A47: Great Yarmouth - Birmingham

Section 1: Great Yarmouth - Peterborough
I'll start on the east coast as that's the section I'm most familiar with. The A47 starts on the Yarmouth western bypass although when it was built in the '80's this was numbered as part of the A12. It then runs in a dead straight line (Acle New Road) across Halvergate Marshes until it reaches a bend to the right with a left turn to Halvergate village and a pub (Stracey Arms?) on the corner. It then continues straight again to Acle, bypassed in the '80's by a dual carriageway. There's a junction here on a roundabout with the A1064, the old road from Yarmouth to Acle.

Single carriageway again past North Burlingham then it becomes the Blofield bypass, dual carriageway from here, flowing into the Norwich bypass (early '90's). It's free flowing with intersections for the A140, A146 and A11. This section ends at a roundabout at Easton then it's single carriageway again bypassing Honingham and Hockering ('70's?). The next newish section is the North Tuddenham bypass (1992), dual carriageway again which flows into the East Dereham bypass (1978). I lived here for 18 years (how sad!) The dual carriageway stops shortly after the intersection with the A1075 and the rest of the bypass past Scarning and Wendling is a dead straight wide concrete single carriageway built on the route of an old railway line.

It continues past Necton then bypasses Swaffham (1981). This is initially single carriageway then dual with an intersection for the A1065. The Swaffham bypass ends at a roundabout with the A1122 (built to replace a notorious right turn across the dual carriageway) then it's back to single carriageway until the Hardwick roundabout at Kings Lynn where it meets the A10 and A149. The Kings Lynn bypass is a '70's construction I think and I believe that the long awaited flyovers are finally being built, the earthworks being in place since its construction.

At the end of the KL bypass there's a roundabout. The A47 turns left and the A17 goes straight ahead (orig. ran to Swaffham).Another section of dual carriageway was constructed in 1994/5 to bypass a few villages and this runs into the single carriageway Wisbech bypass (early '80's). We're well and truly into flat Fenland now and continue to Guyhirn (recently bypassed) and turn right at a roundabout for the next stretch to Peterborough.

nightdriver

Section 2: Peterborough - Nuneaton
Our journey west continues at what is J20 in the Peterborough intersection-numbering scheme: where the A47 crosses the A15. Just over 2km (sorry, I mean about a mile and a half or so) later, at J18, we cross over the A15. Giving the same number to two roads, even when (especially when?) one forks directly off the other is (I realize since joining SABRE) far more common than you would think and no doubt the authorities have their reasons; to me, though, the practice is still forking daft.

Once upon a time the A47 passed close to Peterborough Cathedral, offering the first blessed vertical relief to eyes grown somewhat bleary from the voyage across the long horizontals of the Fens; nowadays it sweeps around the northern side of the city mostly in tree-lined cutting so that you hardly see even a house. At J15 we leave the Peterborough ring road system behind (its constituent parts are called "such-and-such Parkway" but I think you have to have been born in the city to know the names because they’re not written up anywhere).

Our route westwards continues on a splendid dual carriageway with grade-separated crossings… which grinds to a halt (in a shower of flying clichés) at a little roundabout 4 miles further on. The next mile and a half to the A1 junction is poorly aligned single carriageway which sees frequent accidents (and the employment of that little roundabout to turn traffic round and send it back to Peterborough: the only other alternative is a narrow lane where two tractors meeting would mean total gridlock). Just before that island, though, you might care to look out for where Ermine Street crosses, running SE-NW (the A1 has abandoned it at this point: the Roman road is just an extra-wide hedge).

We bridge the A1 at Wansford (the A47 on a more northerly, the A1 on a more easterly, alignment than when they were first numbered). The intersections here, which were as far as the A47 was concerned, plain T- and X-junctions (and highly dangerous) have recently been replaced by roundabouts at each end of the bridge. The dual carriageway between the two extremities of the overbridge retains its 60 mph speed limit, which seems a bit pointless for a section no more than 200 yds long but I suppose there are some idiots who would otherwise try to do 70 there.

It’s single carriageway now (with the odd crawler-lane) all the way to Nuneaton. From Wansford to Duddington roundabout (A43) we cross the low ridge between the Nene and Welland valleys. Much of the land to the left is given over to quarrying; to the right is Wittering RAF base from which low-flying Harrier jump-jets sometimes hover alarmingly close to the road (if I stop and he stops will I get fried?).

At Duddington we cross the Welland and are in Rutland ("Magnum in Parvo" say the signs: a lot in a little). From here to Leicester the A47 is in large part a ridgeway and there are some good views to be had on fine days. In particular look out, after climbing the hill beyond Tixover, for the Harringworth railway viaduct down in the valley to your left – especially when driving into the evening sun. At Morcott (after the windmill) the B672/A6121 Caldecott – Stamford road crosses in a dogleg. Old maps show this was once a plain crossroads, with the present B672 passing the other side of the houses on the south side of the A47.

