A4500

Near Duston

The A4500 follows the original line of the A45 through Northampton. The section east of the town centre gained the number on construction of the A45 Northampton bypass. The western section only became the A4500 when the A45 was rerouted to multiplex with the M1 in the 2000s.

The road starts at J16 of the M1, where the A45 starts its multiplex with the motorway. We head east as primary D2 and make quick progress for the first couple of miles. Presently we reach the edge of Northampton and a roundabout. At one time the A45 turned right here along what is now the A5076 southwestern bypass. The unclassified northwestern bypass also meets us here.

The A4500 continues ahead. It's still dual to the next roundabout which serves a retail park but then the road narrows and soon becomes residential. There's a complicated signalised junction with an unclassified road from Duston, then we continue east along Weedon Road and meet the two branches of the A428 at consecutive sets of traffic lights. That road now serves the north of the town centre whilst we head for the south. After going over the railway line by the station we bear right onto St Peter's Way, the town centre relief road (the original line of the A45 was ahead onto the now-unclassified Marefair).

We follow the D2 St Peter's Way and soon reach a roundabout on the A508 and A5123, and start a multiplex with both (apparently the A5123 number is dominant). At the next junction we bear left to go round three sides of a gyratory, after which the A508 continues south. Westbound A5123 traffic simply follows the fourth side. he road loses primary status here and continues anticlockwise around the town centre. Getting back to the A4500 isn't easy. We reach traffic lights on Abington Street (back on the old A45) where we want to turn right but we're required to turn left.

If we head east on Abington Street we soon reach a roundabout with All Nations Church in the middle, which is where the A5123 and A4500 finally separate. We continue east along Wellingborough Road, which is briefly D2 until we reach the A4501 at traffic lights. The road then bends gently round to the left to the suburb of Abington. On reaching the park we are forced to turn left at traffic lights to reach a roundabout where we meet the A5095 and A5101 and turn right, still alongside the park to begin with.

After passing through Weston Favell we cross the A43 at a GSJ which has no southbound offslip. There's then a retail park and a brief semi-rural section leading to the eastern suburbs. The A5076 is crossed at a roundabout and soon after this we finally re-enter open country.

The road climbs to Ecton, then crosses a valley to pass to the north of Earls Barton, which is served by the B573 which we meet at traffic lights. There's a brief dual section as we cross the next valley, after which the road winds through the village of Wilby. On the far side of the village centre newer houses line the road as far as the next roundabout, on the A509 Wellingborough bypass, where the A4500 ends. The A5128 now follows the line of the former A45 into town.

An amended OpenStreetMap trace for this route awaits uploading to the SABRE Wiki.