A46: Bath - Cleethorpes

Section 1: Bath - M4 J18
This seems a bit cheeky -- doing the first eight miles of a road that (according to Graham) is 205 miles long! But it's all I know, and someone had to make a start...

The A46 used to start at traffic lights on the A4 in Larkhall, on the eastern side of Bath, and climb up laboriously though the village of Swainswick. But that's all changed now. A controversial new road scheme to the east of Bath encompasses two roads: the A4 Batheaston bypass (of which it is well known I am not a fan), and the A46 Swainswick bypass. The A46 thus starts directly from the eastern A4 at a junction in Lambridge, just outside Bath. It runs as a dual carriageway under a large roundabout, and is immediately joined by slip roads carrying the bulk of the traffic from the western A4. Here it climbs steeply, to skirt the edge of Little Solsbury Hill. This was the site of protests as well (Solsbury Hill was, amongst other things, the subject of a song by Peter Gabriel) but I have to say that I rather admire this stretch of the road; it's a stunning view from the eastern side of Bath.

There were plans to extend the dual carriageway to the M4 junction, but as far as I know they've been shelved. So after the end of the bypass the road returns to being a fairly bendy single carriageway. There are some impressive views down to the valley below; I particularly remember one foggy morning when I was travelling along this road and could look down at the fog enveloping the valley. Then it passes over the border into South Gloucestershire, and into the village of Nimlet -- a fairly nondescript little place, though I used to know an eccentric Bath taxi-driver who lived there.

The next junction, with the A420 near Cold Ashton, is a roundabout, though for many years it was a rather inadequate set of traffic lights. Then you go through the wonderfully-named Pennsylvania! (I have no idea how it got this name.) After this you pass the National Trust property at Dyrham Park, famous for its deer. On the approach to the M4 junction there's an extremely short section of dual carriageway which is hardly worth mentioning. The junction is the standard roundabout type, beyond which the A46 progresses on its long journey towards Grimsby.

Guy

Section 2: M4 J18 - M1 J21a
And so, at last, someone takes pity on our poor hitch-hiker (holding a by now somewhat bedraggled "Grimsby" sign) whom Guy deposited some while ago at the roundabout which crosses the M4, 8 miles north of Bath...

The intersection between the A46 and the M4 (junction 18 in that motorway's intinerary) lies at almost precisely the point where, as recorded by John Ogilby in 1675, the way "from Bath to Glocester" crossed the main Oxford - Bristol road. The latter came in from Luckington to the north- east, by way of the south side of the village of Tormarton, before setting off for Pucklechurch, on an almost direct course via Hinton that even by 1889 had been reduced in status to no more than that of a humble field track... so here is one case, at least, where the coming of the motorway cannot be blamed for the disappearance of an ancient route.

Our first junction on the modern road -- a few yards north of where we have been lingering -- is with the B4465 (which takes the more meandering modern route to Pucklechurch) at Dodington Ash. Here, on the left, you may glimpse an impressive gatehouse marking the entrance to the park of Dodington House ("c. 1764" say the guidebooks -- a century after Ogilby's surveyor passed this way). The ancient pile itself is too far away for us to see, but soon, if we look to our right, we will see a modern pile: the spectacularly messy scrapyard which marks the approach to the light-controlled crossing with the A432 (Yate) / B4040 (Malmesbury) at the Cross Hands hotel, Old Sodbury.

Two thoughts occur: (1) what a favourite name "Cross Hands" is for appropriately situated hostelries in these parts (it crops up all along the southern A46); and (2) how comparatively frequent are rural traffic lights in the Cotswolds (even in situations lacking the presence of pronounced gradients which might argue against the construction of roundabouts).

Another 4 miles or so (the London - South Wales railway having tunnelled beneath us) brings us to the conjoined Petty France / Dunkirk. Two unusual names -- how very odd: I remembered another Dunkirk in Kent, and hadn't I been through a Petty France down that way too? On looking them up I find that the two Kentish communities are almost equally close one to another..!

