The A144 is an A road in the

English county The counties of England are areas used for different purposes, which include administrative, geographical, cultural and political demarcation. The term "county" is defined in several ways and can apply to similar or the same areas used by each ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

. It runs from the town of

Bungay Bungay () is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in the English county of Suffolk.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . It lies in the Waveney Valley, west of Beccles on the edge of The Broads, and at the neck of a meand ...

, close to the border with Norfolk, to the A12 trunk road near the village of Darsham, passing through the market town of Halesworth. It is around in length and is single carriageway throughout.

History

The A144 was first numbered in 1923 and originally ran from the outskirts of Norwich, through

and Halesworth to the A12 at Darsham. The section north of Bungay was reclassified as the B1332 in the 1960s, reducing the length of the A144 by half.Ordnance Survey One-inch to the mile, Seventh Series, 1955–1961
available at the

National Library of Scotland The National Library of Scotland (NLS) ( gd, Leabharlann Nàiseanta na h-Alba, sco, Naitional Leebrar o Scotland) is the legal deposit library of Scotland and is one of the country's National Collections. As one of the largest libraries in the ...

. Retrieved 2015-10-24. Prior to the building of the Bungay northern bypass in the 1980s the road started in central Bungay at the Buttercross market place. The bypass was completed in 1983,Reeve.C (2013) ''Bungay Through Time'', Amberley Publishing Limited
Available online
retrieved 2015-10-24. re-routing the A143 around the northern edge of the town on the former Waveney Valley railway line which had closed to traffic in 1966. This led to the extension of the A144 as far as the bypass. The A143 had previously run through Bungay.

Route description

The A144 runs through the towns of Bungay and Halesworth in a generally north–south direction. It generally runs through rural areas along its route.

Bungay section

The A144 has its northernmost point at the roundabout with the A143 on the northern edge of

near the Clays printing factory.''Landranger Sheet 134 – Norwich & the Broads'', Ordnance Survey 1:50 000 sheet, 2015-10-21. It passes through the centre of the town, becoming part of the Bungay one way system established on a permanent basis in 2014.One-way system in Bungay to be made permanent
''Beccles and Bungay Journal'', 2013-12-21. Retrieved 2015-10-24.Bungay referendum to be held over roadworks
BBC news website, 2014-02-07. Retrieved 2015-10-24. This splits the road in places before it is reunited at the southern edge of the town centre having passed the

grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

St Mary's Church. The road then passes Bungay Pool and Gym on the southern edge of the town before entering a rural section.

Bungay to Halesworth

South of Bungay the A144 runs through the parishes of

St John, Ilketshall Ilketshall St John is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of the English county of Suffolk. It is south-east of the market town of Bungay and is part of a group of parishes with similar names known collectively as the Sa ...

and St Lawrence, Ilketshall, passing close to both parish churches. Between St Lawrence and Halesworth it follows the route of the Roman Stone Street for around .''Landranger Sheet 156 – Saxmundham, Aldeburgh & Southwold'', Ordnance Survey 1:50 000 sheet, 2015-10-21. Throughout this section the road is subject to a number of speed restrictions to slow traffic through villages and improve road safety.Action soon on A144 safety?
'' East Anglian Daily Times'', 2003-09-04. Retrieved 2015-10-21. In Spexhall parish it crosses the Lowestoft to Ipswich railway before arriving at the northern edge of Halesworth. The road crosses the railway again near Halesworth railway station before bypassing the town centre to the east. The bypass was built in the late 1980s and leaves the town centre mainly pedestrianised.Halesworth – Local History
Halesworth and District Museum. Retrieved 2015-10-21. The B1123 from the east meets the A144 at the northern edge of the town centre, linking Halesworth to the A145 at Blythburgh. South of the town centre the westward section of the B1123 towards Metfield and

Harleston Harleston may refer to: Places * Harleston, Devon *Harleston, Norfolk *Harleston, Suffolk People with the surname *Bernard W. Harleston (born 1930), American college administrator * Edward Harleston (1794–1826), American planter and politician ...

joins the road, before the junction with the B1117 towards Laxfield and Stradbroke is reached.

Halesworth to the A12

The road then re-enters a rural section, crossing the River Blyth before crossing the railway for a third time at a level crossing adjacent to Halesworth Golf Club. The A144 then runs through the centre of the village of Bramfield before reaching the A12 main trunk road between

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...

and London to the north of the village of Darsham.

Road Safety

The A144 is generally straight and has no record of significant safety issues. It has generally been rated as medium or low–medium risk in European Road Assessment Programme (EuroRAP) surveys.Simple Measures Save Lives
, Road Safety Foundation, May 2011. Retrieved 2015-10-21.Measuring to Manage – Tracking the safety of Britain's major road network
, Road Safety Foundation, 2013. Retrieved 2015-10-21. There were nine fatalities associated with road traffic accidents along its length between 1999 and 2010.Every death on every road in Great Britain 1999–2010
BBC news website. Data extracted for incidents on the A144 in Waveney District. Retrieved 2015-10-21. Congestion in Bungay has caused some safety problems on the A144MP lends support to Bungay bypass
''Beccles and Bungay journal, 2010-06-11. Retrieved 2015-10-24. and a one-way system was established in the town in 2014, the town having been bypassed to the north for east–west traffic in the 1980s. The road is limited to 30 miles per hour in

and Halesworth as well as through some village areas. Some 40 mph and 50 mph restrictions are also in place either side of slower speed areas.

Suffolk Constabulary Suffolk Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing Suffolk in East Anglia, England. The force serves a population of 761,000 in a mostly rural area of 1,466 square miles (3,796 km2), including 49 miles of coastline and ...

operate mobile speed cameras on the road to enforce speed limits.Safecam
Suffolk Constabulary. Retrieved 2015-10-21. On-road cycle lanes, footpaths and pedestrian crossings are used within built up areas to support road safety, as do roundabouts at the northern junction of the road with the A143 and in Halesworth.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:1-0144 Roads in England Roads in Suffolk