The A684 is an
A road that runs through
Cumbria
Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...
and
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...
, starting at
Kendal, Cumbria
Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of th ...
and ending at
Ellerbeck
Ellerbeck is a small village and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. The population of the parish was estimated at 50 in 2010. The population as taken at the 2011 Census remained less than 100. Details are mai ...
and the
A19 road
The A19 is a major road in England running approximately parallel to and east of the A1 road. Although the two roads meet at the northern end of the A19, the two roads originally met at the southern end of the A19 in Doncaster, but the old r ...
in North Yorkshire. It crosses the full width of the
Yorkshire Dales
The Yorkshire Dales is an upland area of the Pennines in the historic county of Yorkshire, England, most of it in the Yorkshire Dales National Park created in 1954.
The Dales comprise river valleys and the hills rising from the Vale of York w ...
, passing through
Garsdale and the full length of
Wensleydale
Wensleydale is the dale or upper valley of the River Ure on the east side of the Pennines, one of the Yorkshire Dales in North Yorkshire, England.
It is one of only a few Yorkshire Dales not currently named after its principal river, but th ...
.
Flooding can be a problem after heavy rain, especially at Appersett, near Hawes, and heavy snow can close the road temporarily at the Black Horse hill and in Garsdale.
Settlements on the road
*
Kendal
*
Sedbergh
Sedbergh ( or ) is a town and civil parish in Cumbria, England. The 2001 census gave the parish a population of 2,705, increasing at the 2011 census to 2,765. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it lies about east of Kendal, nor ...
*
Garsdale
*
Appersett
Appersett is a hamlet in the Yorkshire Dales in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England west of Hawes. It lies on the A684 road and an unclassified road runs alongside Widdale Beck to connect with the B6255 road between Hawes and ...
*
Hawes
Hawes is a market town and civil parish in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England, at the head of Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales, and historically in the North Riding of Yorkshire. The River Ure north of the town is a touri ...
*
Bainbridge
*
Worton
*
Aysgarth
Aysgarth is a village and civil parish in Wensleydale, in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. The village is in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, about south-west of Richmond and west of the county town of Northallerton. ...
*
West Witton
West Witton is a village and civil parish in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. Located in Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales it lies on the A684 (the main road between Leyburn and Hawes).
The civil parish also includ ...
*
Wensley
*
Leyburn
Leyburn is a market town and civil parish in the district of Richmondshire, North Yorkshire, England, sitting above the northern bank of the River Ure in Wensleydale. Historically in the North Riding of Yorkshire, the name was derived from 'L ...
*
Constable Burton
Constable Burton is a village and civil parish in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. It is east of Leyburn.
History
The village takes its name from ‘Burton’, meaning a fortified settlement in Old English, and ‘Con ...
*
Patrick Brompton
*
Crakehall
Crakehall is a village and civil parish in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England, approximately west of Bedale. More known as Thomas Barkers home grounds. The village lies along the route of the A684 road, A684 and is split into t ...
*
Morton-on-Swale
Morton-on-Swale is a large village and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. It lies on the A684 road about 4 miles west of the County Town of Northallerton. It is less than to the village of Ainderby Steeple. A ...
*
Ainderby Steeple
*
Northallerton
Northallerton ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Vale of Mowbray and at the northern end of the Vale of York. It had a population of 16,832 in the 2011 census, an increa ...
*
Ellerbeck
Ellerbeck is a small village and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. The population of the parish was estimated at 50 in 2010. The population as taken at the 2011 Census remained less than 100. Details are mai ...
where it meets the
A19 road
The A19 is a major road in England running approximately parallel to and east of the A1 road. Although the two roads meet at the northern end of the A19, the two roads originally met at the southern end of the A19 in Doncaster, but the old r ...
.
The route
The A684 has primary status for the short length between Kendal and junction 37 of the
M6 motorway
The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 and the western end of the A14 at ...
, though even this primary section involves two hills and some tricky twists. East of the M6, the road descends the "Black Horse" hill and passes through Sedbergh where there is a short diversion to avoid the main street and a difficult right-angled bend. Another right-angled bend east at Garsdale Hall, and the road goes further up the valley to the watershed at Garsdale Head. After this the road passes under Garsdale (or
Dandry Mire, or Moorcock) viaduct where after there is a junction with the
B6259 road New
B roads are numbered routes in Great Britain of lesser importance than A roads. See the article Great Britain road numbering scheme
The Great Britain road numbering scheme is a numbering scheme used to classify and identify all roads in ...
to
Kirkby Stephen
Kirkby Stephen () is a market town and civil parish in Cumbria, North West England. Historically part of Westmorland, it lies on the A685, surrounded by sparsely populated hill country, about from the nearest larger towns: Kendal and Penri ...
. The road drops down through upper Wensleydale into Appersett, a junction with the
B6255 and into the town of Hawes
There is a 17-ton MGW (maximum gross weight) restriction over the bridge spanning the
Widdale Beck in Appersett. Because of this, heavy eastbound traffic must leave just before the bridge and proceed onto an unclassified road through
Hardraw
Hardraw is a hamlet near Hawes within the Yorkshire Dales in North Yorkshire, England. It takes its name from the nearby Hardraw Force waterfall.