The Dunkirk junction marks the point where the A46 ceases to be a primary road and passes the baton of that status over to the diverging Cirencester-bound A433 (a situation referred to by certain Sabre cognoscenti, I believe, as a Totso). It is noticeable that the southern A46, while corresponding in general to the itinerary of the Roman Fosse Way and its British precursors (just look at a geological map of Britain to see why SW - NE is a natural direction) lies well to the west of the Roman route and does not join the Fosse itself until nearly in Leicester. (All later variations since the route was first numbered have pushed it even further west!). The modern route is perhaps more closely tied to regional economics than to the national strategics of the "frontier-road" Fosse Way.

I suddenly realize, during my "re-familiarization" run along the A46, that I have in fact never before not turned right at this point: Cirencester and the Fosse being the obvious "through route" onwards to the Midlands. (Even when behind the wheel I can't shake off the value of not losing height...!) Dunkirk to Cheltenham is, then, virgin territory for me.

A pair of houses ahead, lonely but together -- one on each side our route, their gable ends close to the road -- seem to mark out a narrow gateway through which our road must pass: incongruous, given the openness of the countryside around us, which is nearly all arable with, here and there, a detached stand of trees, low stone walls flanking most of our way. We pass a sign announcing entry into Gloucestershire. Strange: I thought we were already there! A leftover from Avon days, no doubt.

Although we are "in the Cotswolds" there is little impression of being at any height until, not long after crossing the A4135 (at another light- controlled junction) we suddenly find ourselves above Nailsworth. We descend steeply down into the valley on our left, houses clinging to every slope in sight, before passing, once we reach the valley floor, what one guide calls "a string of early industrial pearls": stonebuilt former woollen mills, now largely converted to other trading uses, to offices, or reborn as expensive housing.

For almost all of the rest of the way to Cheltenham the A46 is twisty, not very wide, and climbs in and out of steep valleys cut by the streams descending the Cotswold escarpment (fast water below and sheep higher up being, of course, the reason all these mills were here in the first place). It is easy to see why a main road should originally have been routed this way, to serve the industry; equally easy to see why long-distance heavy traffic is nowadays encouraged to go another way.

Stroud proclaims itself the "Heart of the Five Valleys", though barely have we seen this on the sign than we turn left at a roundabout junction with the A419, pass under the Swindon - Cheltenham railway line which is threading its way through the valley, and are climbing up out of the town again. The houses thin out and the hills become tree-clad. Around Pitchcombe, where the A4173 Gloucester Road diverges, the A46 has a fondness for wanting to slide down the slope into the Painswick Valley on our right. Large-scale "stabilization" works were in progress here in early 2002.

Painswick itself is a stone-built town of the kind that must get hordes of visitors in the summer and is very reminiscent of Winchcombe, further north on the original route of the A46. The main road through the town is narrow enough to require light-controlled alternating one-way traffic.

All of the district we are now passing through is, to judge by the number of brown signs, very much a tourist area, one of the chief attractions being Prinknash Abbey Park which is to our left as we now begin the switchback descent towards Cheltenham. There are excellent views to be had here, out over Gloucester and the Severn valley... by passengers, that is -- this is one of those roads where the driver does well to keep his eyes focussed on the next bend! There are a few laybys, though, where everyone can get out and take a look. Particularly memorable is looking down onto Churchdown Hill (between Gloucester and Cheltenham), as if from an aeroplane, and seeing the ribbon of the M5 slicing through the side of it (if you will allow a ribbon the ability to slice...).

