90-473: [REDACTED] A303 [REDACTED] M4 [REDACTED] A44 ( [REDACTED] A40 ) [REDACTED] M40 [REDACTED] A41 [REDACTED] M42 [REDACTED] A41 [REDACTED] M6 [REDACTED] A5 [REDACTED] M6 Toll [REDACTED] A51 [REDACTED] A500 [REDACTED] A53 [REDACTED] A54 [REDACTED] M56 [REDACTED] M60 [REDACTED] A57(M) [REDACTED] A56 The A34
180-520: A 0.5-kilometre (0.31 mi) tunnel or a diversion of the A303 a mile from Stonehenge, costing £44 million and £22 million respectively. Although the new Labour government cancelled many road schemes after coming to power in 1997, there was still general support for a tunnel at Stonehenge. "No-one with any sense wanted a tunnel, a flyover, a dual carriageway, and two whacking great interchanges here." Save Stonehenge, campaigning against improvements to
270-418: A 10-mile (16 km) radius around the site. A convoy of trucks managed to break through a block at Cholderton , leading to increased violence. Conflicts were repeated for several years in the 1980s; in 1988 a van overturned on the A303 after leaving a clash with police at Stonehenge, killing one passenger and injuring ten others. As well as Stonehenge, the A303 is part of one of the main routes from London to
360-406: A book with the same title; it covers the history of the road, and British road planning, together with landscape, history and general travel writing. During research, one interviewee recommended using the A303 to reach southwest England, adding it was "less boring than the motorway, and you've always got Stonehenge". The programme was praised for its eclecticism and enthusiasm for what could have been
450-609: A coach service along it, though they quickly reverted to the older coaching route further south (now part of the A30 ). Along with engineer Goldsworthy Gurney , Hanning attempted to design a steam-powered coach that could be run along the New Direct Road. After an experimental round trip to Bath , he invested £10,000 in steam carriages. Sir Charles Dance bought three carriages for trips between Cheltenham and Gloucester , but traditional horse-operated stagecoach operators sabotaged
540-697: A dual carriageway through the Blackdown Hills the A358 should be upgraded to the M5 at Taunton. In 2009, none were considered to be regional priorities, so no other improvements were likely to be funded in the short term. In 2016, Devon County Council announced they would self-fund improvements to the A303 between Ilminster and Honiton, which was not included in Highways England's list. The council put together three proposals for alternative routes, with
630-479: A faster coaching route from London to Exeter . It was initially in demand but fell into disuse as railways became popular from the 1840s onwards. It was not thought of as a significant through route when roads were initially numbered, but was revived as a major road in 1933, eventually becoming a trunk road in 1958. Since then, the A303 has gradually been upgraded to modern standards, though there are still several unimproved parts with longstanding plans to fix them. As
720-453: A fort and a chapel, as well as being a 17th and 18th century coaching route. In 1991, the down was the site of a major road protest against a section of the M3 motorway from London to the south coast of England. There had been plans since the 1970s to replace the 1930s Winchester bypass which was regularly congested due to design features that had become out of date. This was problematic owing to
810-481: A log of events. He used this log when defending other protesters in court. He visited those who had been imprisoned and helped establish a legal precedent of the right for protesters and demonstrators to have a witness while being questioned. Several artists, such as Jill Bray (b.1936) marked their protest by creating work based on the Twyford Down landscape. In 1995, the motorway section through Twyford Down
900-578: A petition of 19,000, of which 11,227 were Winchester residents. The group was also active in distributing leaflets to the local community. In March 1992, two travellers pitched a camp on the down, and discovered from local ramblers about the Bar End to Compton contract, meaning the land they were sitting on would soon be excavated. In response, noting that public inquiries had failed to stop construction, they decided to gather support. Environmental organisations attempted to take Department for Transport to
990-553: A popular alternative is to take the M4 motorway to Bristol , followed by the M5 . This is a high-quality motorway route throughout, but a considerably longer distance. Parts of the A303, such as the section past Stonehenge, have been a right of way for people, wagons, and later motor vehicles for millennia. Portions of it follow the Harrow Way , an ancient trackway across Wessex that
