Northumberland family left counting costs as A1 dualling plan is scrapped

A Northumberland family says they are the unwitting victims of government missteps after highways officials forced them from a home they had occupied for 118 years to make way for a road that has never been built.

Charlton Mires sits beside a quiet country lane near Alnwick, where the Beal family had farmed the land since 1904. Four generations worked the place until three years ago, when the family was told their farmhouse and steadings lay directly in the path of what would become a widened A1, the cross-border route linking Newcastle and Edinburgh. Government planners said Charlton Mires would have to be flattened for the project to proceed, and the Beals moved into nearby properties while they watched the old house deteriorate as they waited for the dual carriageway that never arrived.

Last year the Labour government scrapped the dual carriageway scheme because the country’s finances could not support it, leaving Charlton Mires at risk of demolition even though the road would not be built. The Beals were told the site would be demolished to accommodate the project and that the cost to the taxpayer would run to about £100,000, despite the road plan being halted.

Martin Beal, now 61, voiced the sense of loss and frustration that has defined the episode for his family: “It is complete madness that a 200-year-old house which our family moved into in 1904 has been sacrificed for a road which now is not being built. It’s hard to describe how great an emotional attachment my family have for that place, my father was born in that house and he lived there until the moment came when it was made clear he simply had to move.”

He described the emotional toll on his elderly relatives and the sense that generations of Beals were erased by decisions viewed as financially imprudent. “It’s heartbreaking for him now to see the state it is in because it has not been looked after or lived in for over three years. He can’t bring himself to go back and look at it. And for me it feels as though a family legacy has ended with me and it’s made so much worse by the fact that it never needed to happen at all. The only foreseeable outcome now is that it will be demolished completely even though the road it was to be buried beneath isn’t going to be built.”

“Words fail me when I think about the huge waste of public money and the unnecessary suffering placed on my family. If the people responsible had to run a business, like we do, they would go bust, it’s been an absolute shambles,” he added.

Initially, the Beals sought to hold onto the farm, believing a way might be found to keep the property or secure fair terms for a relocation nearby. Instead, discussions over compensation turned toward building a new home close to the old site, on the condition that Charlton Mires be demolished. Mr. Beal explained that even if a new house were built, the deed would not allow ownership of Charlton Mires to remain, meaning the couple would effectively lose the historic site regardless of the road’s fate. “When we start to build the new house, Charlton Mires will be bulldozed and there’s nothing we can do about that because we don’t own it any more. There isn’t a solution that suits us any more, the house will be lost whatever happens – in reality it is already lost to us.”

He also recalled the practical harm caused by the project before the halt: drillings on the land left deep ditches that filled with water, with two of their sheep drowning after falling in. “They started doing test drilling on the land as they prepared for the road, but they left behind great ditches that filled with water and two of our sheep fell into them.”

The Beals’ family history traces back to Thomas and Mary Ellen Beal, who bought Charlton Mires in 1904, with the property passing down to Gordon Beal and his wife Gladys before Martin joined in the 1980s. “Despite that long family connection going back generations we were only ever viewed as collateral damage, they just didn’t care about the history of the place or what it meant to us. It’s incredibly sad,” Martin Beal said.

Alongside the Beals, other homeowners faced upheaval as the A1 plan unfolded. One couple began anew in Cumbria after relocation, and others near Morpeth and Rock described similar distress as the project progressed.

The A1 scheme had been in consideration for decades. A formal plan to dual the route was announced in 2014 by then-Prime Minister David Cameron, with consultations conducted with affected families. The project stalled and stalled again until May 2024, when the Development Consent Order cleared the way for construction. But two months later the Labour government reversed course, calling the project unaffordable in the current fiscal climate. By the time the plan was scrapped, taxpayers had already spent roughly £68 million on consultations and preparatory work that would now be for nothing.

Beal said hearing the news on television left him in disbelief. “I heard about it on the news and just sat there in disbelief. The sheer wastefulness of money paid by the taxpayer is amazing. And that’s before you even consider the terrible effects it had on families like ours.”

National Highways, which oversaw the project, said the department reviews expenditure carefully and that discussions about the future of the homes bought as part of the scheme “remain ongoing and will be communicated in due course.” The properties are being managed by the estates team, the agency added, and will be secured by a maintenance contractor while a strategy is agreed.

The decision to halt the A1 widening also affected other residents who had adjusted to life away from the rural homes they once inhabited. Wendy and Julian Wensby-Scott, who lived at Northgate House near Morpeth for a decade, recounted the moment Labour’s U-turn became public in October 2024 and described the scene as “heartbreaking” and “such a shame.” Felicity and James Hester, whose cottage near Rock had also been affected, recalled years of upheaval as they sought places to move.

As communities continue to grapple with the fallout, planners say discussions about the future of the properties will proceed with care for residents and taxpayers alike. The Highways Agency said it would keep homeowners updated and stressed that the properties would be managed and inspected as needed while a strategy is determined.

The Charlton Mires episode underscores the difficulties that can accompany large-scale infrastructure programs, even when they are ultimately halted. For the Beal family, the road they were promised to share with their livelihood never came, yet the legacy of Charlton Mires has already changed hands—from a family farm to a relic whose future remains uncertain.