HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS OF NORTHUMBERLAND: THE GREAT NORTH ROAD, by Ian Hall. Published by Wanney Books (www.wildsofwanney.co.uk). £4.50. Softback.
EXPLORING the old route of the Great North Road from the Tyne to the Tweed, this book evokes a past age when people had time to stop and look around while they travelled. A coach timetable of 1833 for the London to Edinburgh service records that the journey between Newcastle and Berwick, including a 30-minute stopover at Belford, took almost seven hours.
The author follows the road’s older and quieter sections that can still be travelled today and describes various sights along the route which have become hidden as the A1 has been upgraded, including Cale Cross at Blagdon and Scremerston mine near Berwick.