A4071

This article is about the present A4071 near Rugby, Warwickshire.
For the original A4071 in Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, see A4071 (Carmarthenshire).

Route

The A4071 runs from the A45 at Dunsmore Heath to the A426 to the immediate north of Rugby town centre.

The road starts at a GSJ on the A45 known as Blue Boar, after the services on the westbound side. The services takes the name from a farm which was previously in that general location.

Rugby Western Relief Road on opening day 29.06.10, looking towards the Bilton Lane junction

From this point on, the road has recently been given a 50 mph speed limit, where it previously was national speed limit. It passes fields either side, and meets a couple of houses at Potford's Dam. From a new roundabout here the route travels along the new-build Rugby Western Relief Road which was opened on 10th September 2010. This follows the route of the former LNWR Rugby to Leamington branch line, although very little is actually on the track bed.

Continuing north, the new road meets Cawston Grange Drive at a roundabout, providing access to the residential development at Cawston, and then a signalised junction with Bilton Lane (although it was previously planned to cut off Bilton Lane completely). The road crosses a stream and meets the A428 Lawford Road at a signalised junction.

On the far side the A4071 follows the previously existing Parkfield Road under the Rugby to Birmingham railway line, leaving that road at the next roundabout. A new bridge over the West Coast Main Line is then crossed (the old Parkfield Road bridge has been demolished and that road now leaves at a LILO just afterwards) and the road crosses the River Avon to meet the B4112 Newbold Road at a roundabout. The final section of the A4071 has taken over part of that road alongside the river to its end at a roundabout on the A428.

History

The A4071 came into existence in the 1960s when the A427 was rerouted west of North Kilworth to serve Coventry rather than Rugby (this section of road was renumbered again following the completion of the A14); that part of the A427 west of Rugby became the A4071.

The old A4071 (now B4642) in Cawston

The road followed its current route as far as the roundabout at Potford Dam, after which it headed east, immediately going under an arch railway bridge carrying the dismantled railway line to Leamington. The road continued via Cawston and Bilton and finally climbed the hill at Bilton Road to reach the gyratory in Rugby town centre, where it met the A426 and A428. This section of road was reclassified as the B4642 when the Rugby Western Relief Road was opened in 2010.

Links

• Warwickshire County Council - Rugby Western Relief Road