A4151
A4151 | ||||
Location Map ( geo) | ||||
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From: | Elton (SO701139) | |||
To: | Nailbridge (SO644162) | |||
Distance: | 5.2 miles (8.4 km) | |||
Meets: | A48, B4226, B4227, A4136 | |||
Former Number(s): | B4226, B4227 | |||
Highway Authorities | ||||
Traditional Counties | ||||
Route outline (key) | ||||
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The A4151 is an L-shaped A-road in the Forest of Dean. The road was originally numbered B4226 and B4227 and gained its present number around 1935.
The road starts in the Severn Valley, at Elton Corner on the A48. It heads westwards and climbs out of the valley, with the gradient becoming steeper and the road more twisty. It follows a stream closely before bending sharply to the left and entering the village of Littledean. Here it is possible to visit Littledean jail, an eighteenth-century prison now converted into a museum with exhibits concerning crime, espionage and - oddly - taxidermy. Until the point, the speed limit has been set at 50mph, but it now drops to 30mph as we enter the village.
In Littledean, the A4151 runs up Church Street. As you pass St Ethelbert's church, see if you can spot the mistake on clock face. The road then turns sharply (and quite blindly) to the right at a mini-roundabout, onto Broad Street. To carry straight on would take you down an unclassified road to Newnham back on the Severn. Heading up Broad Street, which is not as wide as its name suggests and frequently littered with parked cars, you pass by a chip shop marking a relatively concealed turning to the left; this road will take you through the woods to Soudley, and the Dean Heritage Centre. The road then passes by the pub and and bends to the left (there is a sharper bend just to the right which is now bypassed), and it climbs into the countryside above Littledean.
The road climbs on a new alignment before bearing sharply to the right to enter Cinderford; if you carry on ahead up the hill, you will join the B4226 which heads into the heart of the Forest of Dean, and towards its main tourist attractions. For the A4151, though, it is a different story. Cinderford is a poor town, characterised by higgledy-piggledy houses of various styles dotted around in twos and three; there are a few neater rows and some modern housing estates, but generally it's a mess. It is also has some of the worst road surfaces in the British Isles, with potholes and the marks left by frequent diggings-up testing your suspension as you drive around. The BBC broadcaster Jimmy Young was born in Cinderford.
The A4151 follows a straight road through town, descending Belle Vue Road and continuing onto the narrow (but not particularly pretty) High Street. The white lines down the middle of the road disappear for a while before we pass between an industrial estate and a wood to meet the B4227, which comes in from the left. After passing through the village of Steam Mills, presumably named after industry which no longer exists, we reach a triangular junction on the A4136 near Nailbridge. There are two sets of traffic lights a short distance apart to cater for traffic entering and leaving the A4151 at this unusually wide junction. If you turn left, the A4136 will take you towards Coleford; if you turn right, you will head towards Huntley and Gloucester. You can also make a staggered movement straight on, onto the declassified B4227 towards Ruardean and Ross-on-Wye. But the A4151 ends here.
A4151 | ||
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