A69

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A69

View gallery (7)

From:

Newcastle Bypass (NZ195696)

To:

Carlisle (NY403560)

Length:

54.2 miles (87.2 km)

Meets:

A1, M6

Primary Destinations

Carlisle • Corbridge • Hexham • Newcastle upon Tyne •

Highways Authorities

Highways Agency

Traditional Counties

Northumberland • Cumberland

Route outline (key)

A69	Birtley - Denton
A69	Newcastle - Carlisle

The A69 appears to follow the line of Hadrian’s Wall fairly closely. However, except for a short distance at the Newcastle end, it actually stays well to the south of the Wall. The A69’s scenic attractions are more pastoral, following the Tyne Valley for most of its length.

It is primary for its entire length, and about one third of it is dual carriageway, mainly the section between Hexham and the A1.

Route

Although the A60, A61 and A68 all cross the 6 zone from side to side in a north-south direction, only the A66 and A69 do so east-west.

Carlisle- Blaydon

The A69 starts in the centre of Carlisle. Before pedestrianisation of the city centre, it met the main north-south road close to the point where Scotch Street becomes English Street – which I assume was also the point where the A6 and A7 met. The A69's original departure from Carlisle would have been via Warwick Road, but it now uses Victoria Place a little further north. Crossing the M6 at junction 43, it encounters a very short stretch of dual carriageway as it skirts Scotby, before arriving at Warwick-on-Eden. The B6263 meets the A69 here. This provides a cut through from the M6 at junction 42 for traffic from the south. Crossing the Eden here to the larger settlement of Warwick Bridge, the A69 then runs north eastwards up tye valley of the River Irthing to the junction with the A689 at Brampton. The A689 (formerly numbered the B6264) provides a similar cut through for traffic from the north, from the A7-M6 junction 44.

The Brampton bypass is a multiplex of the A69 and A689, the latter then turning off east over the watershed to the South Tyne at Lambley and then south to Alston. At the end of the bypass the original A69 is rejoined. (The road through the town is the A6071 from Gretna and Longtown, the only A road to enter the 7-zone without also entering Scotland.)

Continuing to follow the River Irthing, and crossing the Carlisle to Newcastle railway for the first time, the A69 now crosses the Cumberland/Northumberland boundary, and very shortly afterwards crosses the main east-west watershed separating the catchments of Irish Sea and the North Sea. From here onwards we are in the valley of the Tyne.

At Greenhead the A69 makes its first close approach to the Wall, and also makes a "cannon" with the B6318. (It's actually misses out on a true cannon as you have to use the tiny B630 to get between the A69 and B6318) This is one of the longest B-roads in the country, running from Langholm, on the A7, to the outskirts of Newcastle, and for much of its length uses the Military Road or even the line of the Wall itself. Briefly running adjacent to the railway, the A69 next bypasses Haltwhistle. From Haltwhistle the road has been upgraded and realigned all the way to the A1. Near Haltwhistle it crosses the South Tyne twice and the railway once, before continuing to bypass Haydon Bridge and meeting the A686 from Alston. Through Hexham the original line of the A69 is graced with a number, the B6531, but the modern A69, which is dual carriageway from this point onwards, recrosses the railway and river, just downstream of the confluence of the North and South Tyne, to follow the north bank of the Tyne for almost all the rest of the way.

Corbridge is next bypassed, with a grade-separated junction for the A68 north, but a plain roundabout for the other end of the multiplex. The original line of the A69 is now the B6530.

Grade separated junctions are now the rule, with the original route of the A69 to Heddon-on-the-Wall, now notorious as the origin of the outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease in 2001, now taken by the B6528. From Heddon the A69 originally ran straight into Newcastle along the line of Hadrian’s Wall, ending at a junction with the A1 right next to Newcastle Central station, but things are more complicated now.

Original Author(s): T1(M)

Matthew Kilburn writes:

The A69 bypasses Heddon and Throckley, the original line along the Wall being followed by the B6528. Next, for about a mile, the A69 still follows its original line, but since the opening of the Newcastle Western Bypass in 1990 has terminated there. Between 1976 and 1990 the A69 continued eastwards a few hundred yards to the junction with Silver Lonnen (the A191 from the mid-1960s to 1976, then A696 until 1990, and since then again the A191) and then turned south down Denton Road, now, like Silver Lonnen, restored to the A191 number. The original A69 into Newcastle (West Road) was at one time numbered the A6115, but the A186 has now been extended west over this route to meet the A69 at its junction with the A1 Newcastle Western Bypass.

Confusion may have arisen because this revised layout, although evident on the ground and on plans published by the City Council and the Highways Agency, wasn't entirely picked up by Ordnance Survey who continued for most of the 1990s to number Denton Road as A69 and Silver Lonnen as A696. These were mistakes.

The reason for the diversion of the A69 in 1976 was to allow it to take over the Gateshead Western Bypass (numbered for its first few years of existence as A613) via the Scotswood Bridge. The Gateshead Western Bypass terminated at Eighton Lodge junction (where the Angel of the North now stands); the flyover was reconstructed sometime between 1986 and 1988 to give bypass traffic priority over that coming from Gateshead on the old A1 (then A6127, now A167) and the A69 continued along the Birtley Bypass until joined by the A1(M) at what is now junction 65.

John Griffiths writes:

At the eastern, Newcastle end the A69 now terminates at the junction with the A1 Western Bypass, at the Denton Burn junction. The continuation towards Newcastle city centre is the A189; Silver Lonnen and Denton Road are both now designated A191.

Glenn Aylett writes:

One interesting fact about the Horsley-Heddon-Throckley section that was bypassed in 1976 is that, as the B6318 ends at Heddon to join the old A69 (which became the B6528 after 1976), an early Worboys sign at the end of the B6318 reads A69 Hexham, with an arrow pointing eastwards on the old A69, rather than reading B6528, as you would expect. As the A69 was replaced through Heddon in 1976, I'm amazed the sign has lasted so long and makes me feel a bit nostalgic for the old A69. I'm still old enough to remember when the road ended outside the grandeur of Newcastle Central station instead of ending abruptly on a nasty and congested roundabout four miles outside the city centre. The A186? it's not the same.