A507 The West-East route

Ridgmont
Ampthill
Maulden
Clophill
Shefford

The route to the A1 through these small towns and villages became an important West-East route once the M1 was built and Milton Keynes was developed.

Formerly, the route ran as the A418 through Ridgmont as far as Ampthill, before the A418 turned abruptly North towards Bedford.

The A418 designation was applied to the old Bedford and Woburn turnpike route, which passed through Ampthill and Kempstone.  There is a record of a toll gate at Flying Horse Farm near Ridgmont on this turnpike. (Woburn Bedford Turnpike 1777-1872.)

After Ampthill the West-East route ran through Maulden, Clophill and Shefford as the A507, onwards to the A1 at Stofold, then on to Buttingford after passing through Baldock.

The Ampthill-Shefford stretch was never turnpiked as far as I can tell, indicating its lack of importance until relatively recent times.

However, the pre-First World War Bartholomew’s map for tourists and cyclists (pre-tarmac and largely pre-motor car) shows the West-East route to be of first class quality throughout, even before the motor car era, which suggests something of its embryonic importance in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, possibly because there was no immediate railway rival to the route.

When the M1 was constructed, the A418 was not given a motorway junction. Instead, junction 13 was allocated to the nearby B557 (later A412), which offered a more direct route to Bedford through Marston Mortaine than the old turnpike A418 with its constrictions at Woburn and Ampthill.

Nevertheless, increasing traffic demands were placed upon the West-East route by traffic generated by the M1 and the growing Milton Keynes.

The West-East route in its entirety was re-designeated as the A507 when changes were made in the 1980s to cope with the increase in traffic.

The route was reconfigured to by-pass all the towns along the way, forming a road made up of these by-passes, existing lanes and newly constructed sections.

The Ampthill-Maulden Bypass opened in 1983. I would guess that Clophill was by-passed around the same time.

Ridgmont was by-passed in 2008.

Along with the Ridgmont by-pass work, a new series of complicated roundabouts gave the A507 a connection to the M1 at junction 13.

Ampthill pump and signpost

The Town Pump is located in the centre of Ampthill and lies within the Ampthill Conservation Area.

It is a grade II listed building and a designated Scheduled Monument.

The Pump also serves as a milestone, each of its four faces being identified by the name of the towns to which the four roads of the Market Place lead. Bedford (VII miles; north), Dunstable (XII miles, south), London (XLV miles;east) and Woburn (VII miles, west).

The Pump is constructed of Portland limestone and was erected in 1785 by John Fitzpatrick, the 2nd Earl of Upper Ossory (1745-1818). It is said to have been designed by the architect Sir William Chambers (1722-1796) who had in 1768-72 worked on Ampthill Park House and formed part of a programmed of public-spirited improvements initiated and paid for by the Earl.*

The route through Ampthill from Woburn to Bedford was already a turnpike by the time this pump and milestone was erected. (Bedford and Woburn Turnpike Trust was established in 1777.)
*http://www.ampthilltowncouncil.org.uk/amenities/town-pump
 © John Dunn.