A6172 (Bedford)

This article is about the Bedford route of the A6172.
For the current route in Bolton, see A6172.

The now-unclassified Park Avenue

The A6172 is listed in the DfT Card Index as Roff Avenue - Park Avenue and Polehill Avenue. Bedford Inner Relief Road. The road therefore formed a northern bypass to the town centre.

The road started on the A6 Tavistock Street and headed east along Roff Avenue before zigzagging into Park Avenue. The road skirted Bedford Park before bearing right to meet the B660 Kimbolton Road. This was crossed via a staggered crossroads and the A6172 entered Polhill Avenue. It bore gradually round to the right, finally heading south to end on the A428 (now A4280) Goldington Road.

The dates that the A6172 existed are not known. Polhill Avenue only seems to date to the 1960s yet the road is shown as unclassified on maps from the 1980s and later, as it is today. It is of course possible that the A6172 number was allocated to this road before it was built but the idea was later dropped and the road never actually held the A6172 number in practice.