A439

The present A439 is one of the shorter 3-digit A-roads. Although a kind of extension of the 1922–1987 A439 Norton (Wychavon, Worcestershire) to Stratford-upon-Avon road, no part of its route coincides in fact with that of the former road of the same number. It was originally a part of the A46, before that route was diverted south of Warwick to bypass Stratford to the north and run to the M5 at Ashchurch.

Route

The A439, Stratford-bound, just south of its junction with the A46

The route starts on Warwick Road, Stratford, at the northernmost point of the A3400 gyratory which today surrounds the town's main tourist carpark. Following the right (north-west) bank of the River Avon (although it's never in sight), we pass a number of caravan parks sited (in fate-tempting fashion) on the floodplain to our right before the road climbs Hatton Bank to terminate soon afterwards on the A46 at a roundabout marking the eastern end of the Stratford bypass, some 6 km south-west of Warwick.

History

The original line of the A439 was to the south of Stratford. It started on what was then the A435, now the B4088 at the northern end of the village of Norton and headed north east to Bidford on Avon, from where it followed the conveniently re-numbered B439 into Stratford. It appears that when the A46 Stratford Bypass opened in 1987, the A439 was extended north along the former line of the A46 to meet the new road, but when the Dual Carriageway between Evesham and Alcester, and Alcester southern bypass opened in c1991, the original stretch of the A439 was downgraded to be the B439 / unclassified. Thus, for around four years both the original and current sections were united as the A439, but for the majority of its existence it has been a shorter route.