My father and I had a lot in common, we were related after all, may he rest in peace. One thing we had that bound us closely was the amount of time we spent driving down and up the A1. Somehow he ended up with a factory in Stevenage, a mere 251 miles from his home, while I ended up with a job in Sawston in Cambridge, a slightly less onerous drive of 247 miles. I remember him doing the journey at least once a week while I could drive to Cambridge a couple of times a week. Although the periods were a couple of decades apart , the son had emulated the father.
He had a long relationship with the AI even before then, having lived in London for some time, while we spent our early married life in Oxford. Even today I find myself on the main London to Edinburgh road on an almost daily basis. I have often joked that I should have a house built on the central reservation.
My father often talked about writing a book about the Great North Road, tracing its original route from central London to Edinburgh, joining the capital cities of England and Scotland. He wanted to describe the places it went through adding historical notes and points of interest along the way. He wanted to document its evolution from a connection of dirt tracks to the highly engineered super-highway that it is today. Despite achieving many things in his life, unfortunately he never got around to writing the book.
The other week, I was browsing through the books in a second hand shop in Jesmond. For some reason I am always drawn to the books while my wife makes her way to the clothing and bric a brac. I must say that they have a better class of second hand shops in Jesmond with high quality merchandise. Call it destiny but I came across a book called ‘The Great North Road Then and Now’ by Chris ‘Woolfie’ Cooper. He used to be a lorry driver and, like my father and I, had had a long term relationship with the road.
‘Woolfie’ did what my father never did and wrote the book. It traces the original route where it can as much has been built over, describing the towns and villages it passes through along with a number of points of interest along the way. Perhaps it was not how my father would have written it but, needless to say, I had to buy it.
Tolstoy said that all stories start with a stranger comes to town or a man goes on a long journey. ‘The Great North Road Then and Now’ has a man going on a long journey and coming into many towns. It’s an interesting read and a reminder of my father.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 