A49 road

A49
A6 at Bamber Bridge
Location
Country	Primary destinations	Hereford Leominster Shrewsbury Whitchurch Warrington Wigan
Road network
Roads in the United Kingdom Motorways A and B road zones
← A50

The A49 is an

The stretch between Ross-on-Wye and the A5 at Shrewsbury is a trunk road, maintained by National Highways.^[1]

Route

Lancashire

From the A6 at Bamber Bridge, south of Preston, the road runs parallel to the M6 motorway, through Leyland towards Wigan. Through Ashton-in-Makerfield and Newton-le-Willows, reaching Warrington via Winwick. In June 2020, a new section of the A49 opened forming part of a link between Wigan town centre and junction 25 on the M6, the section it replaced being renumbered B5386.^[2][3][4]

Cheshire

From junction 9 of the

It passes over a roundabout with the A5061 situated on the

The 3-mile (4.8 km) £6 million

The 2-mile (3.2 km) £3.8 million

The road briefly overlaps the A534 Wrexham Road from the junction at

The 2-mile (3.2 km) £1.3m

The route leaves the A5 at the Bayston Hill Roundabout on the south of the bypass, with the A5112 heading into Shrewsbury. It goes through

The road passes through the Stretton Gap on an alignment that was constructed in the late 1930s. Several stretches of the road follow the route of the Roman Road: Watling Street. The upgraded route bypasses All Stretton, Church Stretton and Little Stretton. The original route is the B5477 (former B4370) to the west. At a crossroads near Church Stretton railway station, the road meets the B4371. Further south it meets the B4370 (west) at Marshbrook. At Upper Affcot it passes the White House. The road meets the A489 at Wistanstow. At Craven Arms, there is the Shropshire Hills Discovery Centre, and it meets the east-west B4368. At Onibury, there is a level crossing, one of only a few on trunk roads in England. The section from Shrewsbury to Ludlow is prone to crashes.

At

Herefordshire

The road enters Herefordshire. The 1-mile (1.6 km) £1.4 million Brimfield Bypass opened in March 1983. South of Ashton the road passes through the Capability Brown parkland of Berrington Hall. The 4-mile (6.4 km) £9m Leominster Bypass opened in November 1988. At the southern end of the Leominster Bypass the A49 passes the Cadbury's Marlbrook chocolate factory. Shortly after, the A417 route to Gloucester begins at a junction shortly before the A49 makes its way up Dinmore Hill past Queen's Wood Country Park. The south bound carriageway is 2-lane up the hill and the north bound carriageway is 2-lane heading up the other side of the hill. This can be a common section for accidents and skid-offs.

The road then swings towards Wellington with a short section of dual-carriageway. The A49 then reaches Hereford, the only major destination on the road without a bypass. The road passes right through the city centre, causing serious congestion on both the north and south sides of the River Wye. The dual-carriageway Greyfrairs bridge over the Wye opened in 1967.^[6] The A49 meets the A438 at the Edgar Street Roundabout. The road then swings south-eastwards out of Hereford, meeting the A465 at the Belmont Roundabout. At Ross-on-Wye the road ends, joining the A40 and B4260 at the Wilton Roundabout.

History of the road number

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The original (1923) route of the A49 was Ross-on-Wye to Bamber Bridge (near Preston), but there have been some changes in its course. The A49 used to start on the A40 at Old Pike, west of Ross, as the original route of the A40 was through Skenfrith. When the A40 was rerouted via Monmouth in 1935, the A49 was extended to Ross.

At a later date, the A49 was rerouted between

References