Pre-Motorway New Roads

A typical wide, straight 1930s new-build arterial road, the A5117 Chester Bypass, now relieved by the M56. This stretch was originally three lanes with a central "suicide lane". (Photograph courtesy of LMARS)

It's generally considered that Britain lagged well behind many of its Continental neighbours in new road construction in the earlier part of the 20th century - something that is basically true, especially in comparison with Germany and Italy.

But in fact a considerable number of new roads were built in the pre-motorway era (before 1959) - mostly in the 1930s, it would seem, although many were planned in the 1920s. Some of these were major projects on wholly new alignments. In those days these new roads were often referred to as "Arterial Roads".

This page is an attempt to list all the significant new roads built in UK in the motor-car era, before the first motorway. If you have any suggestions for additions or amendments to this page, please send me (Peter Edwardson) an e-mail.

Information on opening dates would be particularly welcome.

I am particularly grateful to Tony Frost for providing many of the details of road schemes in the South-East, and to David Pickersgill for information about roads in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire.

Choose your zone:

A1 | A2 | A3 | A4 | A5 | A6 | A7 | A8 | A9

A1 Prefix Routes

• A1 Barnet bypass
• A1 Colsterworth bypass, between Stamford and Grantham, opened mid-1920s
• A1 Ferrybridge bypass, a short bypass to the west of the village, but still leading to the old bridge
• A1 Chester-le-Street and Birtley bypass, County Durham
• A10 Great Cambridge Road, London
• A1042 Norwich ring road
• A1058 "Coast Road" between Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Tynemouth. Subsequently transformed by grade-separating most of the junctions
• A106 (now A12) Eastern Avenue Gants Hill to start of Southend Arterial Road, London
• A12 Chelmsford and Colchester bypasses (now superseded by new bypasses further out from the towns)
• A12 (now A1114) Ipswich ring road
• A12 Woodbridge bypass
• A127 Southend Arterial Road. A major project to provide a wholly new arterial road between London and Southend.
  See the detailed description on Roads by 10
• A18 Kingsway southern bypass of Scunthorpe

A2 Prefix Routes

• A2 Princes Road Dartford bypass (now B2174, A225 and A296. Replaced by a new bypass in 1970.)
• A20 bypasses of Farningham, Wrotham, Lenham and Charing
• A217 Sutton bypass (opened 1925)
• A217 Banstead bypass (1930s)
• A22 Caterham bypass (1930s - first dual carriageway in Surrey)
• A23 Croydon bypass (Purley Way)
• A23 Crawley bypass
• A24/A246 Leatherhead, Mickleham and Dorking bypasses. The A246 bypass of Leatherhead running west from the A24 was built by Canadian Corps of Royal Engineers during the Second World War
• A24 Findon bypass, north of Worthing, opened 1939
• A25 Shere bypass, Surrey (1950s)
• A27 Chichester bypass
• A27 Sompting bypass, near Worthing
• A299 Thanet Way, Faversham - St Nicholas at Wade. Built as an unemployment relief project to provide better access to Margate and Ramsgate, previously only reachable from London via Canterbury. Now partly superseded by a new alignment south of Whitstable.

A3 Prefix Routes

• A3 Kingston bypass (opened 1927)
• A3 Guildford/Godalming bypass (opened 1934)
• A30 Great South-West Road, London
• A30 Egham bypass
• A30 Basingstoke bypass
• A309 Hampton Court Way, including Hampton Court Bridge (opened 1933)
• A31 Winchester bypass (now largely obliterated by the M3)
• A316 Great Chertsey Road, London (never actually reached Chertsey until the opening of the M3)
• A34 Kingsway southern extension, Manchester (between Parrswood and Heald Green, opened late 1950s). See A5079 below
• A38 Exeter bypass

A4 Prefix Routes

• A4 Great West Road, London
• A4 Twyford bypass, Berkshire
• A40 Western Avenue, London
• A40 Oxford bypass
• A40 Gloucester northern bypass
• A406 (now A1400) Woodford Avenue, N.E. London
• A4061 Hirwaun - Treherbert and Treorchy - Ogmore Vale, South Wales. One of several often spectacular roads built in the 1930s as unemployment relief projects linking Welsh coalmining valleys that had been hard hit by depression
• A41 Hendon Way and Watford bypass
• A41 Chester eastern bypass
• A4102 from A4061 (above) to Abergwynfi, South Wales. Another 1930s relief project, as was the following:
• A4109 Glyn Neath - Onllwyn, South Wales.
• A4123 Birmingham-Wolverhampton New Road (opened 1927 - still referred to locally as the "New Road")
• A4200 Kingsway and Aldwych, Central London. Built in the Edwardian era to provide a new north-south route through the central area linking with Waterloo Bridge. Also incorporated the long-closed Kingsway Tram Subway
• A43 Silverstone bypass, now superseded by a new dual-carriageway
• A446 Coleshill bypass (still a superb example of 1930s "arterial road", lined by poplar trees that have now grown to a magnificent height)
• A45 Coventry bypass
• A46 Caistor bypass, Lincolnshire (opened 1946)
• A49 Lower Whitley bypass, Cheshire (south of Warrington)
• A49 Church Stretton bypass, Shropshire