Once down on the flat the last six miles into Cheltenham are a straight run, although first we must cross the A417 on its long tangential journey towards Hope (Hope under Dinmore, Herefordshire, that is) from Streatley on the River Thames. The signing is a little bid odd here: having been directed thus far by indications of "Evesham A46" (even though there is a large gap in the A46 before we reach Evesham), at the crossroads in Brockington with the old A417 the onward sign points only to the new dual-carriageway A417, with the A46 not mentioned at all. Another odd feature is an advance "stacked arrows" sign all white-on-green (although we are not on a primary route) with no patches, no road numbers, and showing local destinations. I've seen another example of this north of Cheltenham, again on a non-primary route. With no yellow route numbers, they look strangely American. Is this a mid-Gloucestershire speciality?

The modern A46 takes one of its breaks at Cheltenham. If our aim were simply to get to Evesham and points beyond as quickly as possible then we should take the A417 west from here, then the M5 north between junctions 11a and 9, to rejoin the A46 from where its present-day, much shifted, course picks up again, at Tewkesbury.

But we will stay faithful to the A46 (as far as it goes) on this section -- and so we enter Cheltenham, "Centre for the Cotswolds". That "for" always seems a little strained to me: a bit like saying "Portsmouth: centre for the Isle of Wight". Low-rise, low-lying, level-grounded Cheltenham (despite the origin of the name: it means "cliff settlement") always seems a pleasant place after the swooping run down from the Cotswold heights. Mistletoe is abundant in almost every tree, of which there are very many. It must be an ideal place for druids. Both the A46 and the A40, which we cross here, are very "braided" routes as they thread their way through the one-way system: sometimes there are three parallel streets, all of which might be, all of which perhaps are the A46. Today the northernmost end of this section of our road (if we are on foot: for we are now proceeding wrong direction in the one-way system!) is at the point where Winchcombe Street (A46) becomes Prestbury Road (B4632), apart from a few yards connecting to the A435 along Clarence Road.

That B4632 leading by way of Winchcombe and Broadway to Stratford upon Avon, is, of course, the original A46. It was never, in practice, though, the main way between Cheltenham and Stratford. Even 40 years ago and more, when I lived in the Stratford area, no-one intending to travel to Cheltenham by road would think of doing other than head for Evesham first, and the original A46 south out of Stratford was and is known locally as the Campden road, since, even though Chipping Campden does not lie on the former A46, that was the road's principal destination. The road from the south, too, is always shown on early maps as heading for Campden, a mediaeval boom town which remained a major economic centre in the region for centuries. Although a climb is necessary in both directions to reach Campden, pre-20th-century maps never show any through road staying down below the escarpment ("subedge", as in the names of local villages) as the later A46 was to do. And that is very evident in the nature of the former A46 as it struggles along between Broadway and Mickleton: very much a cobbled-together collection of local lanes with right-angle bends galore.

Today's A46 resumes at junction 9 of the M5, near Tewkesbury. Of the 53 miles from here to the M6, just two follow the original routing: all the rest is either new construction or instances of the A46 "cuckooing" on roads which formerly had other numbers.

As a first instance of the latter, our road from the M5 follows what were originally, in this direction, the final three miles of the A438 from Wales, heading towards the A435 at Teddington Hands. Our starting-point is Ashchurch: once a four-way railway junction but now the only tracks diverging from the main Birmingham to Bristol line lead into the large army transport depot which lies to the left of our road. It is interesting here to inspect the parked vehicles for evidence of what parts of the world our army has recently been operating in: will we soon see lines of sand-coloured trucks here again?

The A435 is still there, at Teddington Hands, but these days only southbound since there is now a 20-mile gap in that route's itinerary between here and Alcester. Our A46 is the usurper as far as the Evesham bypass. The Hands themselves remain in situ, by the way -- an ornamental stone "fingerpost" with wrought-iron pointers -- but to see them you will have to divert a few yards south along the A435 as the original crossroads lies south of the modern roundabout.

