Beyond Gloucester, the A38 was probably only improved in 1756 under an Act dealing with roads from that city towards Cheltenham and Tewkesbury. The next section (from Coombe Hill) was improved as one of the Tewkesbury roads, again from 1727. The Act refers to this as the Upper Way to Gloucester in contrast to the Lower Way, which went via Wainsload Bridge. When this Act was renewed in 1756, the road from Tewkesbury to a farm house called the Old Blue Ball (now Bluebell Farm) was also included. This was in Earls Croome, Worcestershire, and was where one of the Worcester turnpikes ended. Much of this stretch of the road originated as a Roman road, but the later road left the Roman line near Naunton in Ripple. The name Stratford Bridge on the county boundary confirms its Roman origin there.