This exit leads to some very small places indeed (Piercebridge is nice, for example, and it even has the remains of a Roman bridge which is very interesting, but nobody has ever compared it to Las Vegas). The reason we lose our third lane here, not to be regained again, is not because lots of traffic leaves, but simply because we're about to join the Durham section of A1(M) which was built in the early 1960s with only two lanes.

We've also skipped two junction numbers in the last mile - Scotch Corner was 53. When the gaps in the motorway were closed up, it turned out too many numbers had been left spare.