A442 road

A442
The A442 passing throughTelfordas Queensway.
Route information
Length	56.2 mi (90.4 km)
Major junctions
South end	Droitwich
Major intersections	A38 A449 A451 A448 A456 A458 A53
North end	Hodnet
Location
Country	United Kingdom
Primary destinations	Kidderminster Bridgnorth Telford
Road network
Roads in the United Kingdom Motorways A and B road zones
←A441 →A443

TheA442is a main road which passes through the counties ofWorcestershireandShropshire,in theWest Midlands regionofEngland.

Route

FromDroitwichin Worcestershire it runs towardsKidderminsterwhere it meets theA449fromWorcester.This section of road used to be the B4192 until the late 1970s when it was upgraded to A road status.

AtKidderminster,it starts again and then runs north-north-west intoShropshire,viaBridgnorthandTelford(where it crosses theM54 motorway). Through Telford it is known asQueensway,and theEastern Primary(EP). It ends where it meets theA53just outside the village ofHodnet.Before the A53 bypass around the village was built, the A442 continued through Hodnet and joined theA41near Darliston, south ofWhitchurch.This section of road however has now been downgraded: most of it is declassified, but part has been reclassified as part of B5065.

History

From Droitwich to Low Hill (south of Kidderminster) the road is probably ancient, as it is referred to in the Saxon charter for Whitlinge (inHartlebury) dated AD 980 as astræte.This road was maintained by a Droitwichturnpike trustestablished in 1755.

North of Kidderminster it was a 'way' in the Saxon boundsofWolverleybefore being joined by the great street atShatterford.At Shatterford, the Prior of Worcester was authorised toassart(i.e. to clear) 100 acres (0.40 km²) of wood and heath "for the greater security of persons going through the said pass". From Shatterford the old course of the road goes throughRomsleyand Allum Bridge, to rejoin the present road atQuatt.The old survives as lane and tracks. The present road began life as a new turnpike built in the late 1820s by the Kidderminster turnpike trust, which had been responsible for the road as far asQuatfordsince 1760. Bridgnorth only became the northern end of the road in 1821.The trust remained responsible for the road until 1873.

North of Bridgnorth, the road formed part of theStaffordandNewportturnpikes. The Trust was established in 1763,becoming their third district, when their Act was renewed in 1783. Beyond Sutton Cross inSutton Maddockthe turnpike continued throughShifnalto Woodcote, where it joined another turnpike (now theA41 road).This continuation is now classified as the B4379 and theA4169 road.

The stretch immediately beyond Sutton Cross was part of theMadeleyturnpike district, going to the Bucks Head onWatling Street.This was turnpiked in 1764, continuing southeast to the New Inn on Rudge Heath, but that stretch of road was evidently not improved until the 1960s, when it was upgraded to become the B4176. The northern terminus was altered in 1827 when the road from Balls Hill inDawleyto Bucks Head was discontinued in favour of an alternative route to Watling Street.The course of the road was altered again when a new major road was built to take traffic through the built-up area ofTelfordNew Town in the 1970s. Some of the old routes have completely disappeared.

The next section of the old route is from Watling Street to the smithy atCrudgington.The first part of this is now theA5223 road,but the new course of A442 then rejoins the old one. This was turnpiked in 1725 with theShrewsburyto Crackley Bank section ofWatling Street.

Further sections of the road are also former turnpikes.

Bibliography

• King, Peter W. (2006). "Some Roads out of North Worcestershire".Transactions of Worcestershire Archaeological Society.3rd.20:87–102.
• Trinder, B. (1996).Industrial Archaeology of Shropshire.