A34 road (Great Britain)

A34
Newbury bypass, part of the A34 near Donnington.
Route information
Part of E05
Length:	156.21 mi (251.40 km)
History:	Between Oxford and Birmingham is the A44 and A3400
Major junctions
South end:	Winchester (51°04′08″N 1°17′28″W / 51.069°N 1.291°W / 51.069; -1.291)
North end:	Salford (53°28′59″N 2°15′29″W / 53.483°N 2.258°W / 53.483; -2.258)
Location
Primary destinations:	Newbury Oxford Solihull Birmingham Walsall Cannock Stafford Stoke-on-Trent Newcastle-under-Lyme Congleton Manchester
Road network
Roads in the United Kingdom Motorways A and B road zones

The A34 is a major road in England. It runs from the A33 and M3 at Winchester in Hampshire, to the A6 and A6042 in Salford. It forms a large part of the major trunk route from Southampton, via Oxford, to Birmingham, The Potteries and Manchester. For most of its length (together with the A5011 and parts of the A50, and A49), it forms part of the former Winchester-Preston Trunk Road. Improvements to the section of road forming the Newbury Bypass around Newbury were the scene of significant direct action environmental protests in the 1990s. It is 151 miles (243 km) long.

The road is in two sections. The northern section runs south through Manchester and Cheadle, and bypasses Handforth, Wilmslow and Alderley Edge, before passing through Congleton, Newcastle-under-Lyme, and the southern suburbs of Stoke-on-Trent. It then continues south via Stone, Stafford, Cannock and Walsall, passes through the middle of Birmingham (where it briefly merges with the A41), before meeting the M42 motorway at junction 4 south of Solihull.