The A4074 is a British

A road A roads may be *motorways or freeways, usually where the local word for motorway begins with A (for example, ''Autobahn'' in German; ''Autostrada'' in Italian). * main roads or highways, in a system where roads are graded A, B and sometimes lower c ...

from the Reading suburb of Caversham to the Heyford Hill roundabout on the

Oxford Ring Road The Oxford Ring Road circles the city of Oxford, England. It is a dual carriageway ring road for most of its length apart from a short section between Woodstock Road and Banbury Road in the north of the city. The severe restrictions on traffic ...

. The road starts from a junction with the A4155 close to the northern side of Caversham Bridge (over the River Thames) before climbing through the up-market residential area of

Caversham Heights Caversham Heights is a residential area within Caversham in the English Royal County of Berkshire (until 1911, in Oxfordshire). Today Caversham is a northern suburb of the larger town of Reading. The name Caversham Heights traditionally refers t ...

. Crossing the Reading Borough boundary, the road proceeds through the small community of

Chazey Heath Chazey Heath is a hamlet in Oxfordshire, England, about north of Reading, Berkshire. It is situated on the A4074 road, between Caversham and Oxford, at its junction with the rural road to Goring Heath and Goring-on-Thames. For local governme ...

, where it enters thick woodland for several miles before emerging near the village of Woodcote. From here it crosses the more exposed ground of the

Chiltern Hills The Chiltern Hills is a chalk escarpment in England. The area, northwest of London, covers stretching from Goring-on-Thames in the southwest to Hitchin in the northeast - across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshire. ...

before bypassing both Wallingford and

Crowmarsh Gifford Crowmarsh Gifford, commonly known as Crowmarsh, is a village in the civil parish of Crowmarsh in South Oxfordshire. It is beside the River Thames opposite the market town of Wallingford, the two linked by Wallingford Bridge. Crowmarsh parish a ...

on the Wallingford bypass. It then passes by

Benson Benson may refer to: Animals *Benson (fish), largest common carp caught in Britain Places Geography Canada *Rural Municipality of Benson No. 35, Saskatchewan; rural municipality *Benson, Saskatchewan; hamlet United Kingdom * Benson, Oxfordshire ...

, passes through

Shillingford Shillingford a Hamlet (place), hamlet on the north bank of the River Thames in Warborough Civil parishes in England, civil parish in South Oxfordshire, England. Its homes are not quite with Warborough by way of one residential road. It lies m ...

, bypasses Dorchester and passes through

Nuneham Courtenay Nuneham Courtenay is a village and civil parish about southeast of Oxford. It occupies a pronounced section of the left bank of the River Thames. Geography The parish is bounded to the west by the River Thames and on other sides by field bound ...

. The road becomes dual-carriageway as it passes Sandford-on-Thames and remains so to its terminus on the Oxford Ring Road at the Heyford Hill roundabout. The road was designated in the 1980s , when the B479 between Caversham and Crowmarsh Gifford was renumbered. In 1990 the

A423 The A423 road is a primary A road in England in two sections. The main section leads from central Banbury to the A45 near Coventry. Route It starts in Banbury town centre as Southam Road and goes through the Southam Road Industrial Estat ...

from Crowmarsh to Heyford Hill was renumbered the A4074, and the road became the primary route between Reading and Oxford in place of the A329 along the River Thames. The short stretch of the Oxford Ring Road between Heyford Hill and the

Hinksey Hill Hinksey Hill is a hill and residential area south of the centre of Oxford. It is in South Hinksey civil parish, about south of the village. Hinksey Hill was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire. ...

interchange was not renumbered A4074, and remains an isolated fragment of the A423. The poor safety record of a particular stretch of this road, roughly between Chazey Heath and Woodcote, is highlighted in its local nickname, ''The 13 Bends of Death''. Its accident rate of 53 per 100 million vehicle kilometres is nearly 70% higher than average for roads of its type. A half-hourly bus service, branded as river rapids and operated by the Oxford Bus Company, runs between Reading and Oxford along the A4074, albeit passing through the centre of Wallingford rather than using the by-pass. Alternate buses are numbered X39 and X40, with the X40 also diverting from the main road to serve Woodcote.

References

External links

* *BBC radio feature
"around the A4074"SABRE – A4074
{{DEFAULTSORT:4-4074 Roads in Berkshire Roads in England Roads in Oxfordshire