A453

Route

The A453 is a road in two parts and several sections, ranging from urban to rural trunk.

Section 1: Birmingham – Tamworth

The road starts at Perry Barr. The A34 being the recommended north-south route in the area, and the A4040 being the recommended east-west route in the area, and the "One-Stop" shopping centre being the most popular in the area, what hope have you got? Somewhere among this lot is the rather complex junction with the A453, which has slips onto the A34 and onto the A34/A4040 island. At first the road (a dual carriageway) is called Aldridge Road, until that name TOTSOs at the M6 motorway bridge and the A453 becomes College Road, named after Oscott Roman Catholic Seminary at the top of the hill. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. As soon as the road starts we hit the first lights, for Wellhead Lane, opposite Perry Barr Greyhound Stadium. Another 500 yards brings us to Perry Bridge, an ancient road bridge which is no longer used, a new bridge having been built a few yards to the east. Perry parish church is here just off to the left, alongside Perry Park, home of the Alexander athletics stadium. The road changes direction from north to north-east as it passes under the motorway, crosses the canal and the dual carriageway B4138 forks off to the left towards Lichfield. There are two islands, one set of lights and a hill to slow you down a bit on the next two miles through the council estates of Perry Common.

Heading towards Tamworth from Bassets Pole

The dual carriageway ends at the signalled junction with the A452, and as we cross we enter the Boldmere district of Sutton Coldfield and the house prices double. The road is now called Jockey Road; the B4149 comes in from the left and the B4142 goes out to the right. Jockey Road ends at Birmingham Road - A5127 (the former A38) - and the A453 turns left and duplexes with it through the centre of Sutton. Part of the duplex is a one-way inner ring road. The A453 parts company with the A5127 at a signalled junction (its start until 1935), the A453 going right as Tamworth Road. After a mile the B4148 arrives from the south and we enter the countryside. Soon we pass over the M6 Toll and arrive at Bassett's Pole, the busy roundabout where the A453, A38 and A446 meet. Outside the eponymous pub you can see the fingerpost from the pre-roundabout days. Here we enter Staffordshire, the A453 becomes primary, and also dual carriageway again for a mile or so, until we pass the end of the B4151. There are two miles of pleasant countryside before the traffic lights at the junction with the B5404 (the former A5, Roman road) at Mile Oak. We pass over the A5 soon after; there are west-facing entry and exit slips. The entry slip is off an island which also serves the (original) B5404. We're now on non-primary Bonehill Road and it's less than two miles to the centre of Tamworth and the end of the road. But first there are three islands, the third one being the A51, and a short stretch of dual carriageway which includes a junction with the A4091 and a bridge over the same River Tame we crossed near the start. The end is the huge A51/A513/A453/B5000 Ankerdrive island (which has 5 roundabouts on it), on the south side of which is a hangar-like structure which conceals Tamworth's indoor ski slope. The A453 disappears here.

Section 2: Tonge – M1

Today the A453 resumes its route some 20 miles to the north-east, at the A42 Tonge junction, which has limited access only from the south (geographic west). After a short sweep bypassing the village (contemporary with the A42 road) the A453 comes to the T junction with the old route where it is necessary to give way and turn right to be back on track. To the left is Breedon church, perched high on a half-quarried hill, and after a few tight bends the road begins its approach to Donington Park racing circuit. Although the modern road continues straight on at the rural traffic lights, a recommended detour is to turn left along the old A453 and, having first visited the racing cars in “The Donington Collection”, drive round the west end of the airport runway to see a variety of historic aircraft parked in the museum on the right. The short section between the old A447 junction (the Breedon turn) and where the road to Castle Donington leaves is the only section east of Tamworth where the A453 is on its original alignment.

Back on the modern A453, a small roundabout serves the airport's freight area and, half a mile further are the traffic lights at the entrance to East Midlands Airport. Another roundabout serves more commercial development, leading on to another roundabout at the Donington Park services. This fast and tight island leads to the service area to the right, and slip roads on to the M1 southbound (junction 23A) and the A42 dual carriageway. The first exit is the A453, now a primary route once again, going north to the M1 junction 24 interchange.

A new roundabout was constructed in 2017/18 for access to a new rail freight terminal and also the A6 Kegworth bypass.

Having now reached the large roundabout over the M1, on the diagonal of this ‘squareabout’ begins the next section of the road towards Nottingham.

Section 3: M1 – Nottingham ("Remembrance Way")

Ratcliffe power station pre-dualling

This section of the A453, recently upgraded to a dual carriageway which opened in July 2015, is the only route linking Nottingham to the M1 which is entirely dual carriageway or four lane single carriageway.

The improved section is named "Remembrance Way" in honour of the 453 British servicemen who died in the Afghanistan war.

Leaving the motorway the route is initially dualled "online" and the first junction is for Kingston and Ratcliffe on Soar, the power station and the East Midlands Parkway railway station. The power station is then passed to the south, before the next junction to West Leake, where the A453 is first joined by a local access road. The improvement is then "offline" to the south of the original road, which now serves as the local access road.

