A161

The A161 is a largely rural A-road in the east of England, running from Beckingham in Nottinghamshire (near Gainsborough) to Goole in Yorkshire.

The road begins at a roundabout at the western end of the A631 Beckingham bypass and heads north, bypassing the village to the west. Like other roads in flat, estuarine country there are lots of bends and meanders to accommodate various waterways. We cross the Isle of Axholme which is very reminiscent of the Fens and pass through the villages of Misterton, Haxey and Burnham before arriving at Epworth, the birthplace of John and Charles Wesley, the founders of Methodism.

Crowle

After that there is pretty much more of the same. Crossing the M180 at junction 2 we go into even flatter land in the area of the Humber. Shortly after the M62, the road meets the A18 at an oddly shaped roundabout. The southbound A161 must give way on the roundabout to the westbound A18 on the roundabout, then shortly after, the A18 must give way on the roundabout to the northbound A161.

The road heads north from here, over a bridge crossing the Stainforth and Keadby Canal and the railway line to Scunthorpe. There is an improved section that avoids the centre of Ealand village, before passing through Crowle. After passing through Crowle the road turns to the northeast, following the fields and drainage dtches and passes through Eastoft. Here, the road turns back to the northwest, and along a long, straight section known as The King's Causeway.

We reach the River Ouse (one of the Humber's tributaries) at Swinefleet and run alongside it upstream into Goole. The first part of the town is Old Goole, separated from the town proper by the Dutch River and Goole Docks. We cross this river (actually a canal!) over the Dutch River Bridge and arrive at some traffic lights. Originally the road ran straight on, however in 2015 a new relief road, the Tom Pudding Way was built (named after the barges that ran coal from the Yorkshre coalfields into Goole). Now the A161 turns left and follows this road. There are two roundabouts to negotiate (one of which has no side turnings!) before we reach a roundabout with the A614 and junction 36 of the M62. This is where the modern version of the road terminates.

History

The strange original southern terminus of the A161 at Crowle Station

On the 1936 Ten Mile Road Map the route extends west of Goole

But by the 1937 edition, it had been truncated back to Goole

Originally the A161 strangely seems to have started at Crowle Station, about half a mile to the north of the A18 and headed north along its current route to Goole, with the modern route south of that point classified as B1187. The strange situation where the A161 and A18 did not meet seems to have persisted for a few years - both the 1922-23 and 1924-25 revisions of the relevant MoT map show this situation. By the time of the 1929-30 revision of the relevant sheet, the A161 has had the sensible small extension southwards to meet the A18. As all the revisions of the relevant MoT map (Sheet 13) are available on SABRE Maps, it would suggest that this situation changed in 1929, but also that no further mapping evidence for the exact date probably exist. As many small classified roads terminated at railway stations at the time, it is therefore speculated that the station generated noticably more road traffic north of the railway than south, and so using strict traffic count data for classification (as per the idea at the time) rather than adding a seemingly "common sense approach" might therefore have caused this situation.

At that time it was also the only Class I road in Goole and so it then continued westwards via Rawcliffe to end on the original route of the A614 near East Cowick.

By 1932 the A161 had been extended southwards across the Isle of Axholme to Beckingham, taking on the whole of the B1187 in the process.

After being lengthened, the road was then shortened in 1936. The A614 was diverted at its northern end to Howden (and beyond) rather than Selby, thus taking over the whole of the A161 west of Goole. Bypasses aside, this is the current route of the road.