The A453 road was formerly the main trunk road connecting the English cities of Nottingham and Birmingham. However, the middle section of this mainly single-carriageway road has largely been downgraded to B roads or unclassified roads following the construction of the parallel M42-A42 link around 1990. The M42 was originally meant to pass further north than it does, and to join the M1 at Sandiacre in Derbyshire. The M42/A42 does not enter Derbyshire, but instead joins the M1 closer to the A453 junction at Kegworth. The A42 shadows the former A453 from Appleby Magna to Castle Donington. The road historically connected the East Midlands with the West Midlands.
Route
Perry Barr to Tamworth
The southern stretch of the existing A453 runs as a non-trunk route from the A34 in north Birmingham under the M6 motorway to the A452 road, and on through Sutton Coldfield. It starts at the point where the A34 crosses the Chase Line at Perry Barr railway station. On the right hand side is Birmingham City University and the road passes through Witton. As Aldridge Road it becomes a dual carriageway and crosses the River Tame. To the left is Perry Park, and it passes under the M6, becoming College Road. It crosses the Tame Valley Canal, and there is a left turn for the dual-carriageway Kingstanding Road (B4138) in Perry, the former Roman road Ryknild Street. In Upper Witton there is a roundabout and Perry Barr fire station is on the left next to Perry Common library, with The College High School on the right, and there are a crossroads and roundabout, with left turns for Kingstanding, and the road passes through Perry Common. On the right is St Mary's College, Oscott, a Roman Catholic seminary of the Archdiocese of Birmingham, and the road meets Chester Road (A452) at a crossroads.
In Boldmere the road continues after the crossroads as College Road, but becomes Jockey Road where the B4149 meets from the left at a roundabout at New Oscott. It crosses the Cross-City Line with Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls on the left. Near St Peter's Church in Maney and the Horse and Jockey pub it runs concurrently with the A5127 through the town centre of Sutton Coldfield, splitting in two one-way sections at a roundabout, and passing Sutton Coldfield railway station. It passes over and under two railway lines, then passes the police and fire station, with Birmingham Metropolitan College (former Sutton Coldfield College) and Bishop Vesey's Grammar School on the right.
The original route of the A453 separates from the A5127 at the Tamworth Road junction at Doe Bank, passing under the Cross-City Line. It passes a crossroads, with Moorhall Golf Club to the left, and Whitehouse Common Road (B4148) to the right. It crosses the M6 Toll, then Collets Brook, where it enters Staffordshire, and the district of Lichfield at Hints. When the A38 was dualled, the A453 was moved to the west, to meet at the Bassetts Pole roundabout. This was not only the meeting point of the Birmingham to Nottingham road, and the A38 (former A446), but is also the meeting point of Warwickshire, Staffordshire and the former West Midlands county. At the roundabout is the Bassetts Pole Harvester, and a McDonald's. As a dual-carriageway trunk road at Carroway Head, it meets the B4151 from the left (for Roughley), and becomes the parish boundary between Hints and Drayton Bassett, and a single carriageway, as Sutton Road. It is only a trunk road for until it meets the A5, after crossing the Heart of England Way, Bourne Brook and the former A5, now the B5404, at Mile Oak, Fazeley.
As the non-trunk Bonehill Road it crosses the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, where it enters the district of Tamworth. It meets the A51 at a large roundabout, and continues as the dual-carriageway Riverdrive, concurrent with the A51, meeting the A4091 (for Drayton Manor Theme Park) to the south, then crosses the River Tame. The A51 leaves to the south at a large roundabout-shaped junction, partly Ankerdrive and Bolebridge Street, known as The Egg which straddles the River Anker, and passes the Tamworth Odeon. It continues northwards as Saxondrive, an inner ring road for Tamworth, with a roundabout for Tamworth railway station then continues westwards as Offadrive to meet its former route through Tamworth (partly the B5493), where it meets the A513 near the bridge over the West Coast Main Line. King Offa was the King of Mercia, a Saxon kingdom, with its capital as Tamworth. Previously the A453 continued along Bonehill Road then across Lady Bridge and along Aldergate in Tamworth town centre.