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#17327808812921080-592: A popular market since the Middle Ages , eventually becoming one of the most important in England by the 19th century. The market closed in the 1950s. The modern course of the A303 was designed in the early 19th century as the "New Direct Road" by William Hanning, chief engineer of the Ilminster Turnpike Trust, in order to improve coaching traffic to southwest England. Russells of Exeter began
1170-660: A primary route to southwestern England, the A303 is frequently congested on its single carriageway sections. It passes through the Stonehenge World Heritage Site and the Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty , and attempts to upgrade the road in those areas have been controversial. In particular, the Stonehenge tunnel , which would see the A303 rerouted underground, has been proposed and delayed several times. Nevertheless,
1260-483: A private members' club on the down in 1914. Outline strategic planning for the route of what was to be later known as the M3 motorway had begun in the late 1930s. The route was to link London to Basingstoke , in order to reduce the pressure on the A30 . Detailed planning for the first phase of construction, a 40 miles (64 km) section, between Sunbury on Thames and Popham , began in 1962-3. The 26 miles (42 km) section, between Lightwater and Popham, where
1350-472: A protester was manhandled by five officers. Another protester, according to a report by local MP John Denham , was strangled by officers and left unconscious on top of the Down for 30 minutes. Maggie Lambert, then a mature photography student, took numerous photographs of the protest, and challenged an injunction which suggested she had been involved with direct action . While Lord Justice Mann admitted there
1440-497: A recommendation to complete the M3 through Twyford Down. Following the completion of the motorway to Bar End in the summer of 1985, the junction at Hockley was the only set of traffic lights between London and Southampton. The Ministry of Transport (MoT) had problems purchasing the land required to complete the route past Winchester. The land required, east of the city on Twyford Down, was owned by Winchester College, which refused to sell
1530-523: A roadside monument was moved to the visitor centre; the stone monument is to Captain Eustace Loraine and Staff-Sergeant Richard Wilson, killed in July 1912 in the first fatal accident of the recently formed Royal Flying Corps . Since the 1950s, the A303 has been criticised for being inadequate for the level of traffic along it. In 1959, it was reported that a typical queue for holiday traffic along
1620-738: A tedious subject. There are a wide variety of junctions on the A303. These range from motorway-style free-flowing junctions such as that with the A36 near Wylye , to simple forks on the single carriageway sections. Some junctions, such as the Countess Roundabout with the A345 near Amesbury , and the Podimore roundabout with the A37, are known congestion hotspots because they are insufficient to cope with traffic. Other former junctions, such as
1710-491: A wider range of classes of people than had previously been the case, and included physical violence from onsite security officers. The motorway was completed as planned and provides a link of continuous motorway between Greater London and the South Coast ports. Nevertheless, the protests attracted interest from the national media, and drew attention to this form of campaigning. Subsequent road schemes took greater account of
1800-815: Is a major road in England . It runs from the A33 and M3 at Winchester in Hampshire , to the A6 and A6042 in Salford , close to Manchester City Centre. It forms a large part of the major trunk route from Southampton , via Oxford , to Birmingham , The Potteries and Manchester . For most of its length (together with the A5011 and parts of the A50 , and A49 ), it forms part of the former Winchester–Preston Trunk Road . Improvements to
1890-409: Is currently identified under several Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects. The most controversial upgrade of the A303 has been improvement to the road through the Stonehenge World Heritage Site , where it remains a congested single carriageway road. There were minor changes in the 1960s, including closing the road for a month in 1967 for levelling and resurfacing. A proposal to fully dual
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#17327808812921980-526: Is one of Britain's oldest roads, reportedly being used as long ago as 3,000 BC. Other sections run on part of the Fosse Way , a Roman road between Exeter and Lincoln constructed around 49 AD. A section of the A303 around Weyhill , west of Andover, runs alongside a ditch thought to be constructed during the Bronze Age . Several historic roads converged at Weyhill, which is believed to have hosted
