By Jeremy Armstrong

Copyright mirror

Road chiefs forced a family out of a farm where they had lived for 118 years to make way for a road that has never been built. The Beal family moved into Charlton Mires in 1904, with cherished family photos charting their progress through the generations. Martin Beal, 61, his wife, daughter and his parents were forced to make a heartbreaking exit due to aborted plans to widen the A1. They were told their beloved home would have to be flattened as the farmhouse could not stand in the way of progress. They moved onto land nearby in Northumberland expecting bulldozers to roll in and begin the long-awaited dualling of the A1. Heartbreak turned to fury when plans were scrapped as the scheme was judged as too expensive. It meant the anguish of moving out of the farm near Alnwick had all been for nothing. The Government deal means the home will be demolished anyway at an estimated further cost of £100,000 to the taxpayer. Last year, we told how the entire A1 widening scheme had cost the public purse around £68m, without widening the road. Mr Beal said: “It is complete madness that a house which our family lived in from 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 has 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. “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. “For me, 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 would have been an absolute shambles.” At first the Beals tried to fight back, assuming there must be something they could do to hang onto the farm. But it became clear that their departure was compulsory and all they could do was bargain over the terms. Plans to dual the 13-mile (20 km) section of the main route from England into Scotland stalled three times. The stretch from Morpeth to Ellingham in Northumberland was due to be upgraded. But taxpayers’ money spent on detailed designs and the purchase of land and properties was a complete waste of money. The Beal family was promised fair compensation to build a new home close to their old one. Mr Beal said: “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. “I have so many problems with the Highways Agency, it’s not just about the house. “They started doing test drilling on the land as they prepared for the road, but they left behind great ditches that filled with water, two of our sheep fell into them and died.” Martin’s great grandfather and grandmother, Thomas and Mary Ellen Beal, took ownership in 1904. It then passed into the possession of their son George Beal, whose son Gordon, Martin’s dad, was born in the house in 1936. Gordon and wife Gladys continued farming the land until Martin stepped up to join them at the age of 20 in the mid 1980s. Martin, a father of one daughter, said: “We were only ever viewed as collateral damage. It’s incredibly sad.” Whilst grieving the loss of the family home, Martin also lost his wife, Amanda, to cancer while the unwelcome transition was taking place. “It’s been a very, very hard time,” he added. Plans to dual the A1 have rumbled on for years; then Prime Minister David Cameron pledged it would take place in 2014. Plans were put on hold until Rishi Sunak’s government approved the Development Consent Order which gave the final go-ahead last May. Labour cancelled the project in October 2024, stating it had to make “difficult decisions about road schemes which were unaffordable”. National Highways said that lessons would be learned for future road improvement schemes. “Discussions surrounding the future of the homes purchased as part of this scheme remain ongoing and will be communicated in due course,” they added. “The properties are being managed by our estates team until a strategy is agreed. They will be secured by our maintenance contractor and inspected on an appropriate basis.” In 2016, the Mirror told how the same stretch of road had Britain’s most expensive bus stops which cost £557,000… and carried 40 passengers a week.