joined the A.1 route.

After the A.1 route assumed the "Great" North Road name the A.10 - Ermine Street route became known as the "Old" North Road.

A big shame is that the "Hut" pub/inn/Tavern/Hotel (like the Brampton Hut in the film) names along the road are vanishing - Kisby's Hut on the "Old" North Road at Papworth Everard (home of Papworth Hospital) is now known as "Shilpa" an Indian Restaurant. I think this is a great shame as I feel such historic names should be as "listed" as the building itself. Luckily Premier Inns and McDonalds have kept the Brampton Hut name.


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## vicdicdoc (May 14, 2005)

Wonderful . . . . and not one Barratt housing estate or Polish delicatessen in sight ! :wink:


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## teljoy (Jul 4, 2005)

prof20 said:


> The GNR (Great North Road)
> 
> 'Driving Along The Great North Road' .. filmed in 1939 just before The War and well before any motorway's had been built. There were few routes north available and this film starts off the journey in London where the opening scenes show a Blimp or Barrage Balloon in the sky over London.
> 
> ...


Thanks Roger

Really enjoyed that. But at the same time depressing to think that WW11 was starting and everything looking so idyllic.

Terry


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## camallison (Jul 15, 2009)

Blimey - the roads were so wide. Even up to the mid-60s, the Great North Road (A1) up here was much narrower than those. It wasn't until the 70s that things started to improve.

Colin


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

Roger

Thanks for that film. Was there sound, if so, I could not hear it.

I was driving that route 1963-1967, to/from Durham and Scone and it was not much different by then.

I was surprised at the amount of traffic, but judging by the amount of luggage on the luggage racks it was holiday season. I was also surprised to see that 3-lane roads existed then, including that notorious straight stretch South of Stevenage which claimed many lives - they were dangerous.

Personally I would have liked it to have gone further north than Grantham.

And Happy New Year to you.

Geoff


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