The purpose of this page is to show the East-West and North-South routes through Seaton Ross in 1771 (the date of Jeffrey’s map) and to discuss their possible significance. The map has been highlighted below to make the discussion clearer, an ‘original’ map is shown at the bottom.
Note that 1771 was before the building of the Bubwith to Market Weighton turnpike in 1793 (see the Bubwith history website) which bridged the Foulness near Lincoln Flats. All these routes avoid the area around the river Foulness to the south of Everingham Carr.
Seaton Ross was on a number of routes at that time which would bypass it today. This is because the only routes across the River Foulness – which runs to the east of Seaton Ross through Everingham Carrs and west of Holme-on-Spalding-Moor – were across the Welham Bridge to the south, and around Everingham Carr and through Everingham to the north. Note that at this time the Everingham Carrs were probably still undergoing seasonal flooding, despite drainage work.
BLUE route:
Hence, travellers east from Bubwith headed east and north through or past Laytham and into Seaton Ross along West End (see our look at the roads in Seaton Ross before enclosure) and out again along a proto-Carr Lane north to Rytham Gate across Seaton Common, east to Everingham and onwards. This was certainly the main route to Market Weighton and may also have been the main route to Holme.
GREEN and RED routes:
Travellers north from Howden would have had a choice depending on their destination. If travelling to Market Weighton, Shiptonthorpe or Warter, they would likely have used the GREEN route, crossing the River Foulness on the Welham Bridge, to Holme-on-Spalding-Moor and then on to Market Weighton – completely bypassing Seaton Ross.
Travellers heading further west to places such as Pocklington would more likely have taken the RED route via Foggathorpe and Laytham to Seaton Ross entering by West End, and leaving along a proto-Carr Lane north to Rytham Gate across Seaton Common and then through Bielby and on to Pocklington.
ORANGE route:
Travellers to York from Seaton Ross could head north-west across Seaton Common and Ross Moor, bypassing Melbourne and on via Sutton-on-Derwent to the York road much as today.
