On 30 December 1779, 600 Yorkshire freeholders met here to form the Yorkshire Association, a reform movement directly provoked by the costly American war. Led by Rev. Christopher Wyvill, they petitioned Parliament and inspired 25 other counties to follow.
Yorkshire freeholders met here in 1779 to demand parliamentary reform — a movement inspired by the American crisis. Drive east to the coast, where the war came dramatically close to home.
Read full entry →
Directions to next stop
- Head north on St Leonard's Place, A1036
- Turn slight left onto St Leonard's Place, A1036
- Turn right onto Gillygate, A1036
- Turn slight left onto Clarence Street, B1363
- Continue straight onto Haxby Road
- Enter the roundabout and take the 1st exit onto Haxby Road
- ... and 14 more steps
Distance: 67.4 km
·
Drive: 64 min
During the Battle of Flamborough Head (September 1779), 40+ merchant ships sheltered under Scarborough Castle's guns while John Paul Jones's squadron fought HMS Serapis offshore. Thousands watched from the castle headland.
Merchant ships sheltered beneath Scarborough Castle during the Battle of Flamborough Head. Continue south along the coast to the headland where the battle raged.
Read full entry →
Directions to next stop
- Head west on Castle Road
- Keep left onto Church Lane
- Turn left onto Paradise
- Keep left onto East Sandgate
- Turn right onto Sandside
- Enter the roundabout and take the 2nd exit onto Valley Road
- ... and 14 more steps
Distance: 33.0 km
·
Drive: 35 min
Site of the most famous RevWar naval battle in British waters (23 September 1779). John Paul Jones in Bonhomme Richard defeated HMS Serapis here. A toposcope memorial (1959, refurbished 2025) commemorates the engagement.
John Paul Jones defeated HMS Serapis off these cliffs in one of the Revolution's most famous naval battles. Tomorrow, head south to Hull.
Read full entry →
Birthplace of William Wilberforce (1759) in a major port city directly affected by the American war. Hull merchants petitioned for naval convoys to protect shipping from American privateers.
Wilberforce was just 21 when elected MP for Hull in 1780. He played no direct role in the Revolution, but the war's liberty rhetoric shaped the political climate for his later abolitionist crusade. Drive inland to Wentworth Woodhouse.
Read full entry →
Directions to next stop
- Head west on Cuerden Street
- Turn left onto Byrom Street, A59
- Enter the roundabout and take the 4th exit onto Byrom Street, A59
- Keep left onto Dale Street
- Continue straight onto Dale Street
- Turn right onto High Street
- ... and 1 more steps
Distance: 1.1 km
·
Drive: 3 min
Country seat of the Marquess of Rockingham, who as Prime Minister repealed the Stamp Act in 1766 and returned to power in 1782 to negotiate peace with America. The vast estate was a center of Whig opposition to the war.
Rockingham repealed the Stamp Act from this palatial estate and returned as PM in 1782 to end the war, but died in office that July before peace was finalised; Shelburne completed the negotiations. Tomorrow, cross the Pennines to Liverpool.
Read full entry →
Holds Joshua Reynolds's famous portrait of Colonel Banastre Tarleton (1782), depicting the notorious cavalry commander in his dramatic green uniform — one of the most iconic images of a British officer from the American Revolution.
Reynolds's portrait of the notorious Colonel Tarleton hangs here — Liverpool's own war hero. Walk to the Town Hall to see where the city's war profiteers and privateers did business.
Read full entry →
Directions to next stop
- Head northwest
- Turn left
- Turn left onto Willowholme Road
- Turn left onto Bridge Street, A595
- Enter the roundabout and take the 1st exit onto Bridgewater Road, A7
- Turn sharp right onto Brampton Road, B6264
- ... and 18 more steps
Distance: 107.4 km
·
Drive: 84 min
Liverpool was a major embarkation port for troops and supplies to America and Britain's leading slave-trade port; the Town Hall was where the merchant elite debated the war's devastating impact on transatlantic commerce.
Liverpool was a major embarkation port for troops and supplies bound for America. On Church Street nearby, a bronze cross in the pavement marks the demolished St Peter's Church where Robert Morris's father was baptised in 1711 — Morris, born in Liverpool in 1734, became the 'Financier of the Revolution' and one of only two men to sign all three founding documents. Drive north along the coast to Whitehaven, the harbour John Paul Jones raided.
Read full entry →
Directions to next stop
- Head north
- Turn left onto The Avenue
- Turn left onto Village Lane
- Turn left onto Abbey Road
- Turn right onto Parkway
- Enter the roundabout and take the 3rd exit onto Parkway
- ... and 10 more steps
Distance: 118.5 km
·
Drive: 87 min
Target of John Paul Jones's raid on April 23, 1778 — one of the very few enemy attacks on British soil during the war. Jones and his crew attempted to burn ships in the harbour and spike the guns of the fort.
Jones's 1778 raid on Whitehaven — a local man raised the alarm, limiting the military damage — but the psychological effect on coastal Britain was enormous: the enemy had struck home soil. Continue north to Carlisle.
Read full entry →
Used as a depot for raising and mustering troops bound for America. The Border Regiment and other units assembled here before deployment across the Atlantic.
Carlisle Castle's medieval walls enclosed the mustering ground for regiments bound for America — soldiers from the Border counties who would fight at places like Brandywine and Germantown. Drive east to Washington Old Hall, where the story takes a personal turn.
Read full entry →
Medieval manor where the Washington family name originated. Around 1183 William de Hertburn acquired the Wessyngton estate and adopted its name, founding the dynasty whose descendant George Washington became the first US President. The family held the manor for seven generations before dispersing southward. Rescued from demolition in 1936 and restored with American support, the Hall was opened by the US Ambassador in 1955 and visited by President Jimmy Carter in 1977.
The medieval manor where the Washington family name was born. Around 1183, the de Hertburn family took the name of this estate — Wessyngton — and seven generations later, their descendants emigrated to Virginia and produced America's first president. Rescued from demolition in 1936 with American help. Continue north to Berwick.
Read full entry →
Britain's first purpose-built barracks (1717-21), used as a garrison and staging post during the American war. Regular troops were deployed to America, reducing the garrison to Invalid Companies of older soldiers unfit for overseas service.
Britain's first purpose-built barracks served as a staging post for troops heading to the American war — the final stop on a tour tracing the Revolution's impact across England's northern frontier.
Read full entry →