Henley Roadworks This Week: Market Place Nights and the A34

Market Place in Henley is closed every night until 17 October. Oxfordshire County Council made the order on 7 September and the closure started at 7pm on Wednesday 16 September. It runs from the Duke Street junction to outside 27-31 Market Place, between 7pm and 6.30am, for a new utility connection by Network Plus. The road reopens each morning. The signed diversion is Bell Street, Kings Road and the one-way section of Market Place.

It is still the only closure in force inside Henley itself. Our full list of Henley roadworks, and every other live traffic order in South Oxfordshire, is below, taken from the statutory notices rather than from a summary of them. Three things outside the town matter this week:

• The A34 between Milton and Chilton closes southbound overnight from tonight. National Highways’ own seven-day closure report lists the southbound carriageway shut from 8.30pm on Friday 2 October, and again on the Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights. That is narrower than the full weekend closure its varied order allows.
• The B4445 Chinnor to Thame road stays shut around the clock until 8 October.
• Goring High Street is due to close for three months from 4 January 2027, on top of the gas works already shutting Battle Road and Cleeve Road. The council has said it intends to make the order; it has not yet made it.

Two authorities decide how you get around Henley-on-Thames and neither of them tells you about the other. Oxfordshire County Council owns the roads, the roadworks and the buses. South Oxfordshire District Council owns the car parks. Neither publishes a list of what is shut right now.

The county’s live map shows every registered closure, utility dig and diversion as it happens: one.network for Oxfordshire. Everything below is what the map does not give you: the dated orders, the ones that are still only proposals, and the context.

Last checked 2 October 2026.

What is shut, and what is coming

Every entry here comes from a statutory traffic order published by Oxfordshire County Council or National Highways. The status column matters. An order that has been made is a decision. An order the council intends to make is a plan, and plans move.

Two entries have come off since our last check. Thame town centre reopened after the September Fair on Sunday 20 September, and the Ipsden water repair closure was due to end on 23 September.

One order made on 28 September looks bigger than it is. From 5 October the county moves every one-way street, no-entry, bus lane and turning ban in South Oxfordshire into a new “map-based” order. The council says this is administrative only and changes nothing on the road. Parking restrictions are not affected.

Six of these are worth more than a table row.

Market Place is shut every night until the middle of October

This is the one that affects Henley town centre, and it is the sort of order that never makes a headline because nothing dramatic happens: the road is open all day and shut all night.

Oxfordshire County Council made the order on 7 September, reference 466. It closes Market Place from the junction with Duke Street to outside 27-31, for a new connection being carried out by Network Plus. The closure started at 7pm on Wednesday 16 September and the anticipated completion is 6.30am on Saturday 17 October.

• Works are carried out between 7pm and 6.30am only. The road is open in the day.
• The suggested alternative route is Bell Street, Kings Road and the one-way section of Market Place.
• Access is kept for emergency vehicles, and for properties inside the closed section where that is reasonably practicable.

An anticipated completion date is not a promise. This one is a month of nights in the middle of the town, and utility connections are the kind of job that finds something unexpected underground. If you are walking back through the square after an evening out, expect signs and a lit works area rather than a clear road.

Goring is losing roads to gas main replacement until April

SGN’s gas main replacement in Goring-on-Thames is the longest running set of closures in this district, and it is being ordered in pieces rather than announced as one scheme.

• Battle Road has been shut around the clock since 24 August, between Cedarwood House and Cedar Wood Cottage. The order runs to 11 December 2026. The signed diversion is Battle Road, Elvendon Road, Wallingford Road, Reading Road, the B4526, Goring Road and Elvendon Lane.
• Cleeve Road closes around the clock from 29 September, from the Mill Road junction to outside No.21, in three phases. That order was dated 7 September and runs to 12 February 2027. The diversion is Mill Road, Wallingford Road and the High Street.
• The footpath beside 11 Nuns Acre closes from 12 October to 13 November, with no alternative route offered.
• High Street is next. The council said in a notice published on 17 September that it intends to close it from the Wallingford Road junction to the Thames Road junction from 4 January to 2 April 2027, for gas mains replacement by I&G Contractors. The signed diversion would be a long loop: Wallingford Road, Port Way, Nosworthy Way, Reading Road and back through Moulsford. This is an intention, not yet a made order.

