A447
| A447 | ||||||||||
| Location Map ( geo) | ||||||||||
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| From: | Hinckley (SP430957) | |||||||||
| To: | Coalville (SK409150) | |||||||||
| Distance: | 13.6 miles (21.9 km) | |||||||||
| Meets: | A47, B4667, B585, B582, A511 | |||||||||
| Old route now: | B4109, B4667, A453 | |||||||||
| Primary Destinations | ||||||||||
| Highway Authorities | ||||||||||
| Traditional Counties | ||||||||||
| Route outline (key) | ||||||||||
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Route
The A447 originally ran from Wolvey, near Nuneaton, to Tonge, near Breedon on the Hill (well inside the 5 zone). Having lost its original southern section – the route now starts at a junction on the A47 Hinckley northern bypass, i.e. on the clockwise side of the A5 – the A447 is today technically an "out of zone" road.
Hinckley - Coalville
Today, the modern A447 begins on the A47 Hinckley northern bypass. As a non-primary, non-essential route the road seems to meander on its way north. Although not a particularly interesting road in itself, it does give access to several places of interest, the first being Mallory Park racing circuit, off to the east a few miles on. The attractive town of Market Bosworth is to the west and the Battlefield Line steam railway further over still (and the battlefield too, of course).
The former South Derbyshire coalfield (actually in Leicestershire at this point) is entered at Ibstock. The evidence of mining has now largely been swept away and the landscape restored, but the area still has a somewhat mean and rundown appearance. From here the road travels a couple of miles to its new terminus at the A511 (formerly the A50) roundabout. Local road improvements and the building of the A42 past Ashby-de-la-Zouch has led to the declassification of the A447 beyond here.
History
In 1922 the A447 began at a junction with the A46 (now B4114) just north of the village of Wolvey, its route to Nuneaton now taken by the B4109. The well-known Three Pots public house at the junction with the A5 is now overshadowed by junction 1 of the M69, the building of which led to the reclassification of the A447 and the A46 in this area as B roads.
I noticed while browsing the Highway Authority website for information on the A5 improvements that, thanks to their use of out of date mapping, it revealed the A447 and A47 as having done a little dance in the early 1990s.
Checking the Landranger maps in my collection it seems the A447 followed its original route through Hinckley until it transferred to the completed western part of the bypass in 1992, to terminate at A5 Dodwells Roundabout. The A47 continued to go through the town centre. In 1996 the bypass had been extended eastwards to the A47 Leicester Road, near Earl Shilton and the whole bypass was renumbered the A47. The old A47 through the town became the A447!
By 2000 all the roads in the town centre has become B numbers and the A447 started at the town limit.
At the Coalville end, the A447 originally crossed the A50 and continued north. It ran down through Swannington to cross the A512 at Peggs Green, before passing Griffydam (site of a 1960s dancehall) and meeting the A453 to the north of Tonge. It's still a good road and a handy short cut. A little before here is a GSJ with the A42 which enables the final mile of the old A447 to be a short stretch of the A453, although the majority of this section is now unclassified.