Our northward route towards Evesham is now dominated by the great, brooding whaleback of Bredon Hill to our left. Poetry lovers will know the verses In summer time on Bredon from Housman's A Shropshire Lad -- though we are some way from Shropshire: in fact we have just entered Worcestershire! Much smaller Cotswold outliers can be seen to our right. Make the most of the landscape, because from Evesham to north of Coventry the modern A46 is a fast and busy route, what isn't dual carriageway being that abomination: three-lane-width road marked out as two- lane (encouraging kamikaze drivers from both directions to make simultaneous overtaking bids). Gets you there a whole lot quicker no doubt, but not my kind of road! (I forgot to mention that this section of the A46, from Ashchurch to the M6 is now, of course, all primary.)

We bypass Evesham around its eastern flank, briefly "multiplexing" with the A44 (the A46, though, is top dog according to the signs). Housing developments and trading estates have spread out as far as the bypass in the usual way, "to fill the gap", at least south of the Avon. To our right there still remained "typically Vale of Evesham" fruit farms and market gardens. A recent visit showed, however, that - horrors! - Shedsville has now jumped the cordon sanitaire and warehouses not strawberries are springing up in the fields to the east. We pass beneath, in turn, the B4510 and the Oxford - Worcester railway, then over the River Avon by the Simon de Montfort Bridge -- apparently he fought a battle at Evesham before going on to set up a university in Leicester (or have I got that wrong?).

We now set off on a new dual-carriageway alignment constructed between the old Evesham - Stratford road via Bidford (was A439, now B439) and the River Avon until, upon reaching the eastern end of Salford Priors (where we cut across the old road at a roundabout), we strike off northwards towards Alcester, following a route along the valley of the Arrow previously occupied only by a long-gone railway. We are now in "Shakespeare's county" although the sign welcoming us to Warwickshire has recently been replaced, for some reason, by one announcing our entry into the domains of Stratford on Avon District Council.

Just south of Alcester, we allow the road ahead to regain its A435 number and, just as at Teddington, we pinch that of another road for the next leg of our journey, for which we turn right. The former A422 (that number not appearing again until Stratford) is both a Roman road and an ancient "saltway" (from Droitwich). Halfway to Stratford it charges straight up a ridge in typically Roman fashion, and at the top is... something else.

A few years back (well, 40 or so -- I'm dating myself again here), Coventry Fire Brigade decided that "fire-engine red" had become so common a colour that its appliances no longer stood out when attempting to speed through congested traffic (old playground joke: "Why are fire engines red?" / "Because they're always rushin'"), and so they adopted a particularly vile greeny-yellow which they figured no-one else would ever willingly wish to adorn anything with. Well, they were wrong because at Red Hill, half way between Alcester and Stratford, is a pub (called The Stag, I believe, though that may have changed) painted in exactly that shade of bilious puke yellow. Going east, it's on the right: you can't miss it, but you'll probably wish you had.

As at Alcester, at Stratford we turn off just before hitting the town. Our northeastward route is new construction again, though the four mile section between the roundabout junctions with the A3400 and the A439 is largely superimposed on former unclassified roads. That A439 is the old A46 from Stratford towards Warwick, and we have finally met up again with the original route of the A46... but only for two miles, because at Longbridge (M40 junction 15) we leave it again to follow the Warwick and Kenilworth bypass: the oldest new construction on this leg of the A46.

Our road is four-lane dual carriageway until the A428 junction north of Warwick, from which point it is six-lane to Coventry. Neither this or any of the remaining stretch towards the M6 is really a sight-seeing road; noteworthy, though, is that before Coventry we pass turn offs for the National Agricultural Showground at Stoneleigh (I once met an American who said he was on his way there from Texas to take a look at... straw) and Warwick University (actually much nearer to Coventry).

To remain with the A46 we must take a sliproad off before hitting Coventry proper and turn right to follow the A45 eastwards for a mile or two before our road becomes the curving Coventry eastern bypass (which intersects the A428 but bridges the former A427). Approaching journey's end on this stretch the A46 ahead becomes the M69, but if we take the "non-motorway traffic" option the sliproad takes us down to a for-now needless roundabout (installed in anticipation of future road developments), then up again to the roundabout over the M6 (junction 2).