Access stays open for emergency services, for the works, and for homes that can only be reached from the closed sections. Cyclists and pedestrians keep Cleeve Road.

Thame’s October Charter Fair

The September Fair closure ended at midday on 20 September. The October Charter Fair is smaller for drivers. Oxfordshire County Council’s special event order bans waiting in the Upper High Street car park, and in the minor carriageway on its north-east side, from 9pm on Wednesday 7 October until noon on Sunday 11 October. There is no High Street closure in the order this time.

The A34 closes southbound overnight from tonight

National Highways and its own order now say slightly different things, so here are both.

The order. On 17 September National Highways published an amended notice saying it has varied the A34 Milton to Chilton order. It allows a total weekend closure between Milton Interchange (A4130) and Chilton Interchange (A4185), expected from 9pm on Friday 2 October to 6am on Monday 5 October, with the same weekend reserved from 23 October. A 50mph limit on the southbound approach starts an hour before any closure. The order came into force on 27 September.

The plan. National Highways’ seven-day closure report, the edition starting 1 October, lists only the southbound carriageway between Milton and Chilton, shut overnight:

Night	Closed from	Reopens
Friday 2 October	8.30pm	7am Saturday
Saturday 3 October	8pm	8am Sunday
Sunday 4 October	9pm	6am Monday
Monday 5 October	9pm	6am Tuesday
Tuesday 6 October	9pm	6am Wednesday

The report describes the work as carriageway and lane closures for improvement works. It lists no northbound closure. The order is the ceiling on what National Highways may do; the report is what it currently plans. Diverted traffic uses the A4130 and the A4185. Check the closure report on the night, because it is re-issued daily and plans change.

The A4074 is a slower road than it was

The main route from this side of the district to Oxford changed on 24 July 2026. Oxfordshire County Council made orders on 20 July replacing the 60mph national speed limit with 50mph along most of the A4074 between Nuneham Courtenay and Woodcote, and dropping the Benson to Crowmarsh section and the Cane End to Caversham section to 40mph. The A4130 Wallingford bypass went to 50mph at the same time.

More than half of the 564 people who responded to the consultation objected to every single section of it. The council approved the scheme anyway. The full list of what changed, who objected and what the council said back is in our report: the A4074 speed limits are now in force.

Six Didcot streets close at school run times

Oxfordshire County Council made experimental orders on 17 August introducing School Streets at Willowcroft Community Primary School and St Birinus Boys School in Didcot. Since Wednesday 2 September motor vehicles have been banned at the following points between 8am and 9am and between 2.30pm and 3.30pm, Monday to Friday in term time only:

• Abbott Road, at its eastern and western junctions with Queensway
• Glebe Road, northern end, at its junction with Newlands Avenue
• Lynmouth Road, at its junction with Newlands Avenue
• Mereland Road, northern end, at its junction with Kynaston Road
• Mereland Road, southern end, at its junction with Green Close
• Ridgeway Road, northern end, at its junction with Kynaston Road

Enforcement is by ANPR camera, active only during those hours, issuing penalty charge notices. Residents of the affected streets can register a vehicle for exemption. Emergency services, blue badge holders, taxis, carers, school buses, Royal Mail and waste and utility vehicles are also exempt.

The council had originally intended to start this trial earlier and says the delay was down to procuring the ANPR cameras. The experimental orders can run for a maximum of 18 months, and the point of an experimental order is that the council can be told during it whether it is working.

The summer resurfacing programme has finished

Oxfordshire’s planned road maintenance programme covers the end of May to early October 2026, and the council says it is resurfacing 33 sites and more than 85,000 square metres of road across the county in that window. Every South Oxfordshire date on it has now passed: Park Corner at Nettlebed, St Georges Road in Wallingford, Eastfield Lane at Whitchurch, Church Lane at Shiplake, Reading Road in Henley on 4 August and Gillotts Lane at Harpsden on 5 August. No new South Oxfordshire site has been added since.

What comes next in this district is not resurfacing but microsurfacing and surface dressing, and it is concentrated on Didcot, Chilton, Blewbury and Cholsey in the first half of October. All of those orders have now been made. Those are in the table above. The council’s own caveat is worth repeating: “timings and locations may change to suit weather condition”.