The next junction is with the Park and Ride for Mill Hill and NET phase 2 meaning you can park here and travel into the centre of Nottingham on the tram, when it opens. The local access road also ends here and we are back on the original alignment.

From Mill Hill, the A453 is a four lane single carriageway through Clifton and carries a 40 mph speed limit. The next roundabout is the Crusader Island, providing a connection to the south side of Clifton (and another way to the park and ride) and further still Gotham), and is named after a Hungry Horse pub at the roundabout. Continuing into Nottingham, we pass a new service area which has a Tesco Express and filling station (which was there pre-dualling) and a new McDonalds and KFC. The services are only accessible for southbound traffic, so other traffic has to do a U-turn at one of the adjacent roundabouts. The next roundabout is for Clifton Village and Clifton itself continuing on to Ruddington, and is built over the old Clifton Green junction. Continuing on we pass the Clifton campus of Nottingham Trent University (again, only accessible for inbound traffic) and then meet the final roundabout at Fabis Drive, to access the north of Clifton.

All three of the roundabouts on the urban phase are controlled by traffic signals.

Following this, we briefly join the old dual carriageway linking the road to the A52 at Clifton Bridge, the first interchange is at Silverdale Interchange. The A453 joins the A52 here to cross the river, and then leaves on a flyover over the A52 joining into Queens Drive from the left at the Queens Drive Roundabout junction.

Queens Drive is no longer primary and takes the A453 into the centre of Nottingham around the west and north of the Meadows estate terminating on the A6008 and A6005 near the Broad Marsh centre.

History

The original A453 in Long Eaton (1954)

The A453 ran originally from Sutton Coldfield to Wollaton Park (west of Nottingham), via Tamworth, Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Long Eaton. Many changes to its route have occurred over the past eighty years. The Chilwell bypass, quaintly named "Bye Pass Road" opened in 1929, then the Beeston bypass in 1933.

The 1930s saw some improvement, notably around its junction with the A6 near Cavendish Bridge. In 1935 the road was extended from Sutton Coldfield south-west to the A34 at Perry Barr (taking over the B4139) and a short section of the road through Sutton town centre was subsumed under the A38. The road was also diverted at its northern end and first shown on the 1936 OS Ten Mile map. From the Beeston bypass the new route followed University Boulevard (opened 1924) and Abbey Bridge in Lenton (opened 1928) to follow Castle Boulevard to finish in Nottingham city centre.

The motorway era, and the arrival of the M1 at Kegworth in 1965, brought no direct changes to the A453, although the volume of traffic in the area would have been markedly affected. A new road, built circa 1970 from junction 24 of the M1 and striking out north-east towards Barton Lodge and Clifton Bridge in Nottingham, was temporarily numbered the A648.

By 1978 it had been renumbered the A453, with the old road north of the Trent through Long Eaton becoming the B6540 and A6005. Also by this time the A5129, which ran south of, and served, East Midlands Airport was connected to the M1 junction 24 to become part of the A453, thus bypassing Castle Donington entirely.

The now unclassified former A453 in Breedon on the Hill

Further south, completion of the Sutton Coldfield (A38) bypass circa 1972 saw the old A38 through the town becoming the A5127, despite sharing some of its length with the ‘superior’ A453. In the 1970s and 1980s, extensive development of Tamworth in the ‘new town’ style saw a mass of road building including a new A5 bypass. By 1995 the A453 met the A5 dual carriageway at a grade-separated junction and, a little nearer the town, via a large roundabout and a full trumpet junction before halting at the Ankerdrive island described above.

Elsewere, the North-West Leicestershire area was to benefit from an extension of the M42 to Nottingham. Well, perhaps that was the original idea, but by the late 1980s the scheme had shrunk to a free flow ‘trunk’ dual carriageway with access to the M1 south of Kegworth. The A453 disappeared between Tamworth and Ashby with the completion of the A42 and was then cut back to Tonge (taking over a short section of A447) a few years later.

The 2004 Ordnance Survey Landranger map sheet 128 indicated that a number of 'B' roads in the National Forest area had been declassified since the previous edition, including the B5006 and B5003 from the A42 at Willesley south of Ashby to the A511 north of the town.

Widening

In 2004, the Highways Agency published plans to widen the A453 from the M1 to the A52 Nottingham. "The proposed scheme, costing about £90 million, is to widen the A453 to dual carriageway between the M1 and the Crusader roundabout on the approach to Clifton, and to four-lane single carriageway through Clifton from the Crusader roundabout to Farnborough Road, at the start of the A52 Nottingham Ring Road" (HA website). More information can be found here:[1] and documents here:[2]. Work began in January 2013 and the road was officially opened on 20 July 2015.

Links

• Roads.org.uk: Widening

National Highways

• Highways England: Post Opening Project Evaluation - A453 Widening M1 J24 to A52 (1 Year After)  August 2017 (archive.org)