A4123 | |
---|---|
Route information | |
Length | 12 mi (19 km) |
History | Construction completed 1927 |
Major junctions | |
Northwest end | Wolverhampton Ring Road 52°34′46″N2°07′32″W / 52.579389°N 2.125453°W |
A4150 A4039 A463 A457 A461 A4034 M5 Jnc. 2 A456 A4040 | |
Southeast end | Harborne, Birmingham 52°27′32″N1°57′48″W / 52.458971°N 1.963203°W |
Location | |
Country | United Kingdom |
Primary destinations | Birmingham, Dudley, Wolverhampton |
Road network | |
The A4123, is a major road in the West Midlands of the UK linking Wolverhampton with Birmingham via Dudley, also known as the Birmingham New Road (Wolverhampton to Dudley) and Wolverhampton Road (Dudley to Birmingham). It was one of the first major new roads constructed for use by motor traffic, and was designed as an unemployment relief project. [1] It runs roughly northwest to southeast from the Wolverhampton Ring Road via Dudley to Harborne, west Birmingham. [2] Until the 1960s, the road continued along the former B4123 to the A441 near Kings Norton. This became part of the A4040 during the 1960s when the Outer Ring Road came into existence.
Construction of the road began on 4 February 1924, and was built in individual sections. [3] The route went through Bury Hill Park in Rounds Green, which resulted in the park lodge and refreshment rooms having to be demolished and rebuilt. [4] It provided jobs for at least 470 unemployed workers in surrounding areas including Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Dudley, West Bromwich, Smethwick and Oldbury. [5] It was opened by the then Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII of the United Kingdom) on 2 November 1927. [6]
The road has previously been a Trunk Road (looked after by the Highways Agency), but was detrunked on 13 November 2008. [7]
National Express West Midlands services 8 and X8 serve the majority of the A4123 from Wolverhampton to Dudley while National Express West Midlands service 126 serves most of the section from Dudley to Birmingham.
West Midlands is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the larger West Midlands region of England. A landlocked county, it is bordered by Staffordshire to the north and west, Worcestershire to the south, and is surrounded by Warwickshire to the east. The largest settlement is the city of Birmingham.
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Birmingham Corporation Tramways operated a network of tramways in Birmingham from 1904 until 1953. It was the largest narrow-gauge tramway network in the UK, and was built to a gauge of 3 ft 6 in. It was the fourth largest tramway network in the UK behind London, Glasgow and Manchester.
The Stourport Ring is a connected series of canals forming a circuit, or canal ring, around Worcestershire, The Black Country and Birmingham in The Midlands, England. The ring is formed from the River Severn, the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, the Stourbridge Canal, the Dudley Canals, the Birmingham Canal Navigations and the Worcester and Birmingham Canal.
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The BCN Main Line, or Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line is the evolving route of the Birmingham Canal between Birmingham and Wolverhampton in England.
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. Located 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Birmingham, the population in 2021 was 263,700.
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The Ridgacre Branch is a canal branch of the Wednesbury Old Canal, part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations, in the West Midlands, England. It opened in 1828, to serve collieries and iron works, and was disused by the 1960s. Except for its branches and a small section at the eastern end, which have been filled in, most of it is still in water, but it is not navigable as a low-level bridge carrying the Black Country New Road spans the entrance.
Stephen (Steve) Field RBSA is an English sculptor, muralist and mosaicist, active mainly in the West Midlands, particularly the Black Country, where a number of his works are on public display. He has been resident artist and public art adviser to Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, since 1988, and is a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, the Contemporary Glass Society and the British Association of Modern Mosaic. He coordinated Dudley's Millennium Sculpture Trail.