[Transcript from original web page] This page details all the four-figure A and B roads of the Ashford and Shepway (Folkestone and Hythe) districts of Kent, UK. For details of the two and three figure roads in the area, search for the 'Sabre Roads' website. These are the A20, A28, A251, A252, A259, A260, A261, A262, A274 & A292. There is also a YouTube video of the A262 here.
Fancy a look at Ashford in the 1990s? Search for 'Ashford Ring Road' on YouTube and enjoy!
A2008 (now part of A259) Hythe (0.1 mile)
A truly microscopic road which would have linked the A259 and A261 before the one way system existed. Scanlon's Bridge Road has traffic lights at either end and passes the light railway station and bridges the Royal Military Canal.
A2009 (now part of A262) High Halden (0.3 mile)
Having traversed some of the finest Wealden scenery and passed through quintessentially Kentish villages like Goudhurst and Biddenden, the A262 used to have one final trick up its sleeve in branching eastward to come out on the A28 a nanometre closer to Ashford! The couple of hundred yards straight ahead was the A2009.
B2011 (formerly A20) Folkestone to Dover (7 miles)
Folkestone is officially the sunniest place in the UK as well as the birthplace of William Harvey, who discovered the circulation of the blood. The railway bridge across the attractive harbour was once regularly crossed by Orient Express trains. At a gradient of 1 in 30, this is one of the steepest lines in Britain. Sadly the passenger ferry service is now redundant - a bit like the old A20 between Folkestone and Dover
Leaving M20 junction 13, the old Folkestone bypass is first claimed by the A259 and then the A260 (the two roads cannon off of one another at Holywell Roundabout). It is not until the A260 departs at the next roundabout, after a brief dual carriageway section, that the B2011 gets its turn.
Leaving the roundabout, the dual carriageway funnels into a 'single' with crawler lane to tackle the winding climb up onto the White Cliffs of Dover. There is a pub at the top, and central cross-hatching through the village of Capel Le Ferne. A French sounding placename is appropriate as this is about as close as you can get to France on the British road network. The Battle of Britain memorial is located nearby. We gently descend through this modern looking village to the roundabout beneath the new A20.
Continuing straight on, we are treated to a fine view of Dover's twelfth century castle, which has a Roman lighthouse in its grounds next to a Saxon church. This beacon was constructed in 46AD and was originally one of a pair in Dover. Three transmitter beacons also dominate the skyline.
Back to the road, we descend into a valley past a former garage forecourt (Hougham) and into the suburbs of Dover. There is a mini-roundabout, where we continue ahead to bridge the railway station (Dover Priory) and arrive at the roundabout on the A256, where we are again at sea level.
A2033 Central Folkestone (0.7 mile)
This road takes over Sandgate Road heading into the town centre from Sandgate, at the point where the A259 dives off down Earls Avenue. We turn left at the first roundabout and right at the second into Bouverie Road West, arriving at Middelburg Square, named after one of Folkestone's twin towns. The old HQ of a large holiday company is sited in the middle of what can be loosely described as the Folkestone ring road. We follow this round and descend via the brief dual carriageway to the roundabout, where we turn left. The A2033 continues ahead along Foord Road beneath the impressive 130-foot-high railway viaduct to rejoin the A259 by the Red Cow pub. However, if you turn right down New Street before the viaduct, this little one way system shares the 2033 number, although Dover Road (where it leads to) is now part of the A260.
A2034 Mototrway to Central Folkestone (1.5 miles)
The A20 used to run via Cheriton High Street and Cherry Garden Avenue. Today, it does a disappearing act between junctions 12 and 13 of the M20. Cherry Garden Avenue is now part of the A2034 - a short, grassy dual carriageway heading south that has been narrowed. At the busy box-junction turn left. There is cemetary on one side and a supermarket on the other. At the roundabout by Radnor Park and the Park Inn, we turn right to pass under the railway bridge by Folkestone Central station, before bearing left to meet the eastbound part of Shorncliffe Road. We eventually reach Middelburg Square (actually an oval). To travel the A2034 in the opposite direction, we leave the 'square' via Cheriton Gardens and turn right at the roundabout to briefly join the A259 back to the railway bridge.
