A4097
A4097 | |||||||
Location Map ( geo) | |||||||
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From: | Minworth (SP154926) | ||||||
To: | Kingsbury (SP218956) | ||||||
Distance: | 4.7 miles (7.6 km) | ||||||
Meets: | A38, M6 Toll, M42, A446, A51, B4098 | ||||||
Former Number(s): | B4141 | ||||||
Old route now: | A38 | ||||||
Primary Destinations | |||||||
Highway Authorities | |||||||
Traditional Counties | |||||||
Route outline (key) | |||||||
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Route
The A4097 is a relatively short A-road in north Warwickshire.
The road starts at a large roundabout in Minworth, on the edge of the Birmingham conurbation, where the A38 Sutton Coldfield bypass turns from east-west to north-south. The A4097 heads eastwards to cross the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal before bearing left to run through the centre of the village. We run past an industrial estate and sewage works after which the road becomes dual as it runs across the fields, narrowing on entering the next village, Curdworth.
After reentering open country a roundabout is reached which forms part of Dunton Interchange. The northbound M6 Toll onslip leaves here (making it JT1), after which we cross the motorway to a large roundabout which forms another part of the same interchange, although here it's M42 J9, which also provides access to the southbound M6 Toll and the A446. Crossing the roundabout isn't for the faint-hearted but on the far side we continue east across the fields.
The road soon runs onto a new alignment. It crosses an unclassified road at a roundabout then continues between the lakes formed from former gravel pits. The River Tame is crossed and the road ends at a roundabout where all four arms have different numbers. Left is the A51, right is the B4098 (although this was the A51 when the A4097 arrived here) and the road ahead is unclassified. The old route of the A4097 is still traceable to the north of the road's present route, going through Marston. This is, however, unclassified and largely closed to traffic, which presumably happened when the sand quarries were open.
History
The A4097 came into being in the mid-1920s as an upgrade of the B4141. This road started on the original line of the A38 (the present A5127) at Gravelly Hill and headed east along the present A38 to Minworth before continuing to Curdworth and the A446. The B4141 originally ended here with the road to Kingsbury being unclassified; this became part of that road at round about the same time the original section of road became the A4097 but remained that number for many years.
The western section of the A4097 was heavily upgraded and then incorporated into the A38 Sutton Coldfield bypass in the 1970s. Around the same time the A4097 was extended east along the remainder of the B4141 to reach the A51 in Kingsbury, giving the road its current length.
Marston Bypass
At the eastern end the 1.25 mile single carriageway Marston Bypass was to be opened on 16 December 1970 by Major T.W. Kimpton, Chairman of the Roads Committee of Warwickshire County Council. It was built to provide better access to the Kingsbury Oil Terminal (which had opened in Spring 1969) from the Birmingham direction and relieve the bottleneck at the single lane Hemlingford Bridge. It was largely on an embankment with flood culverts across the Tame valley. Contractor was Sheldon Contracting Co. Ltd. of Solihull, cost £325,000. It joined the unclassified Kingsbury bypass which had been recently built.