The road build that will shape the next few years

The largest highway project in the district is not in Henley at all. Oxfordshire County Council is delivering four linked schemes around Didcot: the A4130 widening east of Milton Interchange, the Didcot Science Bridge over the A4130, the Great Western main line and Milton Road, the Didcot to Culham river crossing, and the Clifton Hampden bypass. Between them they add 19km of walking and cycling paths and 18 new bus stops, funded by Homes England grant, Enterprise Oxfordshire investment, developer contributions under section 106 and the council’s own capital budget.

On 3 August 2026 the county council named GRAHAM as the contractor for the river crossing: 3.6km of single carriageway from the A4130 at Collett roundabout to the A415 at Culham, with bridges over the Appleford railway sidings and over the Thames, and about two and a half years of construction ahead of it.

The order that spells out what that means arrived on 2 September. GRAHAM intends to close the southern arm of the Collett roundabout for a full year, from 17 February 2027 to 17 February 2028, to build the new HIF1 road layout, with traffic sent round via the A4130 and Hawksworth.

The rest is already visible in the traffic orders. The Thames Valley Path at Culham has been closed since 6 March 2026 for construction of the river crossing bridge, with the order running to 30 November 2027 and the council stating plainly that “there is no alternative nearby crossing”. The 30mph limit now imposed on 1,370 metres of the A4130 Perimeter Road at Didcot is anticipated to last until 31 January 2028.

For anyone driving between the Henley side of the district and the A34, that is several years of live construction across the routes you would use.

Parking: the three-hour problem

Henley is the odd one out among the district’s towns, and it is not close.

Kings Road (317 spaces) and Greys Road (133 spaces) are Henley’s two big car parks and both stop at three hours: one hour free with a ticket, £2.30 for two, £3.50 for three. Kings Road bars a return within two hours, Greys Road within one. Between them that is 450 spaces with no all-day option. The town’s only ten-hour council space is Southfields, which has 54 spaces at £5.30 for five hours and £6.30 for ten, with a monthly permit at £68, or £34 on the discounted rate. Southfields also sells a market trader permit at £164 a year or £14 a month for one day a week. All three tariffs were unchanged when we rechecked the council’s car park pages on 18 September.

Wallingford’s Cattlemarket and Thames Street, Thame’s Cattlemarket and Didcot’s Edinburgh Drive all sell the ten-hour ticket at £6.30. Didcot also runs an annual permit at £819, or £409 for a low-emission vehicle. In all of them the first hour is free but you still need to display a ticket, and every car park takes cash, card or the pay by phone app with a location code posted on the machine.

Two things to watch. The councils consulted on new Off-Street Parking Orders for South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse car parks between 9 April and 8 May 2026, so check the car parks pages before assuming these tariffs have survived. And in Thame, the Upper and Lower High Street car parks both close for the September Fair.

Four disabled bays in Henley are proposed for removal

Separately, the county council is consulting on removing four Disabled Persons Parking Places in Henley, at Crisp Road, Trust Corner and two on New Street, and on moving the Market Place bay eight doors along. Goring and Sonning Common lose bays too. Objections close at 5pm today, Friday 2 October 2026. The full list, town by town, is in our report: four Henley disabled parking bays face removal.

Buses

The £2 single fare cap returns on 1 January 2027, the county council confirmed on 27 July 2026. Nine Oxfordshire operators took part in the original scheme from January 2023. The council has said it cannot cut MyBus fares before the cap starts, and will review that pricing when it does. Until January, single fares are whatever the operator charges.

One operator objection is worth knowing about, because it is about the road rather than the fare. Thames Travel, which runs the X40 along the A4074, objected strongly to the new speed limits on the grounds of journey time. The council’s own timed observation of an X40 run in each direction put the cost at about 79 seconds southbound and 57 seconds northbound, against the operator’s estimate of six to seven minutes, and officers approved the scheme on that basis.

What this means in practice

If you are in Henley town centre after dark, Market Place is shut from Duke Street to 27-31 every night until 17 October, 7pm to 6.30am. Go round by Bell Street and Kings Road.

If you drive between Chinnor and Thame, the B4445 is shut until 8 October and the marked diversion adds a long loop through Oakley and the A40. Leave earlier or use the A40 directly.