Here, coming in from our left is the old A46 again, now renumbered A4600. But it is the end of the A46 until M1 junction 21a west of Leicester. Worldly wisdom has it that we should bridge that gap using the M69, but if, like me, you are tired by now of fast, multi-lane driving, then follow my advice: shun the M69 and take the old A46. They've renumbered it B4065 / B4029 / B4065 (again) / B4109 / unclassified / B4114 now, just to confuse us, but apart from a twisty mile or two at the start it's that glorious phenomenon: a downgraded trunk road -- all the pleasures of a main road without any of the matching traffic. Enjoy!

Viator

Section 3: M1 J21a - Cleethorpes
The present A46 has two gaps where it is supplanted by the M5 and the M69/M1. This itinerary covers the section north east from the M1 gap.

The first section is the new Leicester northern bypass from the M1 at the limited-access Junction 21a Kirby Muxloe. There is a link here by the B5380 to the A47. The A46 and A47 both used to run roughly parallel south west from here to the A5, but with the arrival of the M69 the A46 was renumbered as the B4114.

We, however, are heading in the other direction, to grade separated junctions with the A50, A5630 (link road to the A563 ring road – Krefeld Way), crossing the Great Central Steam railway and a junction with the A6, before crosiing the River Soar and then meeting the A607 Syston bypass. In fact, before the link road from the M1 was built, this part of the A607 was itself previously numbered A46, although even that was not the original route of the A46.

Near the north end of the bypass the A607 turns off east to rejoin its own original route at Queniborough, on its way to Melton Mowbray, Grantham and Lincoln. We shall see it again.

Ratcliffe on the Wreake is significant, as it is here that the A46 finally resumes its original route which, apart from about two miles just south of the M40, it has been parted from since Cheltenham. Its original route from Cheltenham is followed by the B4632, A439, A46, A429, A4600, B4065, B4114, A5460 and A607.

It is also here that it is re-united with a much more ancient route. The Roman Fosse Way runs right across the country from Bath to Lincoln. (In fact the Fosse Way starts back at Exeter). However, from Bath both the original and present A46 took a much more westerly route, for most of its length followed by the present A429 and B4455. The original A46, now the B4114, picked up the Fosse Way near the Watling Street (A5) junction, but the present route does not join it until the end of the Syston bypass.

The A46 now continues, still as dual carriageway, across the B676 (Six Hills junction) and the A6006, to reach the junction with the A606 Melton Mowbray to Nottingham road. Just before this junction, we pass under the Old Dalby railway line, which has been used for experimental work for many years, including testing the experimental tilting Advanced Passenger Train. Much more recently it has been used by Bombardier for testing the first tilting trains to go into regular service in the UK (we hope) – Virgin’s "Pendolino"s.

The A606 marks the end of the dual carriageway section. A sharp kink in the road as it breasts the brow of a hill marks a change of course to the north east, insteadof the northerly course the Roman road has followed from Leicester. This deviation from the straight line allows the Roamn Road to follow the high ground between the Trent and the Vale of Belvoir. The change of direction at the brow of a hill is typical of Roman surveying techniques, which were done largely by line of sight.

The road now runs almost dead straight to Lincoln, deviating only for a couple of bypasses. It crosses the A52 Nottingham – Grantham road at Bingham, and the A6097 (the lowest crossing of the Trent before Newark) near East Bridgeford.

Newark is now bypassed to the west, crossing the Trent twice, with a junction with the A617 at the point where the old Great North Road (now the A616) crosses it, close to the castle where James VI of Scotland spent the night on his way to claim the English crown. The bypass then follows the Nottingham to Lincoln railway, providing a grandstand view of the flat crossing of that railway with the East Coast main line. The western (A46) bypass then cuts across to the junction of the original A46 with the A1 Newark eastern bypass. This is a six way junction – as well as the A1 and A46, which rejoins its original route coming out of Newark (now the B6166) the A17 now starts here, to avoid Coddington on its original route. A short stretch of dual carriageway to Winthorpe and the A1133, which follows the Trent to Gainsborough, and now we come to the most dangerous section.

