[Transcript from original web page. Last updated August 2023]
Known to most locals as the 'A twenty seventy', the A2070 spans just over thirteen miles in Southeast Kent, from Brenzett to Kennington (a northern suburb of Ashford).
Originally, a mere 'B' road, running from Ashford town centre to the small Romney Marsh town of New Romney, the road was re-classified in the seventies, with the route being switched to end in the tiny village of Brenzett. Then, with the onset of the Channel Tunnel and Ashford's burgeoning growth, spurred on by the international station, the whole route was rebuilt in the early nineties and it is now part of the South Coast Trunk Route.
The '2070' is perhaps the only road in the UK to have been a B road, an A road, a primary route and a trunk road whilst maintaining the same number. In transport terms, a real 'rags to riches' story and there's even a video here.
1) Hamstreet Bypass
0m Leaving the A259 at Brenzett (approx. half way between Hastings and Folkestone), the road streaks northwards across the completely flat Romney Marsh (famed for its sheep), with only an avenue of poplar trees for company. Brenzett used to be signed as the main destination on the A2070 from Ashford in spite of its small size, but most of the signs now say 'Hastings'. However, as yet, signs on the A259 from Hastings haven't been updated to include the trunk destination of Ashford. Facilities at Brenzett include a filling station, a school and an aeronautical museum. Sadly the Fleur de Lis pub and village post office have bitten the dust.
2m Snave. After the staggered junction with roads from Brenzett Green and Ivychurch (both former incarnations of the '2070'), we pass the hamlet of Snave with our first long straight. St Augustine's church, to the right, has one service annually at harvest festival. Mischievous youths regularly alter the signs to read 'Shave.'
3m Stockbridge. It is hard to believe that at this point traffic used to grind to a halt at the Wey Street T-junction to pass single-file over a ditch.
4m Hamstreet South (Johnson's Corner). Johnson was a heroic pilot who lost his life in the Second World War. His plane was in trouble as he returned from crossing the Channel; his crew had to bail out but he tragically lost his life at this spot.
Here the old road exits right for Hamstreet. This is a large village compared to most in this area. Hamstreet has a church which was formerly a chapel, as well as a range of shops and services, a railway station, public house (Duke's Head), Indian restaurant, fish and chip shop, cafe, garage, school, surgery and dentist. The village makes a great base for walkers wishing to explore the three long distance footpaths; the Saxon Shore Way, the Greensand Way and the Royal Military Canal Path. The village is famous for its appearance in map-form on a set of postage stamps marking the bicentenery of the Ordnance Survey.
4.5m The canal forms the boundary of the marshes and runs from Seabrook (near Folkestone) to Cliff End (beyond Rye). It owes its existance purely to the threat of invasion from Napoleon. The double bends every 600 yards would have been manned as lookouts.
The bypass was constructed on giant polystyrene blocks to bridge the canal because the ground here is unusually soft. This was the first time this technique was used in the UK, being more usually used to contruct roads over ice-fields in Alaska. Our road streaks straight ahead to climb the ridge of clay hills, with views of Warehorne church to the left and Hamstreet to the right.
5.5m Hamstreet North (Orlestone). The hamlet of Orlestone was the original centre of population here and is the location of the parish church. It wasn't until the damp Romney Marshes were drained that the populace decamped to low-lying Hamstreet, originally known as plain 'Ham'.
There is an exit here to rejoin the old road which continues via Bromley Green and Kingsnorth.
The new road climbs up through the expansive woodlands (well worth a visit), and joins the Hastings to Ashford railway line to the right, running dead-straight for several miles. The four bridges over the road between here and the Southern Orbital junction were designed to blend in with the 1850s brick structures across the railway.
As we traverse more flat, open agricultural land, it is also worth noting that this line is one of only two diesel lines in the provincial Southeast.
9m Park Farm Estate. The A2070 used to have a clear run from Hamstreet to Ashford, but a roundabout was added in 2006 to accommodate traffic from various new housing projects. Park Farm is a large modern housing estate with a school, a supermarket and a little square not far from the roundabout with a convenience store. However, there is no pub and the long-promised rail halt has never materialised.
