Roadie Birthdays

 One hundred years ago (-ish) travelling began to become more exciting for those who owned or otherwise travelled in a motor car; the novel mode of transport for the masses.  In the 1920s the governments of the day encouraged the future with the construction of a large number of regional road links, bypasses and other arterial roads.  Many of them, while built as single carriageways had land reserved from the start to widen into dual two- or three-lane roads as need arose.

The cover of a post WW1 reprint of the 1914 Half Inch to One Mile centred on St Albans. 
Although it shows the red, brown and yellow of the as yet unplanned classification, there
are no road numbers, first introduced from 1923. 

The east end of St Albans benefitted from this largesse with the addition of a highway to bypass Hatfield Road and Watford Road.  It was, of course, part of the North Orbital, or St Albans Bypass, an intended route to skirt outer northern districts of London.  We now know it as the A414, though it was originally numbered the A405. The full scheme would extend from Hatfield to Hertford and onwards to Maldon.  In the opposite direction it was constructed from Garston to Maple Cross, with the awkward section via Watford later neatly skirted as A41 which was then subsumed into the A25.

Which brings us to a more specific birthday, for by 1923 the time had arrived to label main roads more systematically, and in April of that year the plan for Road Classification was born.  A detailed history of of road numbering can be found at the roads website here.

Standard sign for an A class road along St Albans Bypass (North Orbital) at Colney Heath.

We should ask at this point, how did the classification scheme affect St Albans?  For those not familiar with the numbers on road signs and wish to begin with an Ordnance Survey map, A roads were coloured red; B roads in brown and unclassified roads of a given standard or width (including some C roads) in yellow.  From the post-war period was added the Motorway class in blue.  Many of us will also be familiar with the (T) and (M) suffixes representing Trunk routes and A roads with some motorway features. And to add to any confusion parts of some roads are given two numbers, the second in parenthesis as one route leading to another.

Beginning with the most senior classification we are "blessed" with a section of the M25 which hums very close in places, although before this highway the M10 between Park Street roundabout and the M1 at Bricket Wood was provided to speed us on our way.  Now, however, M10 has been downgraded to become A405.  So far we have been bequeathed two motorways and one former motorway.

St Albans bypass, built in the 1920s and thirties, and frequently upgraded since, has three roundabouts between Roehyde and the Noke (former Hummingbird), and one set of traffic lights if you ignore the multi-set at London Colney roundabout.  As indicated above the bypass was part of a longer arterial road numbered A405, although nowadays its number is A414 between the A1(M) and A1001 at Roehyde, and Park Street roundabout.

The former A414 Hatfield Road is now the A1057, an ordinary main road!

We have lost the numbers A5 and A6 in the city (many will say "thank goodness") although London Road and London Colney High Street keep their A status with A1081 (so not A6 something); and St Stephen's Hill, City Centre and Redbourn Road is no longer A5 but A5183.

The main road which snakes its way from St Peter's roundabout, through Fleetville and Oaklands to the Comet was known as the A414 (so the number itself now has an upgrade to the Bypass!) but now joins all of the other four digit conversions.  Although we all know it as Hatfield Road, to everyone else it is officially A1057.

The road to St Albans receives two road numbers, first to complete Comet Way and then the
bracketed Hatfield Road.

Sign along the former ring road for local traffic to the city centre, the route to Hatfield via Sandpit
Lane and shopping destination at The Quadrant.

Just three B roads grace our local patch and one is quite short.  B691 is classified from St Albans Museum + Gallery (or the Town Hall, or the Old Town Hall) to The Crown where, of course it becomes the aforementioned A1057.  No sign confirms the route to or along the B691 so it is simply a number on a database, map, or on Google where road numbers appear to replace street names, even if the latter do prove to be more useful.  The other two B roads are Sandridge Road B651 and Watford Road B4630.

That is it.  Maps identify other roads as unclassified but are not given numbers: Sandpit Lane/Oaklands Lane, the former ring road we are not supposed to name (Batchwood/Beech/Marshalswick/ Beechwood/ Ashley/ Drakes); Camp Road and Cell Barnes Lane.  But you will sometimes discover roads such as Colney Heath Lane and Hill End Lane in yellow, though yellow is used more sparingly in modern online maps such as the fantastic Open Start Maps.

Classified routes through St Albans.
COURTESY OPEN STREET MAP CONTRIBUTORS

Whether the numbering is important for us is debatable but that's probably not the point; it is a system which is given a code, just like every lamp post and road sign has a reference number – they must be important to someone.  But on longer journeys we, or our satnavs, rely on road numbers to help us to our destinations.

Happy 100th birthday A5, and all the rest!