Eighton Lodge Interchange

The junction site on a 1947 map, not updated to show the bypass completed during WW2

The 1953 OS One Inch map does not show a roundabout at this location

The three-arm roundabout shown in 1968

The four-arm roundabout shown in 1971

Eighton Lodge Interchange is junction 66 on the A1. It marks the northern end of the Birtley bypass and the southern end of the Gateshead Western Bypass. Since February 1998 it has been overlooked by the Angel of the North.

It first became a junction in 1942-3 with the opening of the A1 Birtley bypass. OS one-inch maps from 1961 to 1968 show it as a flat 3-arm roundabout. The roundabout probably existed from the original construction of the bypass: a large-scale map on the NLS site, revised 1940, shows the boundaries of the bypass set out, with a bulge for the roundabout.

The 1972 1" map shows it as a flat four-arm roundabout; the minor road Long Bank (which at some later date became B1296) had by then been linked into it, perhaps to enable closure of a flat crossing of the A1 a short distance to the SE, and perhaps as an early part of the next stage described below.

It was probably almost immediately after this that the junction was grade separated, replacing the roundabout with a larger one and carrying the A1 mainline over it with two bridges. At this time the mainline headed from the Birtley bypass towards the centres of Gateshead and Newcastle via Durham Road.

The main part of the Gateshead Western bypass, then known as A613, opened in 1974; its southernmost section, connecting into this roundabout, was delayed, and followed in 1975. The A1 flyover may have been part of the same project.

The OS 1:50000 map (not yet called Landranger) published 1976, major roads revised 1975, shows the flyover in place, and the western bypass still numbered A613, and the A1/A1(M) routed via Gateshead Highway and Newcastle Central Motorway East.

Soon afterwards the Gateshead Western bypass became A69. At around that time the A1 was re-routed via the Tyne Tunnel.

At some stage it was decided to build a Newcastle Western bypass, extending the Gateshead western bypass northwards. Though the intention was probably always that the western bypass would become A1 on completion, it was referred to as A69 in official publications right up to its completion in December 1990.

In the late 1980s, with the Newcastle western bypass coming, the flyover was partly rebuilt to lead to the Gateshead western bypass instead of the town centre. The original southern bridge was largely untouched. The original northern bridge was demolished to its foundations and rebuilt on a largely overlapping footprint to create the present middle bridge. The third, northernmost bridge was added to accommodate the new southbound off slip. A substantial length of the south end of the western bypass was rebuilt on a more northerly alignment than before. The realigned flyover was completed in December 1987.

Junction layout from 1970s to 1987

Routes

Route	To	Notes
A1	Newcastle, Airport, Gateshead (A184), Team Valley
A1	The SOUTH, (A1(M)), Durham
A167	Gateshead (South)
A167	Birtley
B1296	Wrekenton
A1	Newcastle, Gateshead	now A167
A69	Hexham, Newcastle, Gateshead (A692), Team Valley	now A1
A69	The SOUTH, (A1(M)), Durham	now A1
A613	Hexham (A69) Newcastle, Gateshead (W) (A6083), Team Valley	now A1
A6127	Newcastle, Gateshead	now A167
A6127	Birtley	now A167