The Rugby – Stamford railway line once crossed our route here too, in a tunnel underneath Morcott crossroads. Up the hill, just before entering the village of Glaston, the line we might have seen crossing that vidauct earlier passes beneath the A47 (excavation/ventilation shaft -- and spoil heap which they clearly never did get around to moving! – in a field to the left). This railway is still open but sees only occasional passenger traffic (Leicester – London) during Sunday diversions.

The A47 next skirts Uppingham (very few places remain unbypassed on this section of the A47, which means that roadside hostelries are few and far between!). We cross the A6003 Kettering – Oakham road, shortly after which there is a steep descent past Wardley, now on a dead end but formerly on a loop off the narrower and twistier, alignment of the old A47. This tiny village, it seems, once suffered from car drivers attempting to overtake slow-moving lorries on the main road by diverting through it at high speed!

Crossing the Eye Brook (don’t blink, or you’ll miss it) we enter Leicestershire and begin climbing again, past East Norton (bypassed), Tugby, and Skeffington (unusual signs here which flash a warning when a vehicle is approaching the junction, on the inside of a blind bend, between the side road to the village itself and the main road). Some 35 miles or so since leaving Peterborough we now reach the summit of the section, at around 200m above sea level, and cross the Jurassic Way (at this point occupied by the present-day B6047 Market Harborough – Melton Mowbray road). So far all the streams we have encountered have run towards the Wash (via Welland and Nene); from now any water on our road will reach the North Sea by way of the Trent and its tributaries…

After Billesdon, bypassed and unseen on our left, and Houghton on the Hill, then Thurnby our route is now largely a descent into the Leicester maelstrom. Several turnings to the left hold out the temptation of clever ways of avoiding Leicester itself, but believe me: you’ll get lost every time! (Whichever highways department is responsible for around here has perfected the black art of signposting routes in such a way as to kill the very idea that there is such a thing as a short cut – you’ll go out of your mind thinking "but it worked in the other direction".)

Although it once went straight through the middle of the city via "Leicester’s Piccadilly Circus", the Clock Tower (I once saw -- I must try and remember where -- a photograph of very "continental"-looking pre-war signposts at this junction) the A47 now dies temporarily at its junction with the A594 Leicester Inner Ring Road.

When born again on the other side of Leicester, the A47 is no longer "primary", its function of serving Birmingham having now been taken over by the M69, M6, and other M-strosities… With no more than half a dozen bounds, including the junctionless crossing of the M1, our hero is once again free and traversing the now rather flatter Leicestershire countryside, Hinckley-bound.

After crossing the B582 (who says London has all the best 3-digit B roads?), we approach Earl Shilton, looking, to my eyes, rather continental on its hill, though the A47 seems to take its time making its mind up about whether it really wants to go there as it wanders about rather alarmingly (with minor-road side options) before finally deciding to go for it. It would seem, though, that the inhabitants would rather it didn’t: the town remains unbypassed.

Shortly after the B581 turn (another proud 3-digitter, and I live along that one), the A47 strikes off on a new course: the Hinckley bypass, with a junction midway with the A447 (pace Paul Berry, this is a very essential road if you want to go from Hinckley to Coalville: admittedly, you’d be more likely to want to do it in the other direction). Look out, when cresting the hill just after the second roundabout beyond the A447 junction, for the biggest of the “Warwickshire pyramids” (old mining spoil-tips) across the valley: at 2 o’clock in Biggles-speak. You’ll pass right by this if you decide to follow the “old A47” (A4114) beyond Nuneaton.

The final part of the Hinckley bypass is, in fact, an industrial estate road which was there before the bypass was built (accident or design?). After that we dogleg (roundabout) right - (T-junction) left across Watling Street (the A5 and the Leics/Warks boundary) and head for Nuneaton along the road called "The Long Shoot". And so, at Nuneaton -- the "Birmingham bit" (which has moved twice in recent years) notwithstanding -- we reach (at the A444) the end of the continuous A47.

Beyond Nuneaton – yea, even further than Coleshill (a bourne from which few have returned with wits totally intact) -- I have (this very day) boldly gone in search of the elusive "lost A47"… But as I’ve already written not only far more than I intended tonight but oodles more, probably, than was strictly necessary, I will leave it to the Waylords of SABRE to decide whether they wish to hear of my "Adventures West of the Anker", including "Last Stand at Fort Dunlop, or Under the Belly of the M6" and "My Encounter with the Old Chester Road".

Viator

Section 3: Nuneaton - Birmingham
Beyond Nuneaton, most of the original A47 to Birmingham has been reclassified as the B4114. However, the A47 mysteriously pops up again at Castle Bromwich in Birmingham, just north of M6 junction 5, at a junction with the A452. Here the road is dual carriageway and non-primary, running slightly north of its original route. As the "Fort Parkway" it curves slightly to the right to run adjacent to the railway and M6, coming to the A4040 roundabout where it crosses beneath the M6. At the B4137 roundabout at Nechells it bends to the left, becoming the "Heartlands Parkway" running alongside the Grand Union Canal to Saltley, where it finally rejoins its original route - the B4114 ends here. The final section runs along Saltley Road and the Nechells Parkway, across the A4540 Middleway, and along Jennens Road to the junction with the A4400 Queensway or inner ring road.

Guy