UK Roads: Bristol Outer Ring Road UK Roads: Bristol Outer Ring RoadGuy Barry: Ah! I was going to tell you about the Avon Ring Road. I admit that I haven't gone and physically checked that the missing bit is there (it's a bit difficult without a car), but Chris Bertram says it is and it's here on the map, so that's good enough for me.
It's a mess in my opinion. First of all, it's not a complete ring. Secondly, it's part primary and part non-primary. Thirdly, one part's a purpose-built dual carriageway while the other part is made out of existing suburban roads. Fourthly, the two parts don't join up properly (the A4 links them). Fifthly, it changes its number for no apparent reason in Bedminster. Sixthly, it gets lost in Hotwells and I don't know where it goes. Is that enough? 
Initially it's the A4174 (non-primary). Starting on the A38 in Filton (north of Bristol) and proceeding clockwise, it runs as dual carriageway to M32 junction 1, then parallel to the M4 as far as the A432 junction. Then it turns south, and proceeds across Siston Common (that's the controversial bit that didn't get built for ages) to the A420 junction at Warmley. It continues to the Hicks Gate roundabout, which is the junction with the A4, where it stops. At that point you need to take the A4 towards Brislington to rejoin it.
At a set of traffic lights in Brislington, you turn left. This road is also numbered A4174 (out of zone!) but bears little relation to the other section, being primary, single carriageway and suburban. It crosses the A37 and continues to a roundabout at Hengrove (with a small dual-carriageway section). Then it turns right and goes on to meet the A38 at Bedminster.From here, inexplicably, it becomes the A3029, which passes through three complex junctions at Bower Ashton, Clift House and the Cumberland Basin, where it meets the A4.
Here it ought to end, but I noticed while inspecting the Cumberland Basin a few weeks ago that the signs up the A4 Portway towards Avonmouth say "Ring Road". If the ring road carries on up the Portway, where can it go from there? There's a road called the A4162 to Westbury on Trym a bit further up, but I don't think that's part of the ring road, and it certainly doesn't continue back round to Filton.
Chris Bertram: Er... it is part of the ring, although well hidden. For a start, the sign on the A4 merely says "Westbury on Trym", and doesn't mention the A4162 OR say "ring road". However, if you dare use it then Ring Road signs appear again!
This just leaves the gap between Westbury and Filton to discover – it'll be there, no doubt, on B-roads, joining up with the A4174 on the A38 roundabout. I'll try it sometime when I have a good excuse to get out.
David D Miller: The missing road eastwards from Westbury on Trym didn't go to Filton – it went instead to Patchway, slightly further north on the A38! Nearly two miles of the new road was built on a broad right-of-way from Patchway, and a further mile and a quarter of alignment was protected from development right through to Westbury.
This route was scuppered when the main runway at Filton Airfield was extended right across the new road. Subsequent opening of the M5 between Patchway and Cribbs Causeway allowed the A4018 to be extended out in that direction instead. (The A4018 originally endedon Durdham Down – it was only extended north through Westbury when the through route to Patchway and Almondsbury was complete.)
The missing bit of route began at the current sharp bend on the A4018 at the north end of the Westbury by-pass. Where the current road turns sharply northwards, the old 1:25000 map shows field boundaries carrying straight on on both sides of a new alignment running to the east, heading towards Greystoke Avenue. (The small cul-de-sac, Grasmere Close, which now occupies the space on the corner is fairly recent.)
While this alignment initially appears to lead onto Greystoke Avenue, the 1:25000 map shows instead that this route also turned north, onto a protected alignment between Charlton Road and Ambleside Avenue.
The Charlton Road houses were built first, and are named as the Brentry Colony on the 1946 map. Southmead housing estate is shown under construction, but with no development as yet north of Greystoke Avenue.
The 1960 one-inch map shows Ambleside Avenue completed around the edge of the Southmead estate, but with a clearly defined gap between it and Charlton Road. Both the broad and the narrow parts of Greystoke Avenue were built at about the same time – and at the same time as Ambleside Avenue was built with this protected alignment behind – which would suggest that Greystoke Avenue was never really intended as a major through route.
The 1963 map shows two double blocks of government offices had been completed in the triangle off Charlton Road – again without encroaching on the protected alignment.
Concorde Drive, with its distinctive zig-zag pattern, and Twenty Acre Road were built on the previously protected strip sometime in the late 1970's/early 1980s.
All three roads and the government offices can be clearly seen on this photo.
Somewhere about the junction with Knole Lane, the protected route joined Charlton Road – beyond this point, housing on the north side of Charlton road is set well back from the road. Further on, where the road now ends at the airfield perimeter fence, the turning circle was built entirely within the right-of-way.
North of the airfield, about a mile of dual carriageway was completed into Patchway. I cycled on it once in late 1995 – IIRC part of it was set up as a permanent contraflow, with chicanes and speed bumps on the entry to the built up area at Patchway. This section has since become an eastern access for the new Cribbs Causeway shopping centre – with new dual carriageway leading west from a roundabout on the old line.
The last bit of the alignment, immediately north of the airfield, appears to have been built on – but what with? It's possible that this was used as a construction site for the Cribbs Causeway development, but I'm not absolutely certain. (I've other evidence to suggest the aerial photos of Bristol were taken about 1996, when Cribbs was just newly completed.) Streetmap's photo coverage doesn't extend that far north, and Multimap's doesn't have enough detail to say for certain.
The one real mystery for me is just why the alignment around Southmead was still protected in the early 1960s, long after the Filton runway had blocked the original route. Was someone hoping for the collapse of the aerospace industry at Filton, with closure of the airfield making the original route available again? Or was a tunnel under the runway being considered? Perhaps there was still scope for a route towards Filton, either crossing the golf courses or running along the south side of the railway?
I think it most unlikely that the A4174 Ring Road that we've discussing could have featured in the planning in the early 1960s. Apart from the two-mile stretch of M5 on the 1963 map, there's not any hint of the other motorways which were soon to cross the area – motorways which, at the time, would have then been expected to take over as an effective ring road around the north of the city. East of Filton, the major office and university developments at Stoke Gifford and Abbey Wood were still in the distant future, and the Midland Railway lines at Mangotsfield and Siston Common (the route now used by the A4174) were still open and carrying passengers between Bath, Bristol, and Birmingham until the late 1960s.
The A4174 Ring Road around the east of Bristol and the old Ring Road at Westbury on Trym are of two completely different generations, and 'concrete' links between them might simply not exist.
Guy Barry: Thanks for clearing up the mystery for me. I always thought there was something strange about the way the two sections of the ring road appeared to bear little relation to each other. In fact I'm not sure whether the name "Avon Ring Road" applies at all to the older western section – it only seems to be used for the newer Filton - Hicks Gate road. Looking at the route you gave on the Bristol A-Z, it's clear that there was once intended to be a link between Charlton Road and Highwood Road across Filton Airfield – but as you say, were they expecting the airfield to close? Also, do you know if there were any plans to continue the ring road beyond Patchway?
What I still can't work out is why the section through Hengrove is numbered A4174. This section of road is in the 3-zone, and the number really belongs to the newer eastern section of the road – this part of the road doesn't properly link up with it. It's numbered A3029 from Bedminster onwards, so why not use that number from the A4 at Brislington?
Why they don't do that same as with the Inner Circuit Road and give up all pretence of calling it a ring road, I've no idea!
There's also a Bristol Inner Ring Road page.
