B1297

Chaytor Street, Jarrow

The B1297 is a long-way-round route on the right bank of the River Tyne.

It starts on the A185 in Hebburn and heads towards the river, crossing the railway line by Hebburn metro station en route. It turns right at a roundabout to go along Lyon Street (although the original route of the B1297 was along the parallel Argyle Street) and passes through the Hebburn Colliery area of town before reaching a roundabout in Jarrow.

The original route of the B1297 was straight on, along a road that is now inaccessible, to end on the A1056 in the centre of town. Now, however, it splits and goes left and right to make a circuit of the centre of Jarrow. Both routes take you back to the A185. Turn right to get there in a couple of hundred yards, or turn left for the scenic route over the top of the Tyne Tunnel (the road goes right past one of the ventilation shafts) and through much the same terrain as before, to meet the A185 at the GSJ at the southern end of the Tyne Tunnel.

For a few years in the 1980s the B1297 avoided Jarrow and returned to the A185 in Hebburn along High Lane Row, which was the B1306; this road was declassified when the B1297 was given its current route back into Jarrow.