Like the A15 to the north of Lincoln, this section of the A46 has a poor reputation for safety. Although it lacks the hidden dips of the A15, it is much busier as it is the main route out of Lincoln for the midlands and the south (those in the know head south on the A607). Its low-lying topography and proximity to the River Trent also make it prone to fog. Plans to dual it have been around for at least 25 years, but now at last it is actually happening!

On the eastern skyline can be seen the Lincoln Ridge, with the A607 that we last saw at Ratcliffe-on-the-Wreake running along the cliff top towards Lincoln. Sadly, we will never actually meet it. At the Notts/Lincs border, on the brow of a low hill, we leave the Trent’s catchment area and enter that of the Witham, which drains into the Wash by way of a gap in the Lincoln Ridge at Lincoln. Not far beyond this, and the Halfway House Hotel, we reach the roundabout which marks the start of the Lincoln bypass.

Carl Birkett writes:

The section of the A46 between Winthorpe Roundabout at Newark and the Lincoln bypass has now been converted to a dual-carriageway. There is now a roundabout at the Halfway House pub near Swinderby. The small Roman village of Brough has now got a new by-pass around the west of it. It is now dual-carriageway all the way from Newark to the suburbs of Lincoln. The work was completed 4 months early.

The original A1434 continues on the Fosse Way to Bracebridge, from where the Roman Road multiplexed with the Roman Ermine Street (London to York) through the city. The A46 similarly multiplexed with the A15 up the hill and past the cathedral to Northgate, before parting company with it near the Roman east gate and heading out of town as Nettleham Road, part of which is now the B1182. (More details of the road history of Lincoln can be found on my A15 account.)

The bypass crosses junctions with the B1190 and B1378 (the latter upgraded from a C-road on completion of the bypass) before entering its only dual carriageway section to cross.This has spectacular views of the city on its hill, especially the three-towered cathedral – once topped by three spires which doubled its height and made it the tallest building in the world. Even after the central spire blew down in the 16th century, it was another three centuries before anything taller would be built.

The bypass crosses the Foss Dyke canal (also Roman, but not to be confused with the Fosse Way), the roundabout for the A57 (nearing the end of its own cross country marathon from Liverpool), and up the hill, passing under the B1398 cliff road to Scunthorpe without an interchange, and rising through a deep cutting to meet the A15 (the Roman Ermine Street) on its way to the Humber.

The A46 and A15 now continue as a single carriageway multiplex to the next junction, where the A46 rejoins its original route (although a sharp pair of bends have been eliminated), on its way to nettleham, Welton, Dunholme, and on past some sharp right angled bends (a totso with a cart track!) which suggest that the route was of no major significance before it acquired a number in 1922. Arriving at a Totso with the A631 Gainsborough to Louth road at Middle Rasen, the road then skirts Market Rasen, and turns north at another totso (with the B1202) to skirt the Lincolnshire Wolds -– the second and higher range of hills crossing north Lincolnshire from north to south. These are chalk, unlike the Lincoln Ridge which is limestone.

Crossing a low point in the Wolds at the Roman town of Caistor, the A46 meets the A1084 from Brigg and the A1173 to Stallingborough.

I have not been to Grimsby for many years, but my recollection is that the A46 and A18 used to both enter Grimsby from the south west. However, the A46 now meets the A18 at Laceby, and meets the A16 in the southern outskirts of Grimsby, before finally making it to the seaside at Cleethorpes, at a junction with the A180 and A1098 near the railway station.

Thus ends the A46 - the only A road to run clear across four zones, from the A4 at Bath to the North Sea coast at Cleethorpes - from a Roman holiday resort to a 19th and 20th Century one.

Tim