2070-721: The A43 (which had originally followed the route of the present B430) and A421 . Much of the long-distance traffic formerly carried by the present A3400 now uses the M40 to Birmingham, and the M42 and M6 to by-pass the city. When the Newbury Bypass was opened in 1998, the old route through Newbury became part of the A339 and the B4640. The long planned and often postponed Alderley Edge bypass
2160-535: The Campaign for Better Transport in 2007. Veteran road protester Chris Gillham believes that his efforts in protesting against Twyford Down, where he took an active role in confronting security officers and crawling under razor wire, helped later road schemes, such as the Hindhead Tunnel to be planned with greater consideration about the environment. In 2012, several of the original protesters returned to
2250-473: The Chalkhill Blue butterfly, extinct, putting a highly visible scar on the landscape, and that they believed the new motorway would not adequately resolve traffic problems. Protesters demonstrated their opposition to the road's construction by blocking the path of construction equipment. They were met by security officers from Group 4 . In December 1992, in view of a film crew from The Observer ,
2340-527: The Glastonbury Festival . During the weekend of the festival in late June, the road is generally gridlocked as people drive towards or away from the festival grounds in Pilton . The Government's Road Investment Strategy has committed to upgrading all the remaining single carriage sections of the A303 as far as Ilminster. Highways England have made numerous proposals to improve the road, and it
2430-567: The High Court , stating that the road was against the government's own environmental protection laws. The European Commission dropped its objections that August. David Croker , who had become head of the protest group Twyford Down Association, said they "had come to depend on the European Commission so we're very disappointed." The principal arguments of the protesters were their concern about making wildlife species, such as
2520-401: The M3 and the A30 , it is part of one of the main routes from London to Devon and Cornwall. It is a primary A road throughout its length, passing through five counties . The road has evolved from historical routes, some of which are thousands of years old, including the Harrow Way and the Fosse Way . The modern route was first laid out in the early 19th century as the New Direct Road,
2610-583: The Ministry of Transport in the early 1920s, but the New Direct Road was not initially considered a major through route. Instead, the older coaching road further south via Salisbury and Yeovil was determined to be the main road. Maps produced by companies independent to the Ordnance Survey , the Government's official mapping body, marked the New Direct Road as a "class I" route anyway. The A303
2700-737: The Oxford Ring Road was completed to the west of Oxford in 1962, the old route through the city was renumbered the A4144 . On completion of the Abingdon Bypass in the 1970s, the old route from the Oxford Ring Road through Abingdon and Steventon to Chilton was partly declassified (for 5 miles (8.0 km)) and the rest renumbered A4183, B4017, A4130 and A4185. In 1987, the A34 between Walsall and Bloxwich swapped routes with
2790-573: The Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), and went to a public inquiry in 1985, where the then Planning Officer of Winchester City Council described the route as "bold" and an "imaginative solution" In February 1992, the M3 was improved between Southampton and Compton, and soon afterwards work began on clearing the route across the down. Part of the contract stipulated that the old bypass would be removed and restored to nature, restoring direct access to St. Catherine's Hill. We respectfully petition
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2880-551: The village of Chicklade , before following the terrain over to Mere , where it runs north of the town as another dual carriageway bypass. Continuing west, it passes south of Wincanton , then north of Sparkford before bypassing Ilchester and RNAS Yeovilton . Between Ilchester and Shores Bridge (over the River Parrett , east of South Petherton) the road follows the course of the Roman Fosse Way . At Yeovilton
2970-424: The 1840s. The widespread adoption of railways during railway mania caused coaching services to dry up. Along with many other turnpike routes, the New Direct Road fell into disrepair during the 19th century owing to a lack of funds and available staff. By the turn of the 20th century, it had become little more than a rough track in places, making it difficult to drive on. Road designations were first allocated by
3060-467: The 1930s, a by-pass was planned to the east of the city, passing immediately west of St. Catherine's Hill , opening to traffic on 1 February 1940. Construction of this had been controversial as it affected the Itchen Valley and offered only a partial solution to congestion, with some people calling instead for a by-pass to the north and west of Winchester. As a 1930s road construction project,