A2042 South Ashford to Kennington (4 miles)
This road begins at the junction of the A2070 Hamstreet bypass and the A2070 Southern Orbital. This means that the westernmost part of the Southern Orbital is the non-primary A2042. At the roundabout with Malcolm Sargeant Road (named after the famous conductor who was born in Ashford), we turn right, to head north along the dead-straight dual carriageway (Romney Marsh Road), heading for the tented designer outlet complex, which was built on the old railway works. In terms of surface area, this is the largest tented structure in Europe, even beating the notorious Greenwich Dome. The reason that the fields to the right have been left untouched while Ashford has expanded further out is because they form the flood-plain of the East Stour river.
After the roundabout for the B2229 we continue towards Ashford International Station, redesigned in the nineties to accommodate Eurostar services via the Channel Tunnel. History is attempting to repeat itself here, as it was the coming of the railway that brought about the town's first spurt of growth in the mid-nineteenth century.
There is a junction for Newtown, and after passing beneath the covered walkway to the station, the main carriageway bears sharp right at a traffic-lighted junction to cross the railway bridge, and 'then 'singles' to proceed along Station Road, which used to be part of the legendary Ashford ring road, much loved by boy-racers. After passing the Platform 5 pub (now Cappadocia) and a bowling alley, the route turns left onto the A292 by the huge, concrete block of the Panorama (formerly Charter House), and then turns right into the single carriageway North Street, before reaching a T-junction with Canterbury Road and turning right. The A28 then joins from the left just in time to bridge the M20 and continues with a bus lane on one side and a cycle lane on the other.
Soon we part company with the Hastings to Margate road and the A2042 makes a comeback branching left as the former A251, Faversham Road - (the A251 now begins at M20 junction 9).
So we wind a little and then gently climb straight ahead through Kennington, passing a few shops, the Rose Inn and a school, to meet the A251 at a set of traffic lights on the northern fringe of the town, just before the stately looking gates of Eastwell Manor.
B2060 (defunct) Hawkinge to Lydden (9 miles)
A dog-leg of a road that has now been amputated! It used to run through two valleys. The first, the Alkham Valley, is an attractive alternative to the A20 between Folkestone and Dover.
Our route leaves the A20 and A260 at the top of the North Downs and runs beside the thundering A20 for a mile or so before passing underneath it. The route remains a fairly fast journey through the green and pleasant valley until a series of progressively lower speed limits escort you into Alkham. This is a small village with a pub (The Marquis), and it squashes the road and gives it a sharp double-twist at the centre. Soon we are accelerating again and the road becomes tree-lined and descends to pass the grounds of Kearsney Abbey. Then we pass under the railway before a T-junction with the former A2. Worth visiting nearby is the working water-mill at Crabble which produces its own flour and is run as a charity.
Turning left, we pass through the village of Kearsney (which has its own station), before noticing that we’re in another valley - this one carved out by the River Dour, from which nearby Dover takes its name. We climb and descend through Lydden, famous for its motor racing circuit. This is a small, spread out community, located just before the sustained climb to meet the modern race-track known as the A2. Our road sprawls out into a dual carriageway as it climbs to meet it, but is nonetheless ‘unclassified’ with the 2060 number remaining defunct.
B2061 (defunct) Folkestone (0.5 miles)
This was a remarkably short affair, today merely known as Canterbury road - a short link with a double-bend in the middle through suburbia, passing a few shops en route. The beginning was just past the double-arched railway bridge over the A260 (Dover Road), and the end was near the Black Bull pub on the A259, also called Canterbury Road, but more logically actually heading towards Canterbury.
B2062 (now B2170) Shorncliffe to Sandgate (1 mile)
Some bright spark has redesignated this road as the B2170. Bizarre!