Nearby Kingsnorth still just about maintains a village feel, being separated from the burgeoning metropolis by a small ‘green belt'. The village includes a church, a school, a pub (Queen's Head), a motorbike shop and a reunion with the Greensand Way.
The A2070 continues for another mile in dead straight form, squeezed between the housing estate and the railway line. As it nears the roundabout, the road enters a 50 limit and one encounters a set of traffic lights, to enable cyclists to cross the road from Park Farm to use the path towards the town centre.
2) Ashford South Orbital Road
9.5m Having reached the main Park Farm roundabout, the A2070 then passes beneath Southern Orbital Road to spiral up sharply onto this dual carriageway section, where the national speed limit resumes but by the time you reach 70 mph you’re back into a 50 zone and then a 40.
Meanwhile, the A2042 kindly provides the main route to Ashford town centre, which includes the tented 'designer outlet' and an international station where one could board a 186-mph Eurostar train bound for Paris or Brussels until services were put into limbo thanks to COVID (apparently). The town centre is largely traffic free and the area around the tall parish church of St Mary's still maintains a quaint peacefulness. Ashford has a long history as a railway town, but the works sadly closed in the nineties.
10.5m Finberry / Waterbrook. There was originally a roundabout to serve the truck-stop here. This was removed in 2022, being replaced by traffic lights. As we near the junction there is a turning southward to serve the new Finberry Estate. At the junction itself, which is the widest part of the entire A2070, the southern exit leads to a 'lorries only' service area, and the northern exit leads to the relocated Ashford market (bright thinking, sticking it two miles out of town!), as well as business parks consisting largely of car showrooms and a McDonald's which was reported as being the second busiest branch in the world in the early 2020s (yes, seriously).
11m Sevington. Marooned to the right of the speeding traffic, one can make out the spire of Sevington church now surrounded by a huge lorry park where there were once open fields - a consequence of Brexit that leavers rarely boast about! To the left is another business park and the Highfield housing estate. There is another roundabout with a dual carriageway link (also numbered A2070) to junction 10A of the M20, shaving off a corner for coastbound traffic. This was opened in autumn 2019.
11.5m Junction 10. We enter a 40 limit to approach the Lacton Interchange, known to many as the ‘roundabout from hell.' More mild-mannered types merely know it as 'M20 junction 10.' This is the point at which the A2070 ceases to be a trunk road or primary route.
3) Willesborough to Kennington
This final section is the re-designated B2164. Its character is much different from the rest of the road, being a mostly unimproved suburban route, complete with 30mph speed limit. A mini roundabout forms the junction for the William Harvey Hospital. We descend through Willesborough Lees, and crossing the River Stour, we pass Conningbrook Lake (worth a visit), the Bachelors soup factory and the Julie Rose Athletics Stadium.
13m Little Burton Farm. Having crossed the Ashford-Canterbury railway line, one is plunged into suburbia once again. The era of an unbroken view to the North Downs is now history.
13.5m Having bridged the Ashford-Canterbury railway line via parallel humpback bridges, we pass Little Burton estate on the left as we traverse the final half-mile straight to the end of the road. At the roundabout we meet the A28 - another noteworthy route, for it encompasses 58 miles from just north of Hastings to Margate, via Tenterden, Ashford and Canterbury.
Why the A2070?
With Lydd airport being considered for expansion, we may eventually see the B2075 upgraded. If this becomes a southern extension of the A2070 via a multiplex with the A259 through Old Romney, the road would gain another 7 miles. Being really optimistic, we may even see the Lydd branch railway line reopen too.
Many drivers enjoy the Hamstreet bypass section purely because of their desire for speed, hence regular speed-traps are now a feature. The South Orbital section originally formed the boundary of urban Ashford but this is no longer the case. All in all, the road illustrates all that is good and bad about Kent in a mere 13.5 miles. It has improved travel, but it has meant the loss of some rural businesses as well as having a worryingly high accident record.
