A437 (Gloucester - Newport)

This article is about the original A437, which ran between Gloucester and Newport.
For the current A437, a road that connects Heathrow Airport to part of Hillingdon, see A437.

The A437 crossed the River Wye on the now-unclassified Old Chepstow Bridge

The original A437 ran between Highnam, near Gloucester, and Newport.

Starting on the A40 to the west of Gloucester, the road headed south along the right bank of the River Severn, sometimes very close and sometimes some distance away owing to the meanders of the river (although the A437 itself was not particularly straight). Skirting the Forest of Dean the road went through Blakeney and Lydney before zigzagging to cross the River Wye at the Old Chepstow Bridge, where it entered Chepstow in Monmouthshire. Whether it entered Wales here is a matter of debate....

After running along Chepstow High Street the road left town along Newport Road, emphasising its final destination. Now a few miles inland from the River Severn and Bristol Channel, the A437 continued west along the line of what maps claim to be a Roman Road, although a somewhat winding one. Presently the road reached the outskirts of Newport, running along Chepstow Road. It ended on the original route of the A48 (now B4596) on the left bank of the River Usk.

In 1935 the A48 was rerouted east of Newport, taking on the entire length of the A437, which number became redundant. Bypasses have been built in more recent years, for example of Lydney and Chepstow. The western end of the A437 is now numbered B4237, although it was still the A48 until 2000.