3150-484: The 3rd century, a fort was constructed on the hill, while in the 12th, a Norman chapel was constructed on the site. During the Middle Ages , paths along the down formed part of the Pilgrim's Trail from Winchester to Normandy via Portsmouth . This is commemorated by the modern Pilgrims' Trail which crosses the down. In 1675, John Ogilby noted that the main coaching route from London to Southampton ran over
3240-605: The A30 and the A303 separated, opened in June 1971; this was followed by the Sunbury to Lightwater section which opened in July 1974. The second phase was to extend the motorway 10 miles (16 km) southwards between Popham and Winchester, ending at Compton . Planning began with the first public inquiry which was held in 1971, to set the line of the motorway , and this second section
3330-567: The A303 in Hampshire caused public outcry after the work destroyed the remains of an Iron Age settlement, and consequently, £100,000 was spent on emergency rescue excavation work. The A303 is particularly congested during the Summer solstice (around 21 June), when Stonehenge forms a major part of festivities. During the so-called " Battle of Stonehenge " on 1 June 1985, where 520 people clashed violently with police, roadblocks were set up over
3420-501: The A303 past Stonehenge was announced in the mid-1970s, but was criticised as being "an environmental disaster" and comparable to driving a dual carriageway through Westminster Abbey . A more comprehensive solution was discussed in 1989's Roads for Prosperity programme, which included upgrading the road to dual carriageway and bypassing Winterborne Stoke . In 1993, the Minister for Roads, Kenneth Carlisle , announced plans for either
3510-405: The A303 would be upgraded as part of a new roads programme that would deliver 1,000 new miles of motorway by 1980. A bypass of Marsh was opened in 1976; it was (and remains) the only dual carriageway upgrade of the A303 through the Blackdown Hills. By the mid-1980s, the A303 had been extended from its original fork by Micheldever Station , next to the A30, eastwards to meet the M3 motorway , and
3600-466: The A303. In 2003, 7.7 miles (12.4 km) of improvements, including the proposed 1.3-mile (2.1 km) road tunnel bored under land adjacent to Stonehenge, were announced by the Secretary of State for Transport as part of a package of road upgrades. A public enquiry into whether the plans were adequate was announced; it concluded that they were, despite protests from charities and landowners that
3690-572: The A303. The road was the inspiration for the song "303" on their debut album K . The road was also mentioned in the Levellers ' song " Battle of the Beanfield ", about the attack by police on travellers celebrating the Solstice at Stonehenge (1 June 1985): "Down the '303 at the end of the road, Flashing lights, exclusion zones". Prior to the broadcast of Series 15 of Top Gear in 2010,
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3780-498: The A34 was Winchester to Oxford, much shorter than it is today. It was extended to Manchester on 1 April 1935, replacing part of the A42 (Oxford to Birmingham through Shipston-on-Stour , Stratford-upon-Avon and Henley-in-Arden ), A455 (Birmingham to Stafford), part of the A449 (Stafford to Newcastle-under-Lyme) and A526 (Newcastle to Manchester). By 1953 the route was as follows: When
3870-556: The A344 near Stonehenge, have been removed in order to help traffic flow and avoid congestion and accidents. Notes Citations Sources Twyford Down Twyford Down is an area of chalk downland lying directly to the southeast of Winchester , Hampshire , England next to St. Catherine's Hill and close to the South Downs National Park . It has been settled since pre- Roman times, and has housed
3960-595: The City Council to heed the strength of the case against the M3 and by vote in Council to rescind their previous support for the motorway between Popham and Compton. Petition from the M3 Joint Action Group to Winchester City Council Protests against the completion of the M3 had been ongoing since 1973, with the formation of the M3 Joint Action Group by David Pare . The group gathered together
4050-426: The Government said it had carefully listened to all opinions on the tunnel, the decision to proceed was condemned by environmental campaigners. In July 2021, the tunnel proposals were overturned in the High Court of Justice . A hearing concluded that transport secretary Grant Shapps had "acted irrationally and unlawfully" by backing the project and failed to properly assess the environmental impacts of each asset on
