Is this the only one or are there others on unclassified and B roads?

I'm sure there are some on the B4455 section of the Fosse Way, but now can't find them on Streetview. I thought there was one just after you join the Fosse Way heading south at High Cross, but it's not there on GSV. It was also memorable for having quite a high mileage for a lowland English S2 RCS, namely 55 miles to Cirencester.

Haven't looked on GSV and it's ages since I've been there, but the B6318 (the military road parallel to Hadrian's Wall) is probably a good bet for them too.

The B2178 has some, the B2177 does too. I'm inclined to think the 2146 also has them.

Can't think of unclassified with them.


Isn't your example of an unclassified road RCS on an A road?

No it has been unclassified since about 1988 when the A30 was diverted up the old A34 to bullingdon cross. Prior to being declassified it was also primary with green signs. That sign is west of the old A30 / A303 junction.

The B3227 has some high mileages for a B road.

And unnecessarily so at the Taunton end. Barnstaple should really be signed from the Norton Fitzwarren via the A3065/A38/M5/A361 but I think Somerset CC just copied the information from old A361 signs just changing the colour and road number without thinking about why they needed changing.

Surely this would be relatively common. It is not totally unwise as the "old" road is often a feasible diversion route for its replacement.

Signs such as these, while interesting to us are totally wrong, especially the ex A30 one. Surely the whole point of declassifying and downgrading these roads is to discourage long distance traffic an put it onto the high quality routes (such as the A303 in the A30 case). Signing major destinations contradicts this entirely. The road might just as well still be A-whatever!!

Now by all means put up an RCS for local destinations. That's not done enough IMO. In the ex A30 case a mileage RCS for Sutton Scotney would be acceptable (and cheaper - smaller sign) but not Stockbridge or Salisbury.

Not to mention Yeovil and Dorchester!

That said, I'm not quite sure why they ever declassified that bit of A30. All it does is send you the long way round to Bullington cross then down the old A34 which is not of any higher standard, and it's not as if any settlements were bypassed. Anyone in the know would use the old A30 every time - apart from anything else the Micheldever london bound slip road merge lane is long enough for you to join ther A303 without having a rocket strapped to the rear of your car

- or would go along the A303 to the A343 on the Andover Bypass then down the A343 (which of course was the original A30)

You also dont see this on unlassified roads much either

I know this one which appears on an unclassified road, pointing towards a motorway and a couple of A roads.

It doesn't compare obviosuly with Sutton Scotney but AFAIK the nearest signpost in the region that referes to the capital as "London".

I think they thought they were tidying things up when they redirected the A30 to Bullington Cross, or maybe that it would make it easier for A34 traffic to get onto the A30 without having a seperate junction near the services at Sutton Scotney, (or having a big detour to Popham Beacons/Mitcheldever). More cynically perhaps, by adding a third road to the junction it somehow gave better justification for the money spent rebuilding Bullington Cross! To me having A30 movements added just overcomplicates things and it would be a far simpler junction without the a30 in the mix. How much traffic uses the A34 to A30 movements anyhow?

That services sign, unlike the RCS going the other way would seem to be a hangover/survivor from the A30 days when more traffic would be using the road to get to the M3.

The section of the Fosse Way between Leicester and the Cotswolds which is now the B4455 was unclassed until (when ? 1980s ?) but always had Route Confirmation Signs after every major junction, with forward mileages shown, which as there was no route number were headed "The Fosseway", which struck me as unique - I don't recall this being done on any other unclassed road. However, the various junctions along the way were of unclassed style - the A45 dual carriageway was a simplistic uncontrolled cross roads without even any stagger, which in the days before the M6 must have been an accident black spot.

You're probably thinking of the one at Bretford -- just south of the Avon crossing -- that shows "(Cirencester 54)".

That services sign in the other direction is no more! The poles were still there but the sign gone when I passed last July. Unless they put it back up again, which would be bizarre.

The space at the top of this sign on the Caister bypass would have said the B1159 before the road was downgraded to a C road (for no good reason I can think of).

A bit of a curiosity is the lack of brackets. None of the destinations listed would have been arrived at on the B1159 without using another road: the A149 to Great Yarmouth and Potter Heigham (shown as Ptr Heigham), and the A1064 to Norwich.

As an aside this road was the A149 before becoming the B1159, which happened when the A149 Ormesby bypass was built. That sign would not have been there then, as Potter Heigham would have been in the opposite direction.

Still missing last Wednesday morning....

That's a shame. Now come on own up . Who''s been souvenir hunting?!! LOL

Actually, Paul (or may I call you A.CCCIII?) that road is more properly known as the V.V