In The Northern Echo this week, we report on the delays to plans for a multi-million pound designer village on the A1 at Scotch Corner

Ever since Roman times, Scotch Corner has been a meeting place for two major roads heading towards Scotland, and it is that volume of traffic that made it appealing to developers of the retail village. But ever since Roman times, the corner has been changing, as this selection of pictures from The Northern Echo archive shows.

If you have any photographs of Scotch Corner, or of your town, that show how much an area has changed, email jo.kelly@newsquest.co.uk and we will share them with our readers, in print and online.

The Northern Echo:

An amazing photograph of the yellow and black AA box at Scotch Corner

The Northern Echo:

Looking south down the old dual carriageway at Scotch Corner in July 1970 from a hotel window. The petrol station directly beneath us is where the AA had its phone box. In the centre of the picture on the southbound carriageway is the Dalesway Hotel, which must have been empty for a decade or more. We had always assumed that it was an unappealing modern construction, but this picture suggests it was a sprawl of more interesting older buildings, originally called the Crown and Anchor Inn

The Northern Echo:

This picture was taken on February 4, 1963, when the A66 was shut for the fourth time in a month at Scotch Corner. Remember the snow in that year? Were you ever stuck in snow at Scotch Corner?

The Northern Echo:

For 24 years until 1982, Tom Jones was the hands-on manager of the Scotch Corner Hotel

The Northern Echo:

A photo by Darlington aerial pioneer Jimmy Blumer showing the Scotch Corner Hotel in 1949, with the A66 and A1 meeting in front of it at a roundabout

The Northern Echo:

The Scotch Corner Hotel is said to be haunted by a ghost of an airman

The Northern Echo:

The traffic using the new A1 just to the south of Scotch Corner at Leeming on its opening day of October 20, 1961. The Thermalite lorry is having to leave the fast lane in order to get round the Pickfords’ wide load which appears to have been plonked on the back of the Scammell without any ties to hold it in place

The Northern Echo:

The bridge over the A1 at Scotch Corner being built in 1971

The Northern Echo:

Scotch Corner Hotel at the bottom of the picture in 1971 when the A1(M) was being built beneath the interchange. The village of Middleton Tyas is at the top

The Northern Echo:

A heavy downpour in 1989 creates a reflection of the car park in a huge puddle at Scotch Corner Hotel, probably not dissimilar to scenes at Scotch Corner during this week’s rain

The Northern Echo:

An old road sign for Scotch Corner