Creating Success Through Partnership

   An Historical Tour of Aycliffe - by car

(click here to return to the Brief History of Aycliffe)

(click here for a children's worksheet to accompany the tour)

1.   Start and finish at the TESCO store.   Make your way along Central Avenue to the traffic lights, and

2.   turn right south down the A167.   You are now travelling along the 'Great North Road', first built by the Normans in about 1200 ad.

3.   At the Gretna Green, turn left down Ricknall Lane and follow the road down past the Blacksmith's Arms and over the railway line (19th century).  

4.   At the motorway (20th century), pause and look northwards, noticing the flat area of land which used to be the post-glacial lake.   Proceed then to

5.   the Brafferton turn-off, where you turn right and follow this narrow road carefully down towards Brafferton,

6.   noticing the flat basin land (now on your right) which used to be the post-glacial lake, and also noticing the ruin of the old windmill.

7.   At the motorway, pause to look north, noticing the hump which is the terminal moraine (which pounded up the lake), and also look east, noticing the deep valley in this moraine cut by the River Skerne (which ultimately drained the lake).   Can you see Aycliffe Village Church (St Andrew's) at its Saxon dry point settlement on top of the moraine on the other side of the Skerne valley.

8.   As you drop down to the A167, both the deep cut of the River Skerne and St Andrew's Church built on the hill are very obvious.

9.   At the A167, turn north, and then turn right onto

10. Aycliffe Village Green.   This beautiful village was in its own time a planned 'new town' - it was a Norman concentration camp which replaced a former Saxon village round the church.   If you have time, leave the car and walk up to St Andrew's Church, a wonderful Saxon Church.

11. Returning to the A167, cross the road to take the B6444 past the 3M factory, continuing straight on past the Locomotion pub and across the railway - the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the first railway in the world.   Turn round and, retracing your steps across the railway and past the Locomotion pub,

12.  turn left at the roundabout along Whinbank Road, noticing the surviving original buildings from the Royal Ordnance Factory.

13.  At the junction with Horndale Avenue turn left, making your way round to

14.  the roundabout at the top of Pease Way, where you turn right, heading down Pease Way, but looking right to see the white house where William Beveridge once lived.

15.  At the mini-roundabout, turn right along Emerson Way and,

16.  when you meet St Cuthbert's Way, turn right then immediately left along Clarence Chare.

17.  Go along Clarence Chare, noticing the first houses in Newton Aycliffe on Clarence Green and Travellers Green to your right, until the end of the road when, turning left , you can make your way up Gilpin Road to

18.  Neville Parade shopping centre - the first 'town centre' of Newton Aycliffe.   You will now be able to turn right at the end and make your way along Greville Way and Shafto Way back to TESCO's.

      If you want, you can also see:

19. The memorial to the Aycliffe Angels at St Clare's Church and

20. The small piece of original bog-land at the top of Woodham Way preserved by the Borough Council.