Anyway, this runs on from the southbound B2063, which splits westward at Shorncliffe. We round a right-hand bend and descend steeply into the Enbrook Valley via a wooded hill. The left-hand bend at the bottom is very sharp, and the ensuing houses remind us that we never really left suburbia. Soon we reach the T-junction with the A259 in Sandgate - a Mecca for antique lovers. The huge, glass building and tented structure to our left was the headquarters of a well-known holiday company. A more historic structure is the Martello Tower here; one of many of these rounded structures which can be found all along the South Coast. They were built to defend our shore against Napoleon should he have chosen to attack.
B2063 Cheriton to Seabrook (2.5 miles)
Leaving the A20 in Cheriton, we pass beneath a railway bridge and by the former Victoria pub along a street lined with terraced housing. Beyond the industrial park on the left, we branch right. The road is straight and wide, passing army barracks (the home of the Gurkha regiment), until we reach the very edge of town and turn 90 degrees left. After another straight, with attractive views into the valley below to our right, there are another couple of sharp bends, left and then right, before we descend steeply to Seabrook, with views of the Royal Military Canal streaking away in a straight line ahead of us.
This waterway was constructed, like the Martello Towers, as a means of defence against Napoleon. The double bends every quarter of a mile or so would have been manned by soldiers who could keep watch along the straights either side. The canal runs all the way to Cliff End (near Hastings). On a clear day you can see this point as the eastern end of the hills on the horizon.
At the bottom of our hill, we pass all that remains of the old railway bridge on the defunct Hythe and Sandgate branch line, and meet the A259 at a T-junction by The Fountain pub. Patience is a virtue; you will need it here!
B2064 Cheriton to Central Folkestone (2 miles)
This number used to be used for Horn Street - a link from Cheriton to Seabrook that only a massochist would want to attempt at school kicking-out time. Today it takes over the former route of the A20 from M20 junction 12, into the suburb of Cheriton. Beyond the point where the B2063 departs opposite the boarded up White Lion pub, it becomes a busy High Street, with plenty of traffic lights. Whilst the Royal Cheriton remains, The Moorhall is another public house casualty. We eventually come to a box-junction where the A20 used to bear left. The B2064 bears right here, under the railway bridge by Folkestone West station and along the wide, tree-lined Shornecliffe Road, until the A259 steals its thunder coming in from the right at Earls Avenue.
B2065 (defunct) Kingston to Hythe (14 miles)
Heading south from the village of Bridge, the former A2 (part of the UK's second longest Roman Road - Watling Street) runs parallel to its roaring modern-day counterpart and flows seamlessly into the former B2065, to begin a steep descent into the Elham Valley. This wide pass through the North Downs was carved out by a mere stream - the Nail Bourne.
First we pass Kingston, a tiny hamlet. Then a little further is Barham (pronounced Barrum). There is a curious network of narrow lanes to the east of this village, linking our route with the A2 nearer Dover. These were formerly signposted ‘(B2065)’. We climb a little, after passing through the village, and at a green and barren spot overlooking the valley, a lane feeds in from the left, and we begin to descend again.
Our road is fairly wide until just before Elham (pronounced Eellum). This is a delightful village with a kind of square at its centre. There’s a liberal sprinkling of amenities here too, including pubs and restaurants.
The road is quite narrow between Elham and the next village - Lyminge. At some places it has even surrendered its white lines. Like Elham, the former B2065 forms Lyminge’s main street and passes a respectable range of village shops. The pub (The Coach and Horses) is in a back-street. A few bends later, we pass the old railway station, which is now a library. The Elham Valley line used to run from Canterbury to Folkestone but closed in the fifties. Some of the track-bed has been incorporated into the Elham Valley footpath.
A mile or so beyond Lyminge, we turn 90 degrees left and pass Etchinghill golf course. Leaving the putters behind, we come to the smaller village of Etchinghill, passing the rustic looking ‘New Inn’. Etchinghill, known for its beacon at the top of the hill which we will pass shortly, doubled in size in the nineties when the site of a former hospital was built upon.
