A4280

Route

The A4280 follows an east-west route through Bedford.

The road originally (which means 2009) started at a roundabout north of the village of Great Denham where the A428 comes in from Northampton, and headed east along what is now the A6 to a roundabout at Deep Spinney, Biddenham. The A6 now heads north from here along the Great Ouse Way, so the current A4280 starts at this roundabout, and by-passes Biddenham to the north before entering Bedford. It crosses the Midland Mainline to the north of Bedford Station, then the A5141 followed by the northbound A600. Between 2013 and 2016 this section was also part of the A6.

Heading away from the A421

The current A4280 route continues, following a somewhat convoluted course through the town. Next, there's a short one-way loop with the southbound A600 before we emerge on St Peter's Street, still heading east. There's another one-way loop with the B660, then the road becomes Goldington Road, where Highways England has an office. We pass a junction with the A5140, which forms a southern ring around the town centre. There is also a northern ring at this point but that is unclassified - presumably they don't want you to know about this one.

On the edge of town there is a short stretch of dual carriageway, then more single carriageway until we meet the A421 Bedford Southern Bypass.

History

The route was downgraded from A428 on the 3rd of December 2009 (although as of 2023 a number of road signs in Bedford still show the road as the A428), with the opening of the Bedford Western bypass. In the original 1922 road numbering, the section to the east of Bedford town centre was allocated the number A6002. In 2013, when the A6 was diverted from the town centre around the western bypass, it took over the route of the A4280 as far as Union St (current A600), but our road recovered most of its former self when the A6 was diverted again from Biddenham north along the newly built Great Ouse Way.