A4135

Route

The A4135 crosses the Cotswolds in southern Gloucestershire.

A4135 at Beverston

The road starts at a crossroads at the northern end of the main street in Tetbury. Here the A433 turns right, the B4014 carries straight on and the left turn is the A4135 (although in reality the A433 is on a bend and so both other roads are left turns). The road heads out of Tetbury and quickly enters open countryside. After a couple of miles and after passing through the village of Beverston, the road comes to a traffic-light-controlled crossroads with the A46.

After passing to the south of the village of Kingscote, the B4058 from Nailsworth joins from the right before the A4135 bears right at a 4-way junction, where the B4058 carries onto Wotton-under-Edge in the 12:00 position. The road then starts to descend the Cotswold escarpment, mostly through woods, but there is the occasional view over the Severn Valley. The last stretch is down Whiteway Hill, which is steep, twisty and with a severe drop off on the right hand side. There are two emergency escape lanes along this road, although the first is actually a forest track heading back up the hill which looks rather exciting.

At the bottom of the hill, the road enters the Woodmancote area of Dursley. Approaching the town centre, the B4066 from Uley and Stroud joins from the right before the road drops down Bull Pitch, through the narrow Silver Street to Dursley market place. Here the road skirts around the pedestrianised High Street, around the back of the shops.

After the town centre, the road turns right onto Parsonage Street and climbs out of Dursley. After passing the Police Station on the right, the road comes to a mini-roundabout junction with the B4066 (to Berkeley and Sharpness) and enters Cam. At the next mini-roundabout, a junction with the B4060 (to Wotton-under-Edge and Chipping Sodbury), the road turns right and heads down Cam Pitch. At the bottom of the hill, in the centre of Cam, there is another mini-roundabout, where the A4135 turns left and heads out of the town.

After a mile or so, the road crosses over the Bristol to Birmingham railway and, immediately afterwards, the M5, before terminating on the A38 at Slimbridge crossroads.

History

The A4135 was originally classified as the B4066, but was upgraded to Class I around 1930. The majority of the route is still original, with just a small change in Dursley and a major rerouting to Slimbridge at its northern end.

The A4135 originally terminated on the A38 in Cambridge, around a mile northwards from where it terminates today, "Dursley Road" in Cambridge being the old road. The route was changed as part of the M5 construction works between November 1969 and December 1971, and probably involved creating the new route to allow the motorway to be built without disturbance. The bridge across the railway is still original, but the road diverges just westwards of the bridge - part of the old road can be seen at the north side of the embankment for the motorway bridge. In 2000, the junction with the A38 was rebuilt as a roundabout - originally it was built as a plain crossroads.

The road through Dursley originally ran along the High Street and to the left side of the market place. Today's route was built in the 1950s, but didn't become the main route until the 1980s when the High Street was pedestrianised.

Lastly, when heading eastwards, the change in direction at the crossroads in the centre of Cam appear to be a rerouting, but this has always been the main route.