If you live in or drive through Goring, assume the gas works are there until at least December on Battle Road and until February on Cleeve Road, with High Street due to follow from January to April.

If you park in Thame from Wednesday 7 to Sunday 11 October, the Upper High Street car park is off limits for the Charter Fair.

If you use the A34 southbound at night between 2 and 7 October, plan around it. National Highways lists Milton to Chilton closed southbound every night from Friday to Tuesday, and its order would allow a full weekend closure.

If you are shopping in Henley, three hours is your ceiling in the main car parks, and £3.50 buys all of it. Nobody is going to sell you a fourth hour at Kings Road.

If you drive the A4074, the limits changed on 24 July and the signs are up. The council itself expects enforcement to be the deciding factor in whether anything improves, because two councillors and a parish council said as much during the consultation.

Frequently asked questions

Is Market Place in Henley closed?

Yes, but only at night. Oxfordshire County Council’s order closes Market Place from the Duke Street junction to outside 27-31 between 7pm and 6.30am, from 16 September to an anticipated finish of 17 October 2026, for a new utility connection. The road is open during the day. The signed diversion is Bell Street, Kings Road and the one-way section of Market Place.

Where can I see current roadworks in Henley and South Oxfordshire?

On Oxfordshire County Council’s live map at one.network/custom/oxfordshire, which shows registered closures, utility works and diversions as they happen. Planned resurfacing with dates is listed separately on the council’s planned road maintenance page. Neither lists the statutory traffic orders, which is why the table above exists.

When is the B4445 Chinnor to Thame road closed?

From 21 September to 8 October 2026, around the clock, between the Chinnor Road junction and the entrance to Waterlands Farm Bungalow. Cyclists and pedestrians keep access. The signed diversion runs via Thame Road, Station Road, Oakley Road, Chinnor Road, the A40 London Road, the B4012, Thame Park Road, Wenman Road, Howland Road, Towersy Road and Chinnor Road.

How long are the Goring gas works going on for?

Battle Road is closed until 11 December 2026 and Cleeve Road from 29 September 2026 to 12 February 2027, both around the clock, both for gas main replacement. A footpath at Nuns Acre closes from 12 October to 13 November. The council also intends to close High Street, Wallingford Road to Thames Road, from 4 January to 2 April 2027.

What is the speed limit on the A4074 now?

Mostly 50mph between Nuneham Courtenay and Woodcote, replacing the 60mph national speed limit, with 40mph from Benson to Crowmarsh and from Cane End to Caversham. The A4130 Wallingford bypass is 50mph. The orders were made on 20 July 2026 and came into force on 24 July.

Is there parking at the Thame October fair?

Not in the Upper High Street car park. Waiting there is banned from 9pm on Wednesday 7 October to noon on Sunday 11 October 2026 for the Charter Fair. The September Fair closure of the High Street ended on 20 September.

Is the A34 closed this weekend?

Southbound, overnight. National Highways’ seven-day closure report lists the A34 southbound between Milton and Chilton closed from 8.30pm on Friday 2 October, 8pm on Saturday and 9pm on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, reopening each morning. Its varied order (NH/SE/2026/A34/74) would allow a full weekend closure from 9pm Friday to 6am Monday, with 23 October in reserve. Check the closure report before travelling.

How long can you park in Henley town centre?

Three hours in the two main council car parks. Kings Road and Greys Road both charge one hour free with a ticket, £2.30 for two hours and £3.50 for three, and sell nothing longer. Kings Road bars a return within two hours, Greys Road within one. Southfields is the only council car park in Henley with a ten-hour ticket, at £6.30, and it has 54 spaces.

How much is all-day parking in Wallingford, Thame or Didcot?

£6.30 for ten hours at Wallingford Cattlemarket and Thames Street, Thame Cattlemarket and Didcot Edinburgh Drive. A monthly permit is £68, or £34 at the discounted rate; Didcot also sells an annual permit at £819, or £409 for a low-emission vehicle.

What is being built at Didcot?

Four county council schemes: the A4130 widening, the Didcot Science Bridge, the Didcot to Culham river crossing and the Clifton Hampden bypass. GRAHAM was appointed in August 2026 to build the 3.6km river crossing, which includes bridges over the Appleford railway sidings and the Thames and will take about two and a half years. The southern arm of the Collett roundabout is due to close for a year from 17 February 2027.