Somehow, the B2065 manages to squeeze past the scarp slope of the North Downs without any significant incline. Things become a bit narrow and winding past the woods, but within half a mile, England’s second longest hill range is behind us and we reach the A20 at Beachborough roundabout.
On we go, and a modern bridge crosses the multitude of railway lines around the Channel Tunnel terminal. The road winds a bit, climbs a bit, bends a bit and then descends steeply to Hythe (which literally means ‘haven’). Look for evidence of a former railway bridge as you descend - this one was on the Hythe and Sandgate branch line. Beyond the sharp right-hand bend, we are presented with a graceful suburban run down to the A259 roundabout.
Hythe has a pleasant beach, a quaint High Street, one of the most attractive stretches of canal you will come across and a steam railway with a difference, being built on a scale of one-third.
B2066 (defunct) Hythe (0.3 mile)
Presumably, this loop, comprising Rampart Road, Prospect Road and Theatre Street, was given this number when the A259 would have run along the High Street. The B2066 number has since migrated to Brighton.
B2067 Tenterden to Lympne (16 miles)
This undulating rural ride has its own blog on this website (posted March 2016). There is even a video here.
B2068 Stanford to Canterbury (14 miles)
This road used to begin in Lympne (see B2067), heading northward as the Roman ‘Stone Street’. The village almost blends into Newingreen (reputedly the site of England’s first motel). Here we continue ahead, multiplexing with the A20, leaving the Roman road to continue as the lane to Westenhanger station and Folkestone racecourse, beyond which it has an argument with the M20 - ultimately losing, as the bridge is not for motor vehicles!
Back to the A20, we soon reach a roundabout, followed by a hundred yards of dual carriageway and a disproportionately large roundabout serving M20 junction 11, now adorned with a service area.
The current B2068 begins here, and after a wide, straight stretch, built at the same time as the motorway, we rejoin Stone Street from Stanford village (The Drum Inn is nearby) and head once again in a straight line northward, with the North Downs ahead of us.
After limbering up for the climb, we take a sharp bend left and wind steeply through the trees, emerging at windswept Farthing Common, where there is a picnic area to the right for those who want to admire the stunning views across Romney Marsh, all the way to Dungeness nuclear power station - two huge square blocks on the horizon.
After skirting around a ‘punchbowl’ in the hills, we settle back into dead-straight mode, streaking towards Canterbury. Emerging from the woods, the road opens out with cross-hatching at Sixmile, where lanes radiate in three directions.
Eventually the road narrows and undulates a little, eventually to be muzzled into a ‘50 limit’ to pass a few houses and a pub near Petham. Then we descend the long dip-slope of the hills, with a sweeping curve to the right at the bottom. The Roman road continues as a lane for a mile or so, straight ahead at this point, but soon loses itself somewhere near the A2.
Our route, on the other hand, remains wide and climbs gently via the hamlet of Nackington, bridging the dual carriageway. We are now entering the cradle of English Christianity, but all we witness of it is the hospital and Kent County Cricket Ground. We come to a T-junction with Old Dover Road. We turn left and then right for a final little link to New Dover Road - the A2050. For the cathedral and centuries of history, turn left here.
B2069 (defunct) Bonnington to Smeeth (3 miles)
This road leaves the B2067 in one of Kent’s tiniest villages, near the former school. It has four sharp bends before facing up to the sustained climb onto the ridge of greensand hills. First the climb is shallow and straight, passing the site of the former Aldington prison (now houses), then we curve a little before it steepens to meet the Roman road from Lympne that forms the village’s main street.
Aldington village is spread out along the knife-edge known as the Greensand Ridge. It has long associations with smuggling and the infamous Ransley gang. At the fourteenth century Walnut Tree Inn, we turn right and then left to begin a wide and straight descent. The road narrows and becomes twistier just before we bridge the East Stour River around the back of a house which looks like it should be a pub.
Climbing again, we bend sharply right and then left, where we can view the lake that has been created in this small tributary. The fields behind the dam are allowed to flood as a preventative measure to protect boom-town Ashford, around six miles downstream, from watery oblivion. There is another such dam on the Great Stour to the west of the town.
