B4120

The B4120 is a route connecting South Birmingham with rural north Worcestershire.

The road starts off at Longbridge Island (not the big one in Warwickshire, the small one on the A38) at the site of the former Longbridge Rover plant. It heads south on a tree-lined D2 route with a wide central reservation and a 40 mph limit (although there are plans to reduce this to 30 mph). Like other roads in the area with a wide central reservation, this example is because the Birmingham trams used to travel down here, between the two carriageways. After approximately a mile, the dual carriageway ends, and we enter Worcestershire's Bromsgrove District, narrowing to S2, and shortly afterwards crossing the B4096 at a roundabout.

In the section beyond the roundabout, at the east side of the road is the residential area of Cofton Hackett, with houses lining that edge of the road almost all the way to Barnt Green; although the road would have a high enough elevation to see much of the surrounding countryside, there is an almost continuous wall (sometimes a hedge) alongside this side of the road that blocks the view of Cofton Hackett and the fields beyond. The road itself is somewhat hilly and far from straight; the reason is a very steep forested hill (Rose Hill, the same hill that gives the B4096 its name), which the B4120 skirts around the side of, but fails to avoid all the gradients (and thus blind summits are relatively common). This section of the road is used by several bus services, has a 40 mph limit in most places (most likely due to the many houses and the pavement on the east side – pedestrian traffic seems to be expected along the route), and seems to serve mainly commuter traffic. (It would likely be used much more heavily, probably beyond its capacity, if there were a junction at the M42 close to Barnt Green.)

The B4120 passing under the Cross-City line

Upon entering the village of Barnt Green, the road passes under the Cross-City railway line (which diverges just south of this point, to aim for Redditch on one branch and Bromsgrove on the other). The destination of the B4120 is signed inconsistently at this point (near the railway, Alvechurch is the only destination given on the sign, but at the other end of the village, the road is signed only to Hopwood). From here the road becomes a slow and twisty route, passing over the Worcester and Birmingham Canal at a narrow bridge (traffic heading away from Barnt Green must give way). Eventually the road reaches another roundabout, this time with the former A441. This was the terminus of the B4120 prior to the construction of the Alvechurch Bypass, however now the B4120 takes the former route of the A441 north to meet it at Hopwood.