4140-575: The High Court. The case was lost the following February, when the court upheld the government's decision. The village of Winterbourne Stoke is immediately west of the World Heritage Site, and proposals to upgrade the A303 in this area have generally provided a bypass for it. There have also been proposals to build a bypass as a standalone project, without requiring the improvements around Stonehenge. In November 2004, plans to improve
4230-439: The M3. The Rev. Michael Till explained that "the noise comes beaming straight across The Close. It does change life having a perpetual background noise". Also in that year, veterans of a Twyford Down protest threatened a new campaign of direct action in response to 200 new road-building proposals in the government's recently unveiled ten-year transport plan. Rebecca Lush went on to found Road Block in 2005, which became part of
4320-469: The M40, the A34 forms an important route carrying freight from Southampton to the Midlands . Because of the volume of traffic, bypasses were built along this route – at Newbury on the A34, and at Twyford Down near Winchester on the M3 – but these were controversial for environmental reasons. Notably instead of cutting a short road tunnel through Twyford Down, the escarpment was carved out for
4410-624: The Stonehenge World Heritage Site as required by planning law. Campaigners for the Stonehenge Alliance welcomed the decision, but Historic England expressed frustration over the "missed opportunity to remove the intrusive sight and sound of traffic past the iconic monument". The Department for Transport reinstated the scheme in July 2023, but the campaigners against the tunnel challenged it in December in
4500-530: The Twyford Down cutting, the pace of road construction in the United Kingdom slowed. In 1994, a government committee concluded that building more roads would only encourage more traffic, and that the way to ease congestion and pollution was to take measures to control car use rather than accommodate more. When Labour came to power in 1997, many road schemes were cancelled. In 2000, campaigners mounted legal action to preserve an area of grassland created on
4590-491: The aim of securing £170 million of Government funding once a preferred route is chosen. Plans to improve the A303 between Sparkford and Ilchester by upgrading three miles of single carriageway to high-quality dual carriageway were approved by the government in February 2021. Work began on this section that October. Kula Shaker performed their first impromptu gig at the Glastonbury Festival , which can be reached via
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#17327808812924680-433: The area which is renowned for its dramatic rolling scenery and ecologically rich grassland. Its history can be traced back to pre-Roman times. Along it run a series of trackways known as "dongas", which resulted from farmers herding animals to surrounding markets. St Catherine's Hill , in the centre of the down has been identified as a human settlement more than 3,000 years ago and pre-dates the foundation of Winchester . In
4770-460: The bypass also reduced traffic volumes from the village of Twyford and removed the road that separated St. Catherine's Hill from the city. When interviewed for The Independent , local residents said the latter had transformed the place, one adding "St. Catherine's Hill used to be cut off from Winchester by the A33. Now there's open, peaceful countryside. It's wonderful." Soon after the construction of
4860-570: The bypass was built to then-contemporary standards, including at-grade crossings at Bar End and at Hockley. As time progressed, the bypass became more and more of a bottleneck as roads around it were improved to higher standards, particularly after the opening of the A33 Chandler's Ford Bypass in 1968 and the A34 King's Worthy Link the following year, which meant all long distance traffic, as opposed to merely that from London to Southampton,
4950-449: The cast of Jeremy Clarkson , Richard Hammond and James May were spotted and recorded driving along the A303 in what appeared to be house cars. The video was recorded and put on YouTube . In 2011, BBC Four broadcast the documentary A303 Highway to the Sun . The writer Tom Fort drove the length of the A303 in a Morris Traveller , making various stops. The following year, he published
5040-633: The city. These proposals had gone through two public inquiries in 1971 and 1976, respectively. The first in 1971, the line order inquiry, had considered the proposed route of the motorway; and in 1973 the government approved this route. The second inquiry, in 1976, was to consider both the stopping up of side roads and the compulsory purchase orders for the land needed to build the motorway. The latter inquiry in particular had drawn significant objection from protesters, including masters from Winchester College . Morgan-Giles argued in Parliament to support
