B4036
B4036 | |||||||||||||
Location Map ( geo) | |||||||||||||
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From: | Daventry (SP572623) | ||||||||||||
To: | Long Buckby Wharf (SP607652) | ||||||||||||
Distance: | 3.1 miles (5 km) | ||||||||||||
Meets: | B4038, A425, A4256, A5 | ||||||||||||
Old route now: | A361, A425, B5385 | ||||||||||||
Primary Destinations | |||||||||||||
Highway Authorities | |||||||||||||
Traditional Counties | |||||||||||||
Route outline (key) | |||||||||||||
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The B4036 is a short B-road heading east from the Northamptonshire town of Daventry.
Starting in the town centre at a roundabout on the B4038 the road heads east along New Street past Waitrose before passing the end of the High Street to run along Abbey Street. Most of this section is traffic-calmed with some being paved rather than tarmacked. Presently a roundabout is reached on the A425.
There's a short multiplex north along the A425 and the B4036 reappears at the next roundabout and heads east as the continuation of the A4256. After a roundabout serving a housing estate the road TOTSOs left to cross the fields. It's not long before the end of the road on the A5 near Long Buckby Wharf.
History
The B4036 is described in the 1922 Road Lists as Banbury - Daventry - Market Harborough - but now only part of Abbey Street in Daventry remains of this route.
The section from Banbury to Daventry was renumbered A361 in the 1960s but the B4036 still ran to Market Harborough for some years after. This section was declassified (except for a short section in Daventry which had become the A425 bypass and a longer section through Watford which became part of the B5385) in the 1990s and the road rerouted to Long Buckby Wharf in the 1990s.
The new alignment to Long Buckby Wharf (a more southerly route than via Welton) is quite recent. I believe the fate (and brutal truncation) of the B4036 can be blamed on the road that has claimed many more 'victims' of renumbering / declassifiying: the much loved A14. My 1993 Readers Digest still shows the B4036 as Daventry to Market Harborough. It was even signed M'Harbro' on the ground in Daventry until not too long ago.
My 1972 Bartholomew (yes again: I love this atlas!) has an anomaly with regard to the B4036. On page 27 (roughly a rectangular area with its corners being Lydiate Ash, Rugby, Cirencester and Oxford) the Banbury - Daventry Road is shown as B4036. But turn the page to 28 (Binley Woods, Thrapston, Eynsham, Tring) and - presto - it's the A361!Curiously the DfT Card Index from c2002 only lists Market Harborough against the B4036. There is currently no further evidence to support the idea that the route ever solely existed in the town, nor that there was ever a left over section in Market Harborough once the route to the south had been declassified.
Future
Northamptonshire Council, in 2007, published a list of road schemes, included within, as a scheme to be prioritised "for Inclusion in the Growth Strategy", an extension of the B4036 to Long Buckby station after improvements to that road to improve access between Daventry and the station. The classification would have probably been extended further to the B5385 in Long Buckby.