A44 Oxford to Chipping Norton

[MK Tom]

I've taken to making British road videos lately, in the style of 'Freewayjim' and other American producers. In December I filmed the section of the A44 from Oxford to Chipping Norton:


(forgive the initially high camera angle which is fixed fairly early on)

I found this particularly interesting because of the section of dual carriageway between Kidlington and Woodstock. The rest of the route (and the A44 at large) is a typical single carriageway rural trunk road, but this one 4-mile section seems to have been upgraded in the 1950s. There are several roundabouts and junctions along that section and the inbound carriageway reduces to one lane before each roundabout.

I have no idea why this upgrade was done, or why nothing else followed, but it does leave a very interesting floating section of mostly 50mph dual carriageway disconnected from the rest of the network.

[Chris Bertram]

It's 50 now, but was formerly NSL with less hatching. It *could* be joined up to Peartree, but there is a railway bridge just south of Yarnton that would need to be replaced, and I suspect that this was considered too expensive way back when (there's also a bridge over the Oxford Canal, but in the 50's that could well have been replaced by a flat bridge if the canal had been considered disused, this being before the canal network became a leisure resource). Extension to the north would require bypassing Woodstock - to the east, obviously, imagine the horror of trying to plough through the Blenheim Palace estate. And with the main Oxford-Birmingham route having moved to M40, there would be no economic case for it today.

[PeterA5145]

I have no idea why this upgrade was done, or why nothing else followed, but it does leave a very interesting floating section of mostly 50mph dual carriageway disconnected from the rest of the network.

It was part of the A34 then, so a much more important link in the road network than it is now. There are plenty of these isolated sections of dual carriageway built in the 30s, 50s and 60s around - two similar ones that spring to mind are the A30 between Sherborne and Yeovil, and the A3090 (ex A31) south of Romsey. I think there's a thread about them somewhere.

[KeithW]

Thanks for the video , it took me back to the mid 80's when I first drove it on my way from Harrow to Blenheim Palace.

I always assumed the Kidlington section was upgraded because of the airport. Its hard to credit now but in the late 1960's it was the second busiest airport in England handling over 220,000 aircraft movements a year, Heathrow was handling 240,000 at the time. The arrival of heavier aircraft and opening of new regional airports such as Stansted and Luton seem to have rapidly eroded the holiday/charter flight business. While it could handle piston engined and turboprop aircraft such as the DC-3, Handley Page Dart, Vickers Viscount and Vanguard the runway was just too short for the heavier jets such as the Comet and 707 which were being bought by charter airlines second hand from the major airlines in the 60's

[Johnathan404]

I've been looking at some maps and they appear to show that the section between Yarnton and Begbroke was widened in 1937, and between Begbroke and Woodstock was done in the early 1950s. It's hard to be sure as the boundary fences were set back from the road, especially around King's Bridge (the canal crossing).

[NICK 647063]

Just one thing to correct you on is that the A44 isn’t a trunk road here anymore, it was detrunked and is now under the control of the local highways authority.

[Jonathan B4027]

Pretty sure there was a level crossing just north of Peartree for the chord line from Bicester to the Worcester line, I don't think it was ever a bridge there. Woodstock was often chasing a bypass but the M40 pretty much solved that.

[Johnathan404]

Pretty sure there was a level crossing just north of Peartree for the chord line from Bicester to the Worcester line, I don't think it was ever a bridge there. Woodstock was often chasing a bypass but the M40 pretty much solved that.

Yes, it was called Woodstock Road Crossing and was there until the railway was removed, even after the first Peartree Roundabout opened. The Yarnton railway bridge is still a problem but I should think the real reason it wasn't dualled was that there wasn't perceived to be enough space around the Cassington Lane junction.