A5 Prefix Routes

• A5 (now B4380) Shrewsbury bypass (now superseded by a new bypass further from the town)
• A50 bypass of bridge under Bridgwater Canal at Grappenhall, south-east of Warrington, including a distinctive reinforced concrete bridge over the canal similar to that on the A56 below
• A5058 Queen's Drive Liverpool Outer Ring Road
• A5079 Kingsway, Manchester (now A34)
• A5085 Preston north-eastern bypass, between A59 and A6, providing a route between the A59 and Blackpool avoiding the town centre
• A5103 Princess Road, Manchester. This originally terminated at the A5145 junction west of Didsbury, but was later extended southwards as "Princess Parkway" to the A560 at Sharston. Both Kingsway and Princess Road originally had reserved tram tracks in the central reservation.
• A5111 Derby ring road
• A5117 Chester northern bypass, linking A56 at Helsby with A550 at Shotwick. Until the opening of the M56, this was the main road to the North Wales holiday resorts and often very busy on summer weekends (see photo at top of page)
• A55 Holywell bypass, North Wales (now superseded by a new dual carriageway further west)
• A556 Northwich bypass
• A557 Clifton bypass, south of Runcorn - a magnificent one-mile, three-lane straight, now largely swept away by M56 Junction 12)
• A56 Walton bypass (south-west of Warrington). Also includes a new reinforced concrete bridge of distinctive design over the Bridgewater Canal.
• A560 Timperley bypass (east of Altrincham)
• A565 Formby and Tarleton bypasses (near Southport)
• A57 Saxilby bypass (west of Lincoln). This replaced an old swing bridge with new bridges over the Fossdyke Canal and railway, and about half a mile of new road. Its opening on 15 September 1937 is commemorated with a plaque on the railway bridge.
• A570 Rainford bypass (between St Helens and Ormskirk). Built from the start as dual carriageway with cycle tracks and footpaths, and little changed since.
• A58 Bolton northern ring road
• A580 East Lancs Road (linking Liverpool and Salford). Probably the single biggest pre-motorway road project in Britain, but compromised by just dissolving into dense urban areas at either end. Originally a three-lane road with wide verges, it is now all dual carriageway. There are numerous light-controlled junctions, but it remains a good fast road with much of it still being National Speed Limit.
  See my detailed description on Roads by 10
• A583 Kirkham bypass, between Preston and Blackpool
• A59 Ormskirk bypass - however even now the town still lacks an east-west bypass for the A570
• Unclass Queensway Mersey Tunnel, Liverpool-Birkenhead (opened 18 July 1934 by King George V and Queen Mary)

• A6 Blackrod bypass, Lancashire
• A6 Garstang bypass, Lancashire
• A6097 east of Nottingham between A46 and A614, an upgrading of an existing road including a new bridge over the Trent at Gunthorpe
• A6102 Sheffield eastern bypass (northern section)
• A6104 Victoria Avenue, Manchester (a northern bypass of the city)
• A6114 Burnley eastern bypass
• A6119 Blackburn northern bypass
• A6120 Leeds (northern) Ring Road
• A614 Nottingham Ring Road (western section)
• A614 Boothferry Bridge and Howden bypass (near Goole)
• A63 North and South Cave bypass (between Selby and Hull)
• A631 Gringley-on-the-Hill and Beckingham bypasses (between Bawtry and Gainsborough)
• A64 Barton Hill and Whitwell-on-the-Hill bypasses (between York and Malton)
• B6447 Blackburn western relief road
• A646 Burnley southern bypass
• A65 Kirkby Lonsdale bypass
• A663 Broadway, Failsworth - Royton (basically a western bypass of Oldham)

• A82 over Rannoch Moor from Bridge of Orchy to Kingshouse. Some of the old route west of Loch Tulla and over the Black Mount can still be used
• A876 Kincardine Bridge

• A947 (now A90) Aberdeen bypass
• A972 (mostly now A90) Kingsway Dundee outer ring road. Opened 1919 - was this Britain's first ring road?

(Last updated April 2005)

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