The old school house, built in 1875, can be seen in the centre of the photograph of the village, ...
and then turn south onto Burnt Acres Lane bringing the vehicles back to the A684 just east of Hawes town centre. Heavy westbound traffic from the B6255 is expected to go through Hawes eastwards and then back through Hardraw to avoid the weight restriction.
In Hawes, after the junction with B6255 road to
Ingleton, the road splits into single lanes with the eastbound fork dropping down to the junction with Burnt Acres Lane and the westbound taking a cobbled road through the town. The two forks meet up at the Market Square in Hawes.
There is a triangular road junction in Bainbridge with the road to Askrigg before the road goes east again over the
River Bain
The River Bain is a river in Lincolnshire, England, and a tributary of the River Witham.
The Bain rises in the Lincolnshire Wolds at Ludford,J. N. Clarke, (1990), ''The Horncastle and Tattershall Canal'', Oakwood Press, a village on The Vik ...
. After passing Askrigg and bridging the confluence of the
Bishopdale and
Walden
''Walden'' (; first published in 1854 as ''Walden; or, Life in the Woods'') is a book by American transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau. The text is a reflection upon the author's simple living in natural surroundings. The work is part ...
Becks, the road meets the
B6160 from
Addingham where there is a
grade II listed
AA phone box.
It then passes through West Witton, Wensley, Leyburn (where it runs in tandem with the
A6108 for a short distance), Constable Burton, Patrick Brompton and Crakehall before arriving at Bedale. The road used to continue through Bedale Town and on through Aiskew and then after another ungated crossing of the Wesleydale Railway, it had a junction with a slip road to the
A6055
The A6055 is a stretch of road in North Yorkshire that runs from Knaresborough to Boroughbridge, with a break, then starts up again at Junction 50 of the A1(M) to run parallel with A1(M) acting as a Local Access Road (LAR) going between Junctio ...
(the old A1 Junction going North). Now, Bedale is bypassed (see below) and the road intersects with the A6055 and the
A1(M)
A1(M) is the designation given to a series of four separate motorway sections in England. Each section is an upgrade to a section of the A1, a major north–south road which connects London, the capital of England, with Edinburgh, the capit ...
just north of Leeming Bar and rejoins the old route just east of Leeming Bar.
The road then heads out through Morton-On-Swale, Ainderby Steeple and into Northallerton via Romanby where it crosses the
River Wiske
The River Wiske is a tributary of the River Swale in Yorkshire, England. The Wiske gives its name to several villages it passes through. The name Wiske is derived from an Old English word ''wisca'' meaning a water meadow. It was once known as t ...
on a bridge built in 1957, avoiding the
grade II listed Howden Bridge. At Northallerton, it first meets the A167 and runs in tandem as the
A167
The A167 and A167(M) is a road in North East England. It is partially a trunk road and partially a motorway, where it is commonly referred to as Newcastle Central Motorway. Most of the road’s route was formerly that of the A1, until it was ...
through Northallerton. The road crosses two adjacent railways in the town; the first is a gated crossing on the freight lines to and from
Teesside
Teesside () is a built-up area around the River Tees in the north of England, split between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name was initially used as a county borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire.
Historically a hub for heavy manu ...
, and the second is under the railway station at
Northallerton
Northallerton ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Vale of Mowbray and at the northern end of the Vale of York. It had a population of 16,832 in the 2011 census, an increa ...
on the
East Coast Main Line. The road carries on eastwards meeting the
A168 and loops east then northwards around the town centre before it leaves the A167/A168 and heads north out of the town.
The road then heads mainly eastwards avoiding Brompton but going through Ellerbeck before arriving at a large junction with the A19 that allows access north and south and also onto an unclassified road into
Osmotherley.
Bedale Bypass
On 16 July 2014 the Department of Transport announced the go-ahead for the villages of
Leeming Bar and
Aiskew
Aiskew is a village in the civil parish of Aiskew and Leeming Bar, in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England. The village is situated to the immediate north-east of Bedale and separated from it by Bedale Beck.
History
Remains of ...
and the town of
Bedale in North Yorkshire to be bypassed. The bypass, which opened to traffic on 11 August 2016, leaves the old A684 just north of
St Gregory's Church in Bedale and runs eastwards for to a point about east of Leeming Bar. It connects with junction 51 on the A1M and the
A6055
The A6055 is a stretch of road in North Yorkshire that runs from Knaresborough to Boroughbridge, with a break, then starts up again at Junction 50 of the A1(M) to run parallel with A1(M) acting as a Local Access Road (LAR) going between Junctio ...
just north of Leeming Bar. Archaeological excavations in advance of the road construction discovered an
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
settlement and the
Aiskew Roman villa.
Safety
In 2014,
EuroRAP
European Road Assessment Programme (EuroRAP) is an international nonprofit ( vzw) organisation registered in Belgium. It operates from Worting House, Basingstoke, Hampshire.
In partnership with national motoring organisations and local autho ...
published a brochure based on data collected between 2010 and 2012. It listed the A684 as being a High Risk road along its entire length from the M6 to the A19.
References
External links
SABRE Roads By Ten - A684
{{DEFAULTSORT:6-0684
Roads in Cumbria
Roads in Yorkshire
Transport in North Yorkshire
Wensleydale