A445
| A445 | |||||||
| Location Map ( geo) | |||||||
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| From: | Warwick (SP286652) | ||||||
| To: | Ryton on Dunsmore (SP389741) | ||||||
| Via: | Leamington Spa | ||||||
| Distance: | 9.3 miles (15 km) | ||||||
| Meets: | A425, A429, A452, A423, A45 | ||||||
| Primary Destinations | |||||||
| Highway Authorities | |||||||
| Traditional Counties | |||||||
| Route outline (key) | |||||||
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The A445, a short 9-mile length of road from Warwick to the A45 at Ryton-on-Dunsmore digresses barely a short distance from its 1922 route. Having been described as 'non-essential', it makes one wonder why it was ever an 'A' road at all! The answer seems to have lain in the need to have an 'A' road connecting Warwick to Leamington - parallel with the A425 but the other side of the rivers Avon and Leam - and extending on to the A45 for access to Coventry. But why no further?
Study of OS one-inch maps from 1946 forward and the current 1:50,000 sheet suggests there is good reason for the road to have continued beyond the A45 along the unclassified road through Wolston to the Fosse Way, the present day B4455. The river Avon and the A428 could have been crossed north of the LMS railway line, before continuing (along the B4455) to Stretton Wharf. Here the A445 could have veered right along the present B4428 through Stretton under Fosse and, via the rural crossroads at Street Ashton and the village of Pailton, on to the A5 at Cross in Hand. However, this is mere speculation as the A445 has never been extended.
Route
Today the A445 begins on the junction with the A425, the South West corner of Priory Park in Warwick. After running along the South side of the park, it joins the A429 for a short distance opposite St Johns House Museum, before forking right to reach the River Avon bridge. The road avoids Leamington town centre but instead passes though the suburb of Milverton before being joined at a roundabout by the A452, and left by it shortly afterwards. It then crosses two roundabouts in quick succession and then two more on the town's fringes before open country is reached for the first time.
The rest of the route follows the hill ridge south of the Avon past pleasant woodland and Ryton Pools Country Park on the right, with Coventry Airport away in the distance to the left. The A423 roundabout is reached, after passing a training centre on the right, and a short stretch brings the A445 to rest at the A45 by Ryton village. The road ahead, for many years the B4029, is now unclassified.
Original Author(s): Lez Watson
