A692

Route

The A692 is a medium-length A-road in north Durham.

Castleside - Lobley Hill

The road begins at Castleside on the A68, just outside the Smelter's Arms pub. The road is signposted for Beamish Museum, even though few visitors to Beamish would be likely to approach it from this direction. The road has a 30 mph speed limit passing through Castleside and Moorside, which increases to 50 mph just before Consett. The Consett bypass (opened in 1993) begins at a roundabout around which are a McDonalds, a Morrisons and a Focus DIY store, and initially heads out abruptly to the right, before heading left again to pass the southern edge of the town. The roundabouts are signed as 30 mph, while the intervening sections are signed as NSL.

As the A691 joins at the Villa Real roundabout we leave the Consett Bypass to enter the Leadgate bypass - this was built in the early 1980s and is especially important due to a narrow railway bridge in Leadgate village. The new road is fast with two lanes in the eastbound direction as it gently curves round to the left. At the next roundabout the A691 heads to the right towards Durham City, while the A692 carries on ahead. In 1922 the A692 started on the A691 in Leadgate; the western section was A6075 but became part of the A692 in 1935.

Leaving the Leadgate Bypass, the road climbs towards Pontop, with the Pontop Pike transmitter roughly dead ahead. There are some nice views down in the direction of Durham City just before the A693 turning, and of the woods along Pont Burn to the left while passing through the village of Dipton. The B6311 and B6317 then leave on the right heading for Tantobie and ultimately for Stanley. There is then a long, straightish climb towards Hobson, which is built almost exclusively along the northwest side of the A692.

Sun Street, Sunniside

About one mile further on the B6310 joins from the left from Burnopfield (which is missed by the A692 itself) immediately before we cross the boundary into Gateshead District. The Byermoor summit is followed by the A6076 from Stanley which joins from the right as we enter Sunniside. Between Sunniside and Lobley Hill there are some nasty bends in the Watergate descent - watch out as there is a Gatso-enforced 30 mph (last time I checked though the Gatso had been burnt). The road then climbs into Lobley Hill where it meets the Whickham Highway (B6317) at a roundabout, 600 yards before it ends at a roundabout above the A1 - the road ahead is the original A692, signposted as the B1426 but marked on maps as the B601 (which was definitely its number before the 1990s). The A692 used to continue into Gateshead to end on the A1.

Original Author(s): GC NE Man 1

History

The A692 has moved west a little since 1922. It originally started on the A691 in Consett and headed east into Gateshead. At some point in the late 1930s it was extended west along the former A6075, and more recently the east end was downgraded to be the B601, presumably when the Western bypass opened.