A684 road (Great Britain)
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The A684 is an
A road A roads may be *motorways or freeways, usually where the local word for motorway begins with A (for example, ''Autobahn'' in German; ''Autostrada'' in Italian). * main roads or highways, in a system where roads are graded A, B and sometimes lower c ...
that runs through Cumbria and North Yorkshire, starting at Kendal, Cumbria and ending at Ellerbeck and the A19 road in North Yorkshire. It crosses the full width of the Yorkshire Dales, passing through
Garsdale Garsdale is a dale or valley in the south east of Cumbria, England, historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. It is now within the South Lakeland local government district, but is still a "Yorkshire Dale" for planning purposes. In t ...
and the full length of Wensleydale. 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 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 ...
* Sedbergh *
Garsdale Garsdale is a dale or valley in the south east of Cumbria, England, historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. It is now within the South Lakeland local government district, but is still a "Yorkshire Dale" for planning purposes. In t ...
*
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 * 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 includes t ...
* Wensley * Leyburn * Constable Burton *
Patrick Brompton Patrick Brompton is a village and civil parish in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. Patrick Brompton is situated about west of Bedale. It lies on the A684. The population of the parish at the 2001 Census was 155, rising ...
* Crakehall * Morton-on-Swale *
Ainderby Steeple Ainderby Steeple is a village and civil parish in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England. Ainderby Steeple is situated on the A684 approximately south-west of the County Town of Northallerton, and to the immediate east of Morton- ...
* Northallerton * Ellerbeck where it meets the A19 road.


The route

The A684 has primary status for the short length between Kendal and junction 37 of the M6 motorway, 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. 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 Ingleton may refer to: * Ingleton, County Durham * Ingleton, North Yorkshire {{geodis ...
, 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. After passing Askrigg and bridging the confluence of the Bishopdale and Walden Becks, the road meets the B6160 from
Addingham Addingham (formerly Haddincham , Odingehem 1086)Mills, A.D. (2003). ', Encyclopedia.com is a village and civil parish in the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated near the A65, south-east of Skipton, west of Ilkley, ...
where there is a
grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
listed AA phone box. It then passes through West Witton, Wensley, Leyburn (where it runs in tandem with the
A6108 The A6108 road is an A road in North Yorkshire, England. It runs from the south of Scotch Corner to Ripon going via Richmond and Leyburn across the moors and the valleys of Swaledale and Wensleydale. The road is long, but through traffic betwe ...
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 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 on a bridge built in 1957, avoiding the
grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
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, and the second is under the railway station at Northallerton on the
East Coast Main Line The East Coast Main Line (ECML) is a electrified railway between London and Edinburgh via Peterborough, Doncaster, York, Darlington, Durham and Newcastle. The line is a key transport artery on the eastern side of Great Britain running broa ...
. 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 Osmotherley may refer to: *Osmotherley, North Yorkshire, an English village and civil parish *Osmotherley, Cumbria Osmotherley is a civil parish in South Lakeland, Cumbria, England, extending north from Ulverston. The village of Broughton Bec ...
.


Bedale Bypass

On 16 July 2014 the Department of Transport announced the go-ahead for the villages of
Leeming Bar Leeming Bar is a village in the civil parish of Aiskew and Leeming Bar, in the Hambleton District of North Yorkshire, England. The village lay on the original Great North Road (Great Britain), Great North Road (Dere Street) before being bypasse ...
and Aiskew and the town of
Bedale Bedale ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the district of Hambleton, North Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, it is north of Leeds, south-west of Middlesbrough and south-west of the county town of ...
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 just north of Leeming Bar. Archaeological excavations in advance of the road construction discovered an Iron Age settlement and the
Aiskew Roman villa Aiskew Roman villa is a Roman villa in Aiskew, North Yorkshire, England. It was identified by geophysical survey in July 2013 and partly excavated between November 2014 and February 2015. Discovery The villa was discovered in 2013 by a geophy ...
.


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 author ...
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