The economic boom is evident along the former B2069 too, as it is here that we cross the high speed rail link, where Eurostar trains streak past at 186mph. A little further, we cross another high-speed conduit - the M20. To our right is Evegate craft centre. The road is wider here and soon it meets is demise at Smeeth crossroads on the A20. For an attractive church, continue straight ahead.
B2070 (defunct) New Romney to Ashford (14 miles)
The B2070 has upped sticks and moved to Petersfield in Hampshire, but before it got the tarmac equivalent of itchy feet, it was the main road from New Romney to Ashford. Much of the route was upgraded to ‘A’ road in the seventies, and in the nineties a new alignment was constructed, rendering the B2070 defunct. Here we trace the original route.
We leave the adequate High Street of New Romney (A259) opposite the road to St Nicholas's Church, which is actually below the level of Romney Marsh; and therefore has a history of flooding. New Romney was once an important ‘Cinque Port’ though the sea has now receded by a mile.
Reaching the flat, marshland countryside, we are confronted with a sequence of right-angle bends and the 30mph limit rises to 40. Passing the ruins of Hope All Saints church, isolated in a field, and then beneath the pylons which stride purposefully all the way to Dungeness nuclear power station, our route straightens a little and crosses a single-file bridge over a dike.
Soon, we are in Ivychurch, a tiny village with a pub (The Bell), a church and the world’s most inappropriately sized nameplates. The village has a 40mph limit either side of the 30mph limit at its centre and there is a 50mph limit either side of the 40. This seemingly excessive level of speed stipulation was introduced in 2024 soon after common sense was abandoned by the public at large.
The road soon meets the newly aligned A2070, but the old road bears right, past the tiny hamlet of Snave. However, we are delaying the inevitable, and soon we have to join the speeding traffic. Just before the Hamstreet turn, look left and you’ll see the remains of a sharp bend that used to be Ham Lees corner. This is beginning to feel like an episode of Time Trail isn’t it?
The former B2070 bears right into Hamstreet (see B2067), bridging the Royal Military Canal. As the pace reduces to 30mph, the road crams itself into the village High Street, before passing the Duke's Head and beneath the railway bridge to climb the ridge of clay hills that have dominated the skyline all the way across the totally flat Romney Marsh.
There is another junction with the modern-day A2070, a tunnel of trees, a long straight with deceleration lanes, some bends, an elongated hamlet called Bromley Green, a football stadium and the linear ‘Mill Hill’ before Kingsnorth - a village which is on the verge of being submerged by Ashford.
The Queen’s Head pub is old, but the roundabout, superstore and sprawling modern suburb of Park Farm are all relatively new. The B2070 used to disintegrate into sharp bends again at this point (reminiscent of leaving New Romney), but it is now a simple left turn off the roundabout into Kingsnorth Road, bearing right at another new roundabout to serve yet another new estate.
It is hard to imagine now that, as late as the early nineties, the following two-mile suburban crawl was the only route into Ashford from the south. Kingsnorth Road used to run straight into the long Victorian terraced street of Beaver Road, but now both give way to the B2229. These streets are now resplendent with ‘traffic calming’ measures including a collapsible bollard which has been wrecked several times by motorists pretending to be buses or taxis.
After passing the Locomotive pub and a few shops, the road climbs a little to reach the town centre. It used to pass a splendid 1930s cinema here and bridge the multitude of railway lines as a single carriageway. Now we have a traffic-lighted junction, with the dual carriageway A2042 bridge ahead and Victoria Way (named after a bulldozed pub) to the left. You've read the description, now watch the video - does what it says on the tin!
A2070 Brenzett to Kennington (13 miles)
Appearing in the picture at the top of this page, this modern, business-like road has its own blog on this website (posted March 2016) as well as a video here.
B2071 New Romney to Littlestone (1 mile)
This takes over where the former B2070 left off, leaving the A259 at the northern end of New Romney High Street, heading for the coast.
