The A600 is a road linking

Hitchin Hitchin () is a market town in the North Hertfordshire Districts of England, district of Hertfordshire, England. The town dates from at least the 7th century. It lies in the valley of the River Hiz at the north-eastern end of the Chiltern Hills ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

. It runs for 18 miles and goes via

Henlow Camp Henlow Camp is a village in Bedfordshire, England. Village RAF Henlow was first established in the area during World War I. Henlow Camp, as a civilian settlement, has grown up around the station since this time. Though Henlow Camp is part of t ...

with a bypass around Shefford. In the 1960s, 'The Viatores' proposed that the route was one of a dense network of Roman roads in the southeast Midlands and ran from

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

to Bedford. However, this has been discounted given there is no trace of an ''agger'' and it mostly does not run in straight lengths. Nonetheless, its use as a parish boundary, for example between Ickleford and Shillington, suggests that it is premodern and it may date to the 10th century to connect the newly built burhs in Bedford and Hitchin. The road was still described as an "arterial roads" forming part of the recommended route from London to Leicester, Derby and Manchester, via Bedford in 1926.The AA Roadbook, 2nd edition, 1926 The Shefford by-pass was built in the late 1980s and is partly designated the A600 and partly the A507.

References

{{coord, 51.8731, -0.1513, type:landmark_dim:25000_region:GB-HRT, display=title Roads in Hertfordshire Roads in Bedfordshire