5130-496: The environment or were cancelled. Several protesters at Twyford Down subsequently formed campaign groups, or joined existing ones such as the Campaign for Better Transport . Twyford Down sits to the southeast of Winchester and the northeast of Twyford, and is part of the Winchester-East Meon Anticline . The down's 142-metre (466 ft) summit, known as Deacon Hill, is towards the north-eastern edge of
5220-563: The henge. After Winterbourne Stoke the route once again becomes dual carriageway from Yarnbury Castle and across the Wylye valley, meeting the A36 at Deptford . There is then another section of single carriageway road, coming out of the valley and up to the crest of the Great Ridge, before a further section of dual down from the hill crest near Berwick St Leonard . On reaching the valley, it reverts again to single carriageway through
5310-465: The lack of available land between Winchester College and St. Catherine's Hill. After several public inquiries, particularly with using the water meadows near the college, a route was chosen that took the motorway over the down in a cutting. Although protests against the M3 had been ongoing since the early 1970s, the protest-action on top of the down, described in 1994 as the most controversial British motorway project ever to start construction, attracted
5400-471: The land to the government because part was a water meadow . The desired route, however, had been chosen to avoid St. Catherine's Hill, and pass to the south. Proposals were made for a tunnel through Twyford Down, but the estimated cost for this was £ 75 million more than the estimated cost for a cutting, and the government dismissed the plans. The final route chosen ran to the south of St. Catherine's Hill, taking 1.91 hectares (4.7 acres) (approximately 4.5%) of
5490-450: The land, with the exception of a dual-carriageway bypass of Marsh . The end of the A303 is reached where it joins the A30, which enters as a side road and continues as the main route for Honiton and Exeter . The A303 roughly parallels the West of England line , which competes for long-distance traffic. Although the A303 as a whole is designed to be part of a route from London to Exeter,
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#17327808812925580-455: The news, but a survey suggested 90% still preferred a diversion away from the stones instead. The plan was finalised the following year as part of a £2 billion programme. Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said the improvements would "transform" the A303 and would be important for removing congestion. In November 2020, the plans were confirmed again in a report by Transport Secretary Andrew Stephenson , and endorsed by Highways England . Though
5670-641: The northern section, at junction 9 of the M40 motorway . It continues south as the western part of the Oxford Ring Road , crossing the River Thames on the A34 Road Bridge . It then bypasses Abingdon , Didcot , and Newbury before finishing at junction 9 of the M3 motorway . This part of the A34 forms the E05 European route. It is a dual carriageway throughout. Together with parts of the M3 and
5760-448: The option of going over or through Twyford Down had not been considered, and the alignment of the proposed six- lane M3 motorway (three lines in each direction) was to run through the Itchen valley roughly west of the existing four-lane bypass. This would also require the realignment of the Itchen Navigation into the water meadows. However, there would be further screening of the motorway and pedestrian access to St. Catherine's Hill from
5850-414: The parallel B4210. In 1991, shortly after the completion of the M40 motorway, the road between Oxford and Solihull was renumbered. Between Chipping Norton and Solihull the road lost its primary route status and was renumbered A3400 , and south of Chipping Norton the route became part of an extended A44 . The A34 was diverted north from the Oxford Ring Road to the M40 along parts of the former routes of
5940-454: The remaining below-standard parts of the A303 were considered in the 1990s, including improvements west of Ilminster towards Marsh, and the single-carriageway section around Yeovilton. These proposals were all cancelled in 1998. The schemes were later remitted to the London to South West and South Wales Multi-Modal Study (SWARMMS), and the conclusion of the report was that all of the schemes east of Ilminster should go ahead; and to avoid building
6030-405: The road connects with the A37 which joins it until it reaches the end of the bypass. The dual carriageway ends at South Petherton . It runs north of Ilminster as a three-lane single carriageway where it meets the A358 , providing access to the M5 motorway . The A303 is of a lower standard west of Ilminster. It passes through the Blackdown Hills as a narrow road following the contours of
