Riding the Great North Road at Eaton Socon on a Royal Enfield Classic 500

I’m on my single cylinder Royal Enfield motorcycle on the Great North Road at Eaton Socon, near St Neots in Cambridgeshire.
This old and historic road at this point was by-passed by the A1 in nineteen seventy one. Eaton Socon’s coaching inns once provided food, lodgings and a change of horses to travellers on the stage coaches between London and York, and similar hospitality, minus the horses of course, was offered to cyclists and motorists with the revival of road transport at the end of the nineteenth century.
I started off just next to the The Crown, an old coaching inn, and I’m sorry, I should have turned to get it into camera shot.
Coming up on the left is a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, the KFC sign, coming up on the left, and here once stood another coaching inn, The Bell.
This road, or this stretch of road, was once the Biggleswade to Alconbury Turnpike, founded in seventeen twenty five, and that particular turnpike trust was one of the earliest turnpikes to be established. Later, this stretch of road, along with the rest of the Great North Road, was re-designated as the A1, that happened in the nineteen twenties, marking it as the foremost road of the realm.
There’s a timber-framed building coming up on the left, a white painted one, and I’ve seen in a nineteen thirty nine film that it once had Tea House as a sign on its wall at the side. I’d like to bet that was once an old coaching inn in bygone times.
And here on the left is a famous old coaching inn called, Ye Olde White Horse.
This inn has provided hospitality to passers-by since the twelve hundreds, which is mind-boggling, and says so much about the historical importance of this road.
And what a wonderful photograph this is. It was taken in the late eighteen hundreds or early nineteen hundreds, looking back at the route I’ve just followed.
I’m interested in what I’ve coined elsewhere as the transition era, when these roads and inns fell into decline due to the rise of the steam railway network, and when they began to revive again, prompted by the return of traffic to the roads, firstly in the form of cyclists, then as motorists.
This road on the photograph is not yet tarmacked, and harks back still to the turnpike era that ended only fifteen years before.
And I’ve blown up part of the photograph to see the signs for “Vacuum Motor Car Oils”, “Shell Motor Spirit” and “Pratt’s Spirit” hung from the hotel wall. Presumably these were sold from cans, there being no pumps to be seen.
The White Horse promotion to cyclists and motorists captures the era in which the roads were beginning to recover from the steam era doldrums.
And cyclists come before motorists in this promotion, suggesting that the greater volume of business came from the pedalling travellers. This must place the photograph very early in the motoring era, sometime around nineteen hundred.
Here are a couple of photos from the nineteen twenties. And you’ll see in the next one an Esso petrol pump to the right of the inn. Its hard to tell whether the road is tarmacked or not, I think possibly not.
And in this roadside scene from the nineteen sixties, everything becomes more recognisably modern. This shot was taken not long before the A1 eventually by-passed the old inn back in nineteen seventy one. Imagine, even in the nineteen sixties, the amount of heavy traffic thundering through here. Whilst no longer selling petrol, the old inn remained to provide motorists with rest, food and accommodation.
And this old inn is still serving ale and food to this day, but its role of providing hospitality to passers-by on the busy A1 is a distant memory.
So its now back to riding the rest of this historic stretch of road.
And coming up, the white painted building on the left is the former Wheatsheaf, public house on the roadside, now a residential property.
The Old Sun comes up next, just after the fence on the left, the old white-painted building, an old coaching inn.
And on the right, again another white painted building, the Waggon and Horses, its name redolent of the trade it served in days gone by.
What an evocative stretch of old road this is. What stories it could tell about the historical journeys undertaken along its length. The stage coach era, the first cyclists and early motoring era, all are evoked by this stretch of the Great North Road, the old A1.
So many inns to serve the travellers, many no doubt lost, and some perhaps I’ve overlooked.
And my old-style single cylinder motorcycle is just suited to this sort of road. Indeed it was probably designed for roads like this, back in the last century.
And there to the left, to end my ride along this ancient highway, is yet another roadside inn, the George and Dragon.
And there’s a fork in the road ahead, and at that point I’m leaving the Great North Road to turn right towards the bridge across the River Great Ouse at St. Neots, and then on to Cambridge.
For now I’m done.
Videoed on GoPro 8
© John Dunn.

[@drjohndunn2898]

Great car. Dad driving, me on my Mum’s knee in front, Grandpa, Nan, and sister in the back!
Yes, like you, I was impressed by that futuristic roof.

[@johnrodmoor6820]

Still good food at the White Horse.

[@chrisbland8650]

I've never taken in how many inns are along this stretch of road. It's hard to imagine the amount of motor traffic that must have passed up here from the 20's to the 70's. My old man, from West Yorks, used to describe to me the scream of the straight cut gears of the old 3 ton wagons double declutching changing gears whilst climbing up the Archway on the old A1 out of London when he was at college there in the 30s. Not Eaton Socon, but redolent of the transport history of the road.

[@drjohndunn2898]

There were bottlenecks all the way to Weatherby. I have vague memories of being stuck at Retford and other places in Dad’s Ford Anglia.

[@chrisbland8650]

The Ford Anglia. A nice car for it's time. I'm amazed the futuristic Little Chef building by the A1 at Retford has been restored and is now in use again. I remember it being built and being impressed by the roof.