We pass a school and bridge the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, which has its main station here. Then the road forms the wide, tree-lined straight known as ‘The Avenue’ all the way to the sea. Turn right at the T-junction for a semi-urban seaside drive all the way to the surreal landscape of Dungeness.
B2072 (defunct) Ashford (0.3 mile)
This was the number for Magazine Road when the A28 used North Street (pre-ring-road). Like many things, the number retired to Eastbourne and has since passed away.
B2073 (defunct) Ashford (0.2 mile)
Bank Street. Another pre-ring-road number. This was a link between the B2074 (when it ran all the way into the heart of the town) and the High Street (A20). It now forms part of Ashford's ground-breaking shared space system, famously denigrated by BBC TV's Jeremy Clarkson.
B2074 (defunct) Ashford (0.5 miles)
This used to link the former Ashford ring road with the Tenterden-bound A28. Now it is just a stump known as Goddinton Road; a typical Victorian terraced street, complete with parking problems.
At the end of the straight is a bridge over the high-speed Channel Tunnel rail link and a barrier system preventing the ordinary motorist from proceeding further. You won’t miss much - there’s just a barren T-junction beyond, and if you’re in a bus or taxi, you can bear right running down to the roundabout near where the B2074 used to meet the A28.
B2075 New Romney to Lydd (3 miles)
This has occasionally been shown on atlases incorrectly as the A2075. The mistake is understandable, as it is a busy and reasonably fast link from the A259, just west of New Romney, to the small town of Lydd (beyond which lies Dungeness nuclear power station).
Our route is totally flat and open for its duration. After passing Lydd Airport, which operates flights to Le Touquet as well as pleasure flights, there is a humpback bridge over a railway line that once carried passengers but now carries only nuclear waste (in secure flasks, I hasten to add).
All Saints church in Lydd can be seen for the route’s entire length, and is known as the ‘Cathedral of the Marsh’ because of its high tower. We wind around the churchyard into the town’s High Street, which isn’t as busy as New Romney’s but is nonetheless pleasant. The B2075 meets its demise heading out of the town again, at a T-junction. Cyclists may be interested to know that there is a pleasant cycle-way from here to Rye and Winchelsea.
B2076 (defunct) Old Romney to Lydd (3 miles)
This road is like a drunken ‘B2075’ that has lost its way.
Old Romney is a small village on the A259. We pass the Rose and Crown pub, and the road narrows into a mere lane and bucks from left to right all the way across the bleak farmland to Lydd. We cross the old branch line (see B2075) using one of its twelve level crossings.
Eventually, we pass a sports centre and meet the B2075 by the churchyard.
B2077 (defunct) Biddenden to Leaveland (15 miles)
This used to leave the A274 (which itself was once merely a 'B' road - the B2078) north of Biddenden and travel across the fertile Wealden Plain, passing a gold course and gently descending towards Smarden with a fine view of the Greensand Rodge of hills ahead. We cross the River Beult via a narrow bridge and bend ninety degrees left and then right past Smarden church, into the village’s ‘picture postcard’ main street with a wealth of historic buildings scattered around the village. The quintessential view is looking back towards the church from the Pluckley end of the village. A little further, lorries are directed to an industrial estate, but thankfully this doesn’t detract from Smarden’s charm.
A few miles of farmland later, we climb onto the Greensand Ridge to Pluckley, reputedly England’s most haunted village. To ‘witness’ the ghosts, turn right at the top of the hill and pop into the Black Horse pub. The former B2077 then descends panoramically into the Great Stour valley, only to climb again to bridge the M20 and Channel Tunnel Rail Link. The scenery is now more wooded.
Eventually we bridge the domestic railway line and enter the large village of Charing. There was once a cross-bearing pilgrimage to London from here. This is where the name ‘Charing Cross’ originates. The village is well worth exploring as it contains both the archbishop’s manor residence and the Pilgrims Way - a delightful walking and cycling route along the bottom of the North Downs.
Soon we come to the A20, complete with lights and traffic islands. If you fancy a trip to the crematorium, turn right; if not, continue straight ahead through the narrow but well endowed High Street, which climbs to meet the A252 northern bypass.
