 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Major junctions | ||||
| West end | Old Market Street,Bristol | |||
| Major intersections |  A4044 A4320 A431 A4017 A4174 A4175 A46 A350 A4 A3102 A419 A417 A415 A338 A34 A4144 A4158 A4142 A40 | |||
| East end | Headington inOxford | |||
| Location | ||||
| Country | United Kingdom | |||
| Primary destinations | Chippenham Swindon | |||
| Road network | ||||
| ||||
TheA420 is a road betweenBristol andOxford in England. BetweenSwindon and Oxford it is aprimary route.
Since the opening of theM4 motorway in the 1970s, the road has been in two sections. The first section begins onOld Market Street near the centre ofBristol and passes throughKingswood before leaving the city on the east side. From here it travels eastward over the southern part of theCotswolds, to the north ofBath, toChippenham inWiltshire.
The second section begins at a junction with theA419 east of Swindon. It then travels under theGreat Western Main Line at the twin-arch Acorn Bridge (the second arch was originally used by theWilts & Berks Canal) and pastShrivenham andWatchfield (both bypassed in the 1980s), then on towardsFaringdon in theVale of White Horse. A further by-pass section, opened in 1979,[1] avoids the centre of Faringdon, passing just south ofFolly Hill and crossing theA417.
The A420 then travels thecorallian limestone ridge that forms the north-west boundary of the Vale of White Horse, passingLittleworth,Buckland andLongworth. Adual-carriageway section by-passesSouthmoor andKingston Bagpuize on its way toOxford. Most of the road between Swindon and Oxford, apart from the dual carriageway sections and a short section around Faringdon, is limited to 50 mph (80 km/h).
A further dual-carriageway section bypassesCumnor Hill, to give a view of the "City of Dreaming Spires" that is Oxford from the west. After crossing theOxford Ring Road, it passes through the suburb ofBotley and down theBotley Road. It crosses theRiver Thames onOsney Bridge and reaches central Oxford after passing under theCherwell Valley Line next toOxford station. Within Oxford, it is routed alongOxpens Road, then Thames Street, parts ofSt Aldate's, then theHigh Street, which is closed to most motor traffic during the day.[2] The road then crossesMagdalen Bridge toSt Clements andEast Oxford and ascends the notoriously steepHeadington Hill to the suburb ofHeadington before terminating at the Headington Roundabout (known locally as the Green Road roundabout), where it meets theA40 and the Oxford Ring Road (designated the A4142).
Large vehicles such as lorries are advised by large signs at Oxford and Swindon not to take this route and use the alternative A34 and M4 route to Swindon. This is not enforced and the road is often heavily congested due to slow HGVs taking the shorter A420 route.[3][4] The road has a poor accident record and this coupled with heavy peak time traffic caused it to be nicknamed the 'A420 Road to Hell' in local media in 2007.[5] A survey in February 2018 claimed that it is the most dangerous A road inSouth East England.[6]
What is now the A420 was established in the early 18th century as a direct route between Chippenham and Bristol via Tog Hill, avoiding the older and more established route via Bath (now theA4). It was an important road for Bristol, whose communications with Bath had been disputed and difficult. After the Bath Road was turnpiked in 1707, the Bristol Trust attempted to turnpike the direct road in 1727, but faced opposition from colliers atKingswood, and the road was not sufficiently improved until the 1740s.[7]
When first classified in 1922, the A420 ran between Chippenham andBotley, near Oxford, while the road between Bristol and Chippenham was the A430.[8] The two roads were later joined and the A430 renumbered A420. The road from Botley through Oxford toHeadington was originally part of the A40. When the northern Oxford bypass was built in the 1930s, the A40 was rerouted along the bypass and the road through Oxford was renumbered A420.
As a result of the building of the M4 motorway in the early 1970s and subsequent road modernisation, the A420 between Chippenham and Swindon lost its identity. From Chippenham toLyneham throughSutton Benger and to the north ofRAF Lyneham and its limestone ridge, it became theB4069. From Lyneham to Swindon it became part of theA3102. From Swindon throughStratton St Margaret to the A419 it became the A4312.
Matches between rival football clubsOxford United andSwindon Town are sometimes referred to as the "A420 derby".[9]
The A420 nearKingston Bagpuize in Oxfordshire was the site of the fastest speeding offence ever caught in a routine speed check in the UK. On 27 January 2007, Timothy Brady, a 33-year-old man fromHarrow, London, was clocked driving at 172 miles per hour (277 km/h) in aPorsche 911 Turbo that he had taken without permission from his employer, a luxury car hire firm.[10] Brady was disqualified from driving and sentenced to 10 weeks in prison.[10]
51°34′46″N1°43′20″W / 51.57931°N 1.72211°W /51.57931; -1.72211
