B4006

The B4006 at Swindon is not so much a self-contained route in its own right as a collection of tangential roads which have been cobbled together to form a somewhat mis-shapen and not-yet-quite-complete circle (roughly eight-o'clock to six-o'clock) around the town.

Route

Dorcan Way, Swindon

The road begins in the suburb of Toothill (south-west of Swindon centre), where the A3102 turns right off the Great Western Way which has brought traffic into the town from M4 junction 16. The B4006 starts as the northern continuation of the dual-carriageway Great Western Way, which arches north and east around the top of the city centre.

At Westlea the first of many short spurs leads west along Mead Way to the B4534. The wide dual carriageway north remains the B4006 (signposted on the ground but not shown on the route map above). But at Rodbourne it hands over the Great Western Way to the custody of the B4289 and heads north as a standard residential S2 road up Cheney Manor Road. It meets the end of the B4587 (Akers Way) and then in Moredon turns right at a roundabout to head east through Pinehurst.

Crossing the A4311 at a double roundabout by the Moonrakers pub, it wanders north-east through Upper Stratton to its northernmost tip in Kingsdown, but instead of carrying on the obvious route through to the A361 it launches the short B4141 to perform that task and instead TOTSOs sharp right down Ermin Street towards Stratton St Margaret (again this is signposted on the ground, though not included in the route map above).

The roundabout at Stratton St Margaret begets another signposted spur, north to the Rat Trap junction of A361 and A419 (and thence past the former Honda plant to Highworth). The B4006 proper turns right and, now heading back south, picks its way through Lower Stratton to Greenbridge, where it meet the B4143 at a very wide junction. It crosses the Great Western Main Line and then, briefly S4, arrives at the A4312 which becomes the A420 to Oxford. We now arc through Swindon's eastern suburbs, passing a series of estates set well back from the road. We pass Dorcan Academy on the left, throw off another spur to the A419 at Edison (this one unsignposted), before cutting through manicured countryside to reach the next radial road, the A4259 south-east, at Coate roundabout.

Now the B4006 turns west along the original route of the A419 on a wide S2 through the southern suburbs and up to the Pipers roundabout, where yet another spur continues along the old A419 Marlborough Road into Swindon's Old Town. (Google Maps claims this continues as far as the Magic Roundabout, but on the ground it only gets as far as Newport Street before becoming the B4289). The main route however now wheels back south away from the centre, past the head offices of Nationwide Building Society and through woodland to meet the A4361 (former A361) to Devizes.

The circle used to end here, three-quarters complete, but a new chapter in the B4006 has been unfolding since 2006, to serve the large new residential development of Wichelstowe. A staggered junction (left then right) now brings us to Blackhorse Way, which runs parallel to the M4 to serve the first neighbourhood, East Wichel, completed in 2014. Two more developments - Middle Wichel and West Wichel - are being constructed; although the B4006 currently ends at a right turn into Foxham Way, blacked-out roadsigns (actually blued-out!) suggest that it will continue west from here in the future, and eventually meet the B4005, which will bring us full circle back around to junction 16 of the M4.

History

Swindon in 1923

Ironically the current route of the B4006 contains none of its original 1922 route, which linked the A420 and A361 together along Regent Street and Victoria Road. This section is now unclassified.

Great Western Way Stage 3 - The 2.5 mile dual carriageway was reported as opened by the June 1984 RAC World magazine. The eastern part was B4289.