We turn right to multiplex with this road, complete with ‘suicide’ and ‘crawler’ lanes, to tackle the climb onto the North Downs. At the top, we pass some unusually located businesses, before the former B2077 splits left as the A252 rounds the right-hand bend. The remaining few miles are wooded in places and the route is generally winding. We eventually meet the A251, Ashford to Faversham road, north of Challock (rhymes with...).
B2078 (now A274) Biddenden to Maidstone (13 miles)
This road was upgraded to 'A' road many years ago, but I will do a narrative on it nonetheless. Biddenden is a charming village with numerous restaurants. Upon the little triangular island where the A262 splits off is the village sign depicting the Biddenden Maids, two Siamese twins (ever seen The Shining?) who left a charitable endowment to the poor of the village. Biddenden vineyard is also famous for its cider and is the oldest commercial vineyard in Kent. Our road takes a mile or two to find its feet but soon finds itself streaking in a dead-straight line past Headcorn aerodrome - a venue popular with parachute jumpers.
Crossing the railway line to London (one of the longest sections of straight railway in the country), we enter this large commuter village that has an impressive range of amenities in its High Street. The local supermarket once hit TV news headlines by opening on Christmas Day. At the church, our route turns sharply right and straightens out again, but one is quite sensibly held back by speed limits for the first mile.
The range of hills ahead is the Greensand Ridge, which is Kent's second most prominent hill-range, in places rivalling the North Downs for height.The fast pace slows as we climb steeply into the narrow street through Sutton Valence. A private secondary school is located in this attractive village, the centre of which is worth a detour right.
Back to the A274 / former B2078; the gradient slackens off, but it is another mile before we completely level out. The B2163 then crosses, (surprisingly this number, according to a 1920s AA guide, was once used to classify a couple of streets in New Romney). Beyond this, our road continues through the hamlet of Langley, passing a large industrial estate on the left and entering the suburbs of Kent’s county town via a roundabout to serve new housing. Our road reaches its terminus at the A229, which descends scenically to the town centre as a four-lane single carriageway.
B2079 Goudhurst to Cross-at-Hand (7 miles)
This ‘rural ride’ is actually within the Maidstone area. This is a local site for local people; sorry, no details here.
B2080 Brenzett to Tenterden (10 miles)
This is a very patient road. The section through Brenzett was first the B2081, then the A2070 and now at last it has been claimed by the B2080.
Beyond the roundabout by the former Fleur de Lis pub, the road is dead-straight for a mile to Snargate, where the Red Lion pub welcomes the visitor into a bygone era of beer straight from the barrel and lamplight. The tower of the church to the right of the road used to always be open for those wishing to take in an aerial view of Romney Marsh.
Beyond the next few corners, we cross a single-file bridge, and soon we are heading for the level crossing at Appledore Station; an important junction when the Lydd branch carried passengers. It is, remarkably, around two miles from its namesake. The road is quite fast to Appledore, where a sharp corner precedes the bridge over the Royal Military Canal, which shoe-horns us into the village’s main street. There are 40mph speed limits approaching the village and a 30mph limit at its centre.
This is a wide and attractive drive through what was once an important port before it was deserted by the River Rother. The history of this peaceful village, which has one of its original three pubs (The Black Lion) and a tea-room to entice the visitor, is rather bloody. In 892AD, 250 Danish longships made Appledore their base for an invasion, and in 1380 the French thought they’d also have a go, burning both the church and village. A tapestry in the church charts this history today.
The B2080 branches left beyond the village, and begins to undulate gently around the little hillocks, before straightening out for the run to Reading Street - a hamlet with its own church. This was built to replace Ebony church, which used to stand on a nearby hill. An open-air service is held once a year to commemorate this fact.
The road bears sharply right and climbs directly onto the ridge of hills that Tenterden commands. The two cylindrical agricultural towers at the top of the climb have been on our horizon ever since we left Brenzett.
