The A4074 is a British A road from Caversham

Caversham, Berkshire

Caversham is a suburb and former village in the unitary authority of Reading, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, within the royal county of Berkshire, on the opposite bank from the rest of Reading...

, Reading

Reading, Berkshire

Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....

  to Heyford Hill on the Oxford Ring Road

Oxford Ring Road

The Oxford ring road is a ring road around the city of Oxford, England. It is a dual carriageway for most of its length apart from a short section to the North between the Woodstock and Banbury Roads....

  It takes a direct line across the Chiltern Hills

Chiltern Hills

The Chiltern Hills form a chalk escarpment in South East England. They are known locally as "the Chilterns". A large portion of the hills was designated officially as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1965.-Location:...

 to Benson

Benson, Oxfordshire

Benson is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire, England. It is about north of Wallingford at the foot of the Chiltern Hills at the confluence of a chalk stream and the River Thames, next to Benson Lock...

, bypassing Crowmarsh Gifford

Crowmarsh Gifford

Crowmarsh Gifford 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 being linked via Wallingford Bridge...

. It then passes through Shillingford

Shillingford

Shillingford is a hamlet on the River Thames in Warborough civil parish in South Oxfordshire, England. It lies on the main road between Oxford and Reading, at the junction with the A329.-History:...

, bypasses Dorchester

Dorchester, Oxfordshire

Dorchester-on-Thames is a village and civil parish on the River Thame in Oxfordshire, about northwest of Wallingford and southeast of Oxford. Despite its name, Dorchester is not on the River Thames, but just above the Thame's confluence with it...

 and passes through Nuneham Courtenay

Nuneham Courtenay

Nuneham Courtenay is a village and civil parish about southeast of Oxford.-Manor:The toponym evolved from Newenham. In the 14th century the village belonged to the Courtenay family and in 1764 "Newenham" was changed to "Nuneham"....

.

The road was designated in the 1980s , when the B479 between Caversham and Crowmarsh Gifford was renumbered. In 1990 the A423

A423 road

The A423 road is a primary A road in England which leads from central Banbury to the A45 near Coventry. It starts in Banbury town centre as Southam Road and goes through the Southam Road Industrial Estate, then just north of Banbury it crosses over the M40, from there it passes close to several...

 from Crowmarsh to Heyford Hill was renumbered the A4074, and the road became the primary route between Reading and Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

 in place of the A329

A329 road

The A329 is an east-west road in Southern England that runs from Wentworth in Surrey to Thame in Oxfordshire. The A329 starts at the A30 in Surrey and passes through the towns of Ascot, Bracknell, Wokingham, Earley, Reading, the village of Pangbourne, and Wallingford in Oxfordshire...

 along the River Thames

River Thames

The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...

. The short stretch of the Oxford Ring Road between Heyford Hill and the Hinksey Hill

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 Mapledurham

Mapledurham

Mapledurham is a small village, civil parish and country estate beside the River Thames in Oxfordshire.It should not be confused with the Mapledurham electoral ward of the nearby Borough of Reading, which is a subdivision of that town's suburb of Caversham....

 and Woodcote

Woodcote

Woodcote is a village in the civil parish in South Oxfordshire, about southeast of Wallingford and about northwest of Reading, Berkshire. It is in the Chiltern Hills, and the highest part of the village is above sea level....

, 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.

External links

• BBC radio feature: "around the A4074"
• SABRE - A4074