1. Roads before the nineteenth century

We know very little about the routes of communication in the earliest days of the village. When the Norman army wasted the North of England in the eleventh century it followed the old Roman road - the Great North Road - and, judging from the villages recorded as "wasted" in the Domesday Book it found easy access to the villages along Bedale Beck and the lower reaches of the Ure and Swale. Presumably there were already sound routes from the east. The present road from Bedale to Leyburn was certainly an important route (known as the Kings Street in Crakehall in medieval times) but another early road, kept to the drier ridge to the south of the beck - the lane now known locally as the Moor Road, running along the ridge before dipping down to the Ure at Middleham. It has lanes connecting it to Crakehall, Cowling, Newton and Patrick Brompton. Presumably the route between Crakehall and Bedale followed more or less the present road across Rand, passing the medieval White Cross (still standing by the railway bridge). At the eastern end of Crakehall township a bridle way from Kirkbridge to Rand and Bedale, undoubtedly the early road to Bedale church and market from Langthorne, is still a public footpath. The ancient hedges that flank this lane and the back lane in the village show that they have survived substantially unaltered since at least early medieval times.

The Tudor surveys and enclosure papers for the village give a picture of the roads by that time, and it is clear that they were much as they are today. The Back Lane, Greengates Lane, Ruddings Lane, Kirkbridge Lane and the road to Cowling through the open fields and Scroggs Pasture were all in daily use, for access to the common fields as well as for travel between villages.The state of roads at this time was appalling, partly due to the piecemeal way they were maintained. The major roads, the "King's Streets" were the responsibility of the rudimentary local authorities, administered through the local JPs and the Quarter Sessions Courts, while maintenance of other roads and lanes was managed by the Manor Court. In general the landowner or his tenant was supposed to keep in repair (with broken stones) the part of the road that crossed his land. So we find in the manor court rolls complaints about "Rauph Paycocke for a waye in Hinglehowe Raynes which was ... not made" [1611], "Henry Lucas for not repairing the way in the Coat Lane" [Newton Road, 1688], "Robt. Clapham for not repairing the highway in Riddings Lane, amerced 2s 6d", "Mr Francis Wilkes for not repairing the highway in the Oxpasture" [Kirkbridge Lane, 1698]. In 1627 the inhabitants of Crakehall and Bedale were presented en masse at the Thirsk Quarter Sessions "for not repairing the King's street between those places at a place called Rand Pasture", while in 1632 a Crakehall yeoman was prosecuted for "stopping up a footway at Kirkbrigg Closes, being an ancient footway between Langthorne and Bedale for church and market".
Apart from their crudity of construction and repair, the roads sufferred a variety of abuses that contributed to their dismal condition. We read in the court records of "Widow Storer ... keeping sheepe in the streets contrary to order" [1614], "Robt. Collyson ... casting carrion in the street" and "Leonard Walton ... shovelinge the highway" [1616], "Matthew Craggs ... stopping the water in the high road between Brompton and Crakehall [1719].

2. Roads - Nineteenth century improvements

Nevertheless, roads did improve, and the enterprising construction of good stone bridges by the County in the 19th century played a big part in improving local communications. In 1839 coaches were running from Bedale to Leyburn, Leeds, Richmond, York, Masham, Northallerton, Middleham, Barnard Castle and Ripon. The Leyburn coach, which presumably passed through Crakehall, left from the Golden Lion Inn. The Wensleydale Royal Mail Coach Service provided the long distance traveller with a route from Northallerton to Kendal, passing through Bedale, Middleham, Leyburn, Hawes and Sedbergh. It carried both goods and passengers and was drawn by two pairs of horses. The fares from Northallerton to Kendal were 20 shillings for an inside passenger and 13s 6d for a passenger prepared to brave the discomfort, exposure to spalshing mud and the elements, outside. The Wensleydale Advertiser of 1844 described the journey:

"On the rough roads it was a ghastly journey, and cushions of a very soft substance should be used on outside seats, as one individual sustained external injuries from the velocity with which the coach was driven on to the pavement at Hawes - the pavement, not the driver, being at fault. "

From the late 18th century some significant changes to the road systems were embarked upon by local landowners. The Duke of Leeds at Hornby Castle and the Peirse family at Bedale Hall diverted roads across their estates for privacy and agricultural convenience. There were no planning authorities in those days, no public enquiries, and if they were prepared to pay, and they owned the land, they saw no reason why they should not get on with the job. Both their changes involved the construction of new roadway, the diversion of streams, and the closing of long-established routes.

At Bedale, Mr Peirse created a more formal park to the west of the Hall, and to increase his privacy and outlook from the house he diverted both the roads that crossed the land, in 1810. Jeffrey's county map of 1772 shows the Crakehall road running south of Rand farmhouse, where a line of tall trees can still be seen. This was closed, and the present road built in its place, shielded for some distance from the Hall by the fine, high brick wall flanking the present golf course. The old stagecoach road left Bedale market place through an arch behind the Hall and crossed the park in a continuous line with the present Newton road south of Crakehall. This was closed completely and the straight section from the Crakehall road, opposite the end of the Kirkbridge bridle path, to join the Newton road was constructed. Part of the old road can still be followed as a track across the golf course, and further on its route is still marked by an avenue of trees across the fields. The work also involved diverting the Rand Beck to provide a decorative feature for the parkland.

For similar reasons, and at about the same time, the Duke of Leeds made dramatic changes to the roads near Hackforth. The road from Little Crakehall to Catterick passed through the Duke's new park south of Hornby Castle and too close to his duck decoy. He had no compunction about closing this road (it can still be seen as a track on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map, but is now difficult to trace) and building the present, dead straight one directly to Hackforth village past the watermill, conveniently passing the other side of the hill known as Roundhill Tump which hides it from the park.
The changes can be seen by comparing Jeffrey's 1772 map with the map of 1860 (Map 3 - IN PREPARATION)

3. Roads - the twentieth century

IN PREPARATION

4. The railway

IN PREPARATION