From effluent to affluent, we pass an industrial estate and then into the leafy ‘mid twentieth century’ suburbs. After a football field to our right, we climb a little more, crossing the B2067 to reach the A28 just north of the centre of the town, famed for its steam railway, folk festival and parish church of St Mildred's.
B2081 (defunct) Brenzett to Snave (2 miles)
Although still signposted from many locations in Ashford, Brenzett is one of those ‘blink and you miss it’ places.
The Hastings-bound A259 used to branch off of itself where the current roundabout with the A2070 is, leaving the B2081 to continue straight ahead. After a couple of hundred yards, we reach another roundabout which used to be just a crossroads. Continue straight on and you’re on the B2080 bound for Tenterden, but turn right at the former Fleur de Lis pub and you stay on the old B2081. A large Second World War tank used be sited outside this pub.
Passing the turn for Brenzett church, the road winds gently and flatly for a mile and a half until meeting the modern A2070. The B2081 eventually became part of the A2070. Now that the bypass has been built, the road is unclassified.
B2082 Rye to Tenterden (10 miles)
We begin in the historic Cinque Port of Rye, a quaint little town of cobbled streets, built on a hill with its church at the highest point. Just as the sea left Rye a mile upstream along the muddy River Rother, we too leave the town behind, bridging the Hastings to Ashford railway line and climbing steeply through the trees.
This A268 used to be a 'B' road, forming the lion's share of the B2087. Until recently signs in Rye read ‘Hawkhurst’, but now it seems that the Tenterden is the chief destination, and for this we need the B2082.
This road exits right at Playden and soon arrives at the pretty village of Iden. Iden Lock, where the Royal Military Canal leaves the Rother, is actually around a mile from the village. Beyond, our route is fairly twisty and plunges us into the land of the trees, descending steeply to cross the aforementioned Rother, which marks the Kent and Sussex border here. These valleys feel very much a natural extension of Romney Marsh - look east and you’ll see nothing but flatlands.
We begin to climb steeply onto the Isle of Oxney. It is easy to imagine this being an island, centuries ago when the valley was covered with water. There was even a ferry from the Appledore side of this ridge of hills, and the Ferry Inn celebrates this fact, displaying an old list of toll fees. Back to the B2082, we bend sharply left at the summit, where the road to Stone, Appledore and Hamstreet exits right. Here at The Stocks, there is a water tower and a restored windmill.
The road is fairly straight to Wittersham, a pleasant village that straggles for half a mile before we descend to sea-level again to cross another ‘limb’ of the Marsh. After a few aberrations in our route to cross dikes, we reach Smallhythe - the former port of Tenterden. Our road begins its steep, tree-lined climb as it passes the former home of actress Ellen Terry. At the summit, the houses begin, and just before we reach the A28, we pass a new supermarket foisted upon the residents of this traditional Kentish town in spite of their protestations. Needless to say,it has been a roaring success.
B2164 (now part of A2070) Willesborough to Kennington (2 miles)
Now the final section of the A2070 (see the March 2016 blog on this site). It is worth noting that the B2164 used to continue to Faversham Road via The Street, Kennington.
B2170 Shorncliffe to Sandgate (1 mile)
The new name for the B2062. See above.
B2229 South Ashford to Brookfield (1.5 miles)
The first part (Norman Road) was built in the nineties, leaving the designer outlet ‘tent city’ for the suburbia of South Ashford. The road takes its name from Norman Cycles which used to be one of the town’s major employers. There is a roundabout for a DIY superstore, and a little further we come to a set of traffic lights where the former B2070 Beaver Road exits right. Then after some Victorian terraced housing and the Beaver Inn, the former B2070 Kingsnorth Road exits left.
We continue westward past Court Wurtin shopping parade, a set of lights where Beaver Lane departs and Brookfield Court shopping parade. Twentieth century housing lines our route past the Crusader pub, where the road widens out with traffic islands and a forty limit for the junction with Knoll Lane. A modern link-road exits right just before we meet the A28 at Brookfield roundabout. Worth seeking out is the attractive cycleway that crosses the B2229 nearby, running from Singleton Lake to Ashford town centre.
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