When does the £2 bus fare cap come back?

1 January 2027, confirmed by Oxfordshire County Council in July 2026. Until then operators charge their own single fares.

Who do I report a pothole to?

Oxfordshire County Council, not the district council. The county is the highway authority for every road in South Oxfordshire except the trunk network.

Sources

• Oxfordshire County Council statutory traffic notices published on the Public Notice Portal on 23 July, 19 August, 26 August, 2 September and 4 September 2026, for every order, date, reference and status in the table, plus the Thames Water repair orders.
• Market Place and Fawley Bottom Lane closure notice, Oxfordshire County Council, published 11 September 2026 for the Market Place order of 7 September, reference 466, its 7pm to 6.30am hours, the diversion and the 17 October anticipated finish, and for the Middle Assendon pole replacement on 22 October.
• Oxfordshire County Council notices published 16 September 2026 for the made B4445 order of 14 September, the made Old Road and Cuddesdon orders, and the November closures at Cholsey, Brightwell Baldwin and Cuxham, Sydenham and Blewbury.
• Oxfordshire County Council notices published 9 September 2026 for the Mill Road closure at North Weston, the Wallingford High Street sewer works, the Towersey water connection and the South Stoke railway bridge inspections.
• Oxfordshire County Council traffic notices published 10 September 2026 for the Stanton St John Quiet Lanes experimental order of 7 September and its 21 September start.
• Henley Half Marathon special event order, published 18 September 2026, reference S26-032, for the roads closed on 18 October and the 9.20am to 10am window.
• Goring-on-Thames gas main replacement: the Battle Road and Nuns Acre notice, 20 August 2026 and the Cleeve Road notice, 27 August 2026.
• National Highways amended notice for the A34 Milton to Chilton weekend closure, published 17 September 2026, reference NH/SE/2026/A34/74, for the varied order, the 27 September commencement, the approach speed restriction, the dates, the reserve weekend and the diversion. It supersedes the notice of intent of 3 September.
• Oxfordshire County Council notices published on the Public Notice Portal on 17 September (Goring High Street, Cleeve Road), 23 September (Blewbury, Honey Lane, Green Close), 24 September (Beech Lane, Woodcote), 25 September (the Shiplake 30mph proposal), and 30 September (Goldsmiths Lane, Cholsey, Marsh Baldon, Jubilee Way, Queens Road, Mowbray Road, Station Road, the Didcot and Chilton microsurfacing), the South Oxfordshire map-based order and the Thurningdown closure, 30 September, and Shiplake Bottom, 2 October 2026.
• National Highways seven-day road closure report, edition starting 1 October 2026, for the nightly A34 southbound closure times.
• Thame September and October Fairs special event order and Thame Fair, Oxfordshire County Council for the closure times, the car parks and the alternative route.
• South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse proposed Disabled Persons Parking Places, September 2026 for the bays and the 2 October deadline.
• Oxfordshire School Streets, Let’s Talk Oxfordshire for the 2 September start, the ANPR enforcement, the exemptions and the reason for the delay.
• Oxford to Caversham: A4074 corridor, proposed 40mph and 50mph speed limits, Oxfordshire County Council, 9 October 2025 for the decision, the consultation responses and the X40 journey time observations.
• Oxfordshire County Council live roadworks map (one.network) for current closures and diversions.
• Oxfordshire County Council planned road maintenance for the resurfacing programme, the 33 sites and the council’s caveat about weather.
• Didcot and area improvements and GRAHAM to build Didcot to Culham river crossing, 3 August 2026 for the four schemes, the funding and the contractor.
• Oxfordshire welcomes return of £2 single bus fare cap, 27 July 2026 for the January 2027 start.
• South Oxfordshire District Council car park pages for every tariff, permit price and space count quoted: Henley-on-Thames, Kings Road, Wallingford, Thame and Didcot, plus the car parks index for the Off-Street Parking Order review.

Roadworks dates move, and an order the council only intends to make can be dropped. Check the linked council pages before you set off. Where the trains go is on Henley trains to London; what is being built and where is on Henley planning. The full road closures for the Henley Half Marathon on 18 October are set out separately.