A620

Route

The A620 is a relatively short A-road in north Nottinghamshire.

Ranby - Beckingham

The road begins at a GSJ with the A1 (old A614) at Ranby, a village it now bypasses since the A1 was routed through here.

A right-hand bend takes us onto a long straight section past Ranby prison, which is occasionally in the news as it is home to people you wouldn't necessarily want to have as dinner guests - namely some of the country's most infamous serial killers. We enter a wooded area rather abruptly, then cross two mini roundabouts with local roads before a humped bridge takes us over the East Coast Main Line.

We diverge from the original route at the next roundabout - previously we would have headed right and multiplexed with the A1 (now A638) through the town, but now we go straight on instead down a relief road, where the A620 number has priority, before leaving the A638 as it turns right at a set of traffic lights.

Low bridge

The A620 travels straight ahead from the A638 junction, and leaves Retford through a leafy suburb. A sign on the left alerts high vehicles to a diversion route avoiding two low bridges (both on the Retford to Gainsborough railway line) that are a couple of miles ahead. We pass underneath the first of these, and turn sharply left in the village of Welham. The second low bridge is only 12' 6" high, and is protected by chains suspended from overhead gantries and laser-activated height warning signs. These are positioned a few hundred yards before the bridge itself, which shows quite a bit of collision damage!

Clarborough is the next village, at the end of which there is a right angle turn at the foot of Clarborough Hill (1 in 12). At this point the alternative route avoiding the low bridges rejoins the A620. The alternative route is just ordinary unclassified country roads and it can be quite disconcerting to meet a 44-ton articulated juggernaut here. After the top of the hill the road descends gently for the next 2 miles to North Wheatley which is bypassed by a short stretch of pre-war dual carriageway, with tell-tale tight bends and a tree-lined central reservation. This bypasses the village of North Wheatley, and the old village road appeared to be very narrow, presumably explaining why it was bypassed when it was.

A new roundabout with a local road removed what appeared to be a right-angled bend to the left, before we end our journey at a roundabout junction with the A631 at Beckingham. Immediately prior to this is the former junction with the A631, before the Beckingham bypass was built taking A631 traffic out of the village.

History

This completely non-primary road used to meet the former A57 in Manton, just outside Worksop. However, that stretch has been downgraded to the B6079 (and the A57 downgraded to the B6040), meaning that the whole of the A620 is now on the wrong side of the A1.

Retford Northern Relief Road (Amcott Way) was opened on 23 November 1976 by Ernest Davidson, vice-chairman of the County Council's Environment Committee. Contract price was £533,000, total price £1 million.