The A262 is a rural A-road in south Kent, forming the central section of the route from Ashford to Tunbridge Wells.
Route
Towards Goudhurst
The A262 leaves the A28 just north of Tenterden. This first section of the road is actually the former A2009; the A262 originally followed the now-unclassified north side of this triangle.
The scenery remains flat and fairly unremarkable for the first few miles to Biddenden, which is reached following a sharp bend to the right. It is in this picturesque village the road TOTSOs left, leaving the A274 to continue ahead to Maidstone. The A262 forms the restaurant-lined High Street and winds past the church back out to pastoral land. There are a few sharp bends and a short wooded section before we reach Sissinghurst, a smaller village comprising a single main street.
After a roundabout with the A229, the road is wider and straighter, becoming more hesitant before Goudhurst, a charming village which successfully contorts the road around its churchyard before narrowing it to single-file to descend as the High Street. The view across the rolling Wealden Hills dotted with oast-houses is stunning.
From the dip at the bottom, the road climbs steadily and purposefully for another few miles until meeting the A21 Lamberhurst bypass, a couple of miles south of Pembury. The A21 to the right is actually the original western end of the A262.
Section in Ashford?
The OS Landranger First Series Revision A from 1974 shows the former A20 through Ashford as being a section of A262. Whilst the thought of a long multiplex with A28 is tempting, it is far more likely that this is simply a mapping error for A292, a number that road has held since the opening of the bypass in the mid-1950s.
_N_Chadwick_-_Geograph_-_2972222.jpg)
