| Nunthorpe's Gypsy Lane is a killer
Then in 1963 - Unless something is done quickly about a stretch of road at Marton, someone is going to get killed. This was the forecast of many Nunthorpe residents after they had learned that North Riding County Council has refused to lay a footpath along the busy twisting Gypsy Lane linking the development areas of Marton and Nunthorpe. The route is used extensively by housewives going to the new Marton shopping centre half a mile away. The increase in traffic along this narrow lane with blind bends and high hedges, has prompted many husbands to forbid their wives and children to use it. Mrs A.M. Dawson who lives in the Avenue and mother of three small children described the road as a potential killer. “My husband will not allow me to take the children along it.” she said. “There is hardly room for a car to pass a pedestrian let alone a pram with two small children alongside.” Her near neighbour Mrs F.B. Deans, mother of 22-month old twin boys finds the double width of her push chair causes overtaking traffic to pull onto the grass verges. “It is exceptionally dangerous.”The local parish council is asking the County Council to re-examine their decision. Chairman Mr T.E. Griffiths said their stock answer to any road improvement suggestion is “How many people have been killed on it?” . Now in 2000 - Gypsy Lane has been closed to through traffic in a controversial scheme to prevent commuter drivers using it as a short cut to Middlesbrough. This article appeared in the November 2000 edition
of Now & Then Magazine |