6120-427: The road could be as much as 15 miles (24 km). In 2017, over 35 miles (56 km) of the road west of Amesbury remains single carriageway, interrupted by various sections of dual carriageway. The switches between the latter to the former act as bottlenecks and are major sources of congestion along the route. Upgrading the remaining sections of road is difficult due to environmental concerns; in 1986, an upgrade of
6210-415: The road in the 1960s included widening small sections to 3 lanes (forming the so-called suicide lane ) or to dual carriageway; but none were longer than 2 miles (3.2 km). Andover and Amesbury were bypassed in 1969, while general improvements to the road, including additional dualling, took place throughout the 1970s. In 1971, the Environment Secretary , Peter Walker announced the entire length of
6300-532: The road remains a popular alternative to motorway driving. The A303 is about 93 miles (150 km) long. It starts at the M3 motorway south of Basingstoke at Junction 8, as a dual carriageway . It heads south-west, crossing the A34 near Bullington before passing south of Andover . The road then passes by Solstice Park and Bulford Camp before bypassing Amesbury and entering the Stonehenge World Heritage Site . The route then becomes single carriageway before passing Stonehenge itself. The presence of
6390-403: The road through a World Heritage Site has been controversial for decades. As part of a long-term strategy to restore a natural landscape around Stonehenge, the A344 road which once joined the A303 at Stonehenge has been removed, following the removal of other features over the last century including the Stonehenge Aerodrome which used to span the A303 around 500 metres (1,600 ft) west of
6480-488: The road traffic of the motorway, though the route of the old A33 closed as a result. In 2004, the junction with the M4 motorway was re-engineered from a roundabout to free-flowing grade separated junction . The idea that the cancelled Oxford–Cambridge Expressway (linking the current A34 near Oxford to the A14 near Cambridge) would have been designated as A34, did not have any official status. The original (1922) route of
6570-421: The route and Hanning's carriages did not gain widespread adoption. Nevertheless, the New Direct Road became increasingly used as a coaching route between London and Exeter in the 1820s. Ann Nelson 's "Exeter Telegraph", a coach from London to Devon via the New Direct Road, could travel from Piccadilly to Devonport in a little over 21 hours. It remained a popular coaching route until the arrival of railways in
6660-476: The route of the M3 was then fixed as far as Bar End, to the north of St. Catherine's Hill, that its route from there to Compton would undergo a fresh study, specifically stating that the Winchester Bypass should continue to be operational during construction of any new road, and that environmental matters were a key concern. By February 1983, consulting engineers Mott, Hay and Anderson had submitted
6750-472: The route of the old A33 Winchester bypass in mitigation of the land lost to the motorway which was threatened by a Park and Ride site. The legal action failed and the campaigners claimed that they had been betrayed for a second time. Land was provided elsewhere in mitigation. In 2004, Winchester Cathedral received £86,000 from the Highways Agency in compensation for increased traffic noise from
6840-645: The route through the Blackdown Hills (an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty ) were abandoned in favour of upgrading the A358 from Ilminster to the M5 motorway at Taunton to reduce traffic west of Ilminster. The scheme was the subject of a public consultation in March 2007, and incorporated plans to widen the Ilminster bypass from South Petherton to a dual two-lane road. The plans were shelved in 2009 when it
6930-560: The scheme, pointing out that Winchester and the Down had been cut off since construction of the old bypass anyway, and growth of Southampton Docks meant that improved links from London and the Midlands would become increasingly essential. This scheme was eventually rejected due to intensifying local pollution and disturbance. In 1981, Kenneth Clarke , then the Parliamentary Secretary for Transport, stated that, since
7020-469: The section of road forming the Newbury Bypass around Newbury were the scene of significant direct action environmental protests in the 1990s. It is 151 miles (243 km) long. The road is in two sections. The northern section runs south through Manchester and Cheadle , and bypasses Handforth , Wilmslow and Alderley Edge , before passing through Congleton , Newcastle-under-Lyme , and
7110-501: The southern suburbs of Stoke-on-Trent . It then continues south via Stone , Stafford , Cannock and Walsall , passes through the middle of Birmingham (where it briefly merges with the A41 ), before meeting the M42 motorway at junction 4 south of Solihull . The northern section of the road in effect combines with the motorway network and then resumes with the southern section. The southern section begins 45 miles (72 km) SSE of
