A272 road

UK road routebox
road= A272
length-mi=
length-km=
direction= East - West
start= South Wonston (between Winchester and Andover)
destinations= Winchester
Petersfield
Uckfield
end= Five Ashes (near Heathfield)
construction-date=
completion-date=
junctions= ukroadsmall|22
ukroadsmall|23
gbroadsmall|24
ukroadsmall|26
ukroadsmall|29
ukroadsmall|267
ukroadsmall|273
ukroadsmall|275
ukroadsmall|283
ukroadsmall|286
ukroadsmall|3
ukroadsmall|31
ukmotorwaysmall|3
ukroadsmall|34
ukroadsmall|33
ukroadsmall|30

The A272 is a road in South-East England. It follows an approximate East-West route from near Heathfield, East Sussex to the city of Winchester, Hampshire. It has achieved somewhat unlikely fame in recent years by being the subject of a book by the Dutch author, Pieter Boogaart.

The Route

The eastern end of the A272 starts at a junction with the A267, about a mile north-west of the village of Cross-In-Hand, East Sussex. It heads west, crossing the A26 and A22 north of Uckfield, and continues through Newick before going over the border into West Sussex at a point east of Scaynes Hill. It then passes through the town of Haywards Heath and continues west, crossing the main London-Brighton A23 road at Bolney.

The route continues, crossing the A24 and passing through a number of villages and small towns in West Sussex, such as Billingshurst, Petworth and Midhurst. It then crosses the county boundary into Hampshire and reaches Petersfield. The final section passes the National Trust property of Hinton Ampner and rises high on to the Hampshire downs, passing Cheesefoot Head, before descending to merge with the A31 at Chilcomb to the east of Winchester. After a couple of miles it re-emerges to run north to the Winnall Roundabout, Junction 9 of the M3. Here it merges with the A34, passing east and north of Winchester (with limited access to the A33 northbound), before re-emerging near Littleton. It then runs NW along the Andover Road (formerly B3420), terminating at the A30. To the north the B3420 continues across the River Test to Wherwell and Andover.

In former years, the A272 continued north-west from Winchester to Stockbridge, but this section has now been redesignated as the B3049.

Features

Perhaps the charm of the A272 lies in the fact that its route is predominantly rural, despite being only 40 miles from the centre of London at its nearest point. Most of the time it passes through countryside, villages and small towns, and the only built-up area of any size that it traverses is Haywards Heath and its surrounding villages. Also, it has virtually no dual carriageway sections (just three very short sections between Petworth and Midhurst), and therefore gives the driver an experience which is reminiscent of English country roads as they were 50 or more years ago.

It has been said that the A272 follows part of the route that was taken by pilgrims travelling between the cathedral cities of Winchester and Canterbury. In reality, this seems unlikely. For most of its length, it passes through the low weald of Sussex. Prior to the development of modern roads, this was notoriously difficult for travellers, because of the extensive forest and tracts of low-lying marshy ground. The more likely route was the Pilgrims' Way, which followed the chalk escarpment of the North Downs.

ee also

*Great Britain road numbering scheme

External links

* [http://www.mypetersfield.co.uk myPetersfield]

Further reading

*Boogaart, P. "A272: An Ode to a Road", Pallas Athene, 2000. ISBN 1-873429-29-0