A1086
| A1086 | ||||||||||
| Location Map ( geo) | ||||||||||
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| From: | West View, Hartlepool (NZ493351) | |||||||||
| To: | Easington (NZ411429) | |||||||||
| Distance: | 7.5 miles (12.1 km) | |||||||||
| Meets: | A179, A1049, A19 | |||||||||
| Former Number(s): | A180, A182 | |||||||||
| Old route now: | A179, B1283 | |||||||||
| Highway Authorities | ||||||||||
| Traditional Counties | ||||||||||
| Route outline (key) | ||||||||||
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The A1086 is the Durham Coast Road north of Hartlepool. The majority of the road was a new build road from 1924.
Route
The road starts at a roundabout on the A179 in the West View area of Hartlepool, where it also meets the A1049 from the Headland. The road heads north and soon enters open country. It gains the street name Coast Road, although the sea is still some distance to the right. After crossing a dismanted railway line the road runs parallel to the Durham Coast Line, which is on the right but not yet visible owing to vegetation.
The Crimdon Dene is crossed (keep your eyes out for the hard-to-spot railway viaduct to the right), after which the road runs through Crimdon, after which the railway embankment becomes clearly visible for the first time. The road bends to the left to reach the village of Blackhall Rocks, which merges seamlessly into Blackhall Colliery (the pit, like all in Durham, is long-gone). There is then a brief rural section as the road crosses Castle Eden Dene before it reaches the edge of the New Town of Peterlee, running through the much older settlement of Horden.
The road bears to the right in the village centre and now heads north along Sunderland Road. The road appears to become rural just before a roundabout where it turns left to run along Thorpe Road. We pass to the north of Peterlee, which is occasionally visible, before reaching a roundabout in the hamlet of Little Thorpe. The A1086 turns left here and becomes D2. This section of road is basically the north-facing sliproads to the A19, which road is met just round the corner and the A1086 ends.
History
The A1086 did not exist in 1922 - and neither did the Durham Coast Road. The 1923 MoT map shows that the only means of access to this part of Durham was by rail, except for the occasional road that headed east from the A19 and ended at the railway line.
The new Coast Road
A coast road was planned in the 1922 Road Lists and allocated the A180 number. However, when the road was opened later in the 1920s it was given the A1086 number instead. This started on the A179 on the edge of West Hartlepool (now simply called Hartlepool) and headed north via Blackhall Colliery to Easington Colliery, where it ended on the B1283; it did not include all of what was planned to be A180 (and never has).
The 9 mile road from Raby Road, Hartlepool to Seaside Road, Easington Colliery was officially opened on 27 September 1924 by H. Gosling, Minister of Transport. The section from Horden to Blackhall was described as incomplete and opened afterwards. There was also a spur (A182) from north of Horden to join the improved Eden Lane into Easington village.
The new road connected the collieries of Easington, Horden and Blackhall, as well as improving links to Hartlepool. Width between fences was 60 feet with a 24 foot carriageway to Horden, then a 20 foot width with an 18 foot carriageway to Easington Colliery. One feature was the number of denes (deep ravines) to be crossed by embankment and concrete culverts, one dene having an 895 foot embankment with a height of 57 feet. Cost was £271,000.
There was later criticism by the District Auditor on the £26 cost of the gold cigarette case presented to the Minister at the opening ceremony (more than £1500 equivalent in 2020). The Auditor said it was questionable whether the presentation and entertainment were proper subjects for public expenditure. Members were surcharged.
Later changes
In more recent years, the A1086 has had both ends moved. The A179 Hartlepool bypass has taken on part of the original southern end of the road (with the end itself now unclassified). At the other end, the A1086 has been rerouted away from Easington Colliery (with the old road renumbered as an extension of the B1283). Instead it has taken on what was the A182 (an eastern extension of that road specifically built to access the new A1086), followed by new slip roads onto the A19.