7200-460: The top of the down, going directly from Alresford to Twyford , avoiding Winchester. This remained the main coaching route until about 1800, when an alternative route via Winchester (now mostly the A31 and former A33 ) was formed. During this time, and up to the 19th century, the area was sometimes known as Morestead Down after the nearby village of Morestead . Hockley Golf Club was established as
7290-571: The tunnel should be longer. Two years later, it was announced that there was to be a review of the options for Stonehenge, starting in January 2006, as costs had doubled. The government cancelled the whole scheme at the end of 2007 owing to excessive environmental constraints. In 2016, the Stonehenge tunnel was revived by the Government, who awarded a £17.5m design contract to build a 1.8-mile (2.9 km) tunnel. Local residents were pleased with
7380-486: Was a completely uninterrupted dual carriageway westwards as far as Amesbury. Ilminster was bypassed around this time; however the new road was built as single carriageway with 3 lanes, which caused a serious safety hazard leading to several fatal accidents. In 2013, after decades of debate, the A303's junction with the A344 , just east of Stonehenge, was closed as part of improvements to visitor facilities. During this work,
7470-417: Was a matter for the police. The protest attracted different classes of people, the many of whom were peaceful. According to Denham, a popular phrase amongst those protesting was "I never thought that I would find myself doing something like this." Stephen Ward, who had been involved in the original 1970s protest, decided in early 1993 that excessive force was being used against protesters, and started keeping
7560-707: Was completed in November 2010, ahead of schedule and within the £52 million budget. The official opening ceremony was conducted by the Chancellor of the Exchequer , the Rt Hon George Osborne MP, on 19 November 2010. A303 road (Great Britain) The A303 is a trunk road in southern England, running between Basingstoke in Hampshire and Honiton in Devon via Stonehenge . Connecting
7650-591: Was concluded that the dualling could not be funded from the Regional Funding Allocation for the South West. In 2016, the plans were revived by Highways England, with a final decision expected to be announced the following year. In 2019, the preferred route of the A358 upgrade was revealed, and in 2020 the government confirmed funding for the A358 scheme and dualling of the A303 between Sparkford and Podimore. A number of other schemes for
7740-517: Was created on 1 April 1933 as the "Alternative London – Exeter route" after the Ministry of Transport realised the New Direct Road was still useful as a major road for motor traffic. The route created a long bypass for sections of the A30 that ran south of it. In 1958, the Ministry of Transport upgraded the A303 to trunk road status. It believed it was easier to upgrade than the parallel A30 as it passed through fewer towns. Initial improvements to
7830-625: Was no evidence to suggest she had done anything more than take photographs, the injunction was upheld. Protester Rebecca Lush of the Donga Tribe , who had stayed on the down from September to the night of eviction, later claimed "It was a horrific experience and very violent. We were dragged through thorns and we were being kicked and punched and someone pulled out a clump of my hair." In March 1993, Kenneth Carlisle , then Minister for Roads and Traffic, refused to order an inquiry into any wrongdoing or excessive force by security officers, stating it
7920-556: Was opened in 1985. The third and final phase was to extend the motorway from Winchester to Southampton and the M27 motorway , and the northern part of this section was to impact on Winchester's bypass. Winchester had been a traffic bottleneck for many years as several major routes passed through the historic city centre, including the A31, A33 and A34 , as well as smaller routes like the A272 . In
8010-466: Was opened, making the M3 a continuous motorway. The old A33 Winchester Bypass between Bar End and Compton was then closed and removed. The new cutting caused the loss of 1.91 hectares (4.7 acres) of SSSI land. To redress this, the old route of the A33 was planted with 7.2 hectares (18 acres) of species-rich grassland under the supervision and monitoring of the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology . Replacing
8100-414: Was using the bypass. Morgan Morgan-Giles described the bypass as "utterly inadequate and dangerous, as everybody who lives in or near Winchester will agree. The accident figures are appalling. Therefore, a new motorway somewhere to relieve the traffic is urgently needed." The crossing at Bar End was grade separated in 1973, but the junction at Hockley remained a key point of congestion. At this point,
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