The A454 is a major road in

central England The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

. It runs from Bridgnorth to

Sutton Coldfield Sutton Coldfield or the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield, known locally as Sutton ( ), is a town and civil parish in the City of Birmingham, West Midlands, England. The town lies around 8 miles northeast of Birmingham city centre, 9 miles south ...

and is an important primary route linking Wolverhampton and Walsall with the M6 motorway.

Route

Starting from Bridgnorth, Shropshire, it runs eastwards, crossing a narrow part of

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, to Wolverhampton,

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

. It then by-passes Willenhall where it becomes the eastern section of "The

Black Country Route The Black Country Route is a road in the West Midlands region of England. Original plans for an urban motorway were drawn up in 1962 to ease congestion in the Black Country towns of Bilston and Willenhall, as well as giving the residents of Dud ...

" before meeting the M6 motorway at Junction 10 on its way to Walsall. It then runs through Aldridge and the

village of Little Aston before heading south-east to Four Oaks, to the north of

. Due to its course following part of the

ring road A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop, bypass or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city, or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist i ...

s around Wolverhampton and Walsall it has overlapping sections with the A41, A4150,

A449 The A449 is a major road in the United Kingdom. It runs north from junction 24 of the M4 motorway at Newport in South Wales to Stafford in Staffordshire. The southern section of the road, between Ross on Wye and Newport forms part of the tru ...

, A4148, A34 and

A461 road List of A roads in zone 4 in Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island ...

History

Re-numbering has taken place along the route since the 1970s. First, The Keyway was opened to the south of Willenhall town centre and became part of the A454, as did Bilston Lane - previously the A463. In the 1980s, the final stub of the route into Bridgnorth was downgraded to become the B4363 when a

by-pass Bypass may refer to: * Bypass (road), a road that avoids a built-up area (not to be confused with passing lane) * Flood bypass of a river Science and technology Medicine * Bypass surgery, a class of surgeries including for example: ** Heart bypas ...

(part of the A458) was opened around the south of the town and a new section of the A454 built meeting the A458 near Stanmore. Then, in 1995, the

was completed between Bilston and Junction 10 of the M6. The final section of this route (which began as the A463) was numbered the A454, which led to Wolverhampton Road West on the Willenhall-Walsall border being downgraded to a B-road, as had happened to the rest of the original A454 through Willenhall when The Keyway was opened some 20 years previously.

References

Roads in England Transport in Shropshire Transport in Staffordshire Roads in the West Midlands (county) Transport in Wolverhampton Transport in Walsall {{England-road-stub