A22

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A22
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From:	Purley
To:	Eastbourne
Length:	49.3 miles (79.3 km)
Meets:	A23, A25, A27
Route outline (key)
A22 Purley - Polegate (A27) Polegate By-Pass A22 Polegate - Eastborne

The A22 starts its way south in Purley, South London at the junction with the A23, A2022 and the A235. Beginning as single carriageway it briefly upgrades to dual carriageway south of Whyteleafe. We soon cross the border into commuter county Surrey. There are a couple of sharp bends as the road snakes its way round the east of Caterham before reaching junction 6 of the M25. Here, the route bypasses the town of Godstone, once a bottleneck with the A25. The next roundabout is the junction with the non-primary A25, from here we are back to single carriageway. The next roundabout, south of Godstone sees us back on the original road. After passing through South Godstone, the road becomes very straight as we follow the path of a Roman Road. As we cross the mini roundabout at the junction of the B2028, we get a good glimpse of the tall spire of the church at Newchapel.

The next junction is a traffic signal controlled t-junction with the A264 heading towards Crawley. The A264 shares the A22 until we reach the one-way system in East Grinstead. We also leave Surrey for West Sussex at this point. The A264 turns left towards Tunbridge Wells and further on we stay in the left hand lane to take the A22 around the town centre. The right hand lane will take you through the town centre along the original route. After a mile long drive through a very deep cutting we reach the roundabout which realigns us to the original route south of the town centre. The cutting is actually the old line of a disused railway that linked Tonbridge, East Grinstead and Crawley, as betrayed by its name, Beeching Way. Interestingly, Dr Beeching actually lived in East Grinstead and turned what used to be an important railway crossroads into a single terminus (...but that's another story...)

It is downhill now, – there is a sharp right bend and a sharp left bend as we go down,– it is through these bends that we enter East Sussex. At the bottom of the hill we arrive in the village of Forest Row, which sees the start of the Ashdown Forest. A mini-roundabout sees the B2110 turn left towards Tunbridge Wells. Time to start climbing uphill as we snake our way through the northern part of the forest – this is where you hope not to be stuck behind an HGV. After a set of traffic lights at an unclassified road junction, we reach the junction with the A275 towards Lewes.

Another straight stretch of road, quite wide too allowing you to overtake the lumbering lorries. Watch out for deer crossing this part of the road in the forest – they cause a lot of damage. A slight right bend takes us to the top of Ashdown Forest where on a good day you can see all the way to the South Downs in the distance. Downhill again before a short climb into the village of Nutley. Nutley sees the end of the Ashdown Forest as we arrive at the roundabout with the B2026 and the original route of the A22 through the village of Maresfield. We take the second exit onto the very wide single carriageway bypass of the village. The next roundabout merges us with the well known A272 towards Haywards Heath. Another wide stretch of road takes us to another roundabout where we say goodbye to the A272 where it merges with the northbound A26 to Tunbridge Wells. We turn right and the southbound A26 shares our route as we travel along the western bypass of Uckfield. This bypass is a narrow single carriageway road. The next roundabout allows you to turn left onto the B2102 to Uckfield. We continue on to the next roundabout where the A26 turns right and continues its journey south to Lewes and Newhaven. Onwards we go to the next roundabout where you can turn right for a round of golf at the East Sussex National Golf Club. A mile or so further on, a t-junction to the left sees the southern end of the original A22 through Uckfield. Uphill again and we pass through the village of Halland where we reach a roundabout at the junction of the B2192 towards Heathfield and Lewes. The next roundabout sees us joining the bypass around the village of East Hoathly – a much needed bypass as the right angled bend in the middle of the village used to cause problems for our HGV friends. Another very wide bypass allowing for overtaking – about 3 quarters of a mile long. We continue south through the village of Whitesmith before reaching the junction with the B2124 towards Lewes. A chance to fill up with petrol as we pass through Golden Cross and onto a nice straight stretch of road taking us to the Boship roundabout allowing us to join the A267 towards Tunbridge Wells or the A271 towards Bexhill and Hastings. We take the third exit onto the Hailsham bypass, and at long last, a dual carriageway. The first roundabout we meet allows you to turn left into an industrial estate to the east of Hailsham. At the top of the next hill you can turn right across the northbound carriageway onto an unclassified road taking you to the Arlington Speedway track. We then go downhill to the roundabout joining us to the important sounding non-primary A295 which is a two mile drive through Hailsham to the A271. Not sure why it has been given this three digit route number. We then arrive at the new very large roundabout with the A27, which we will now share for a short while along the brand new Polegate bypass. Had we continued on, we would have followed the original route of the A22 towards Eastbourne town centre, now renumbered A2270.

After a couple of miles, the next roundabout tells us to turn right onto the new route of the A22 into Eastbourne. The dual carriageway takes us a short distance across the flat plains of Stone Cross to arrive at a roundabout to the south of Hampden Park to the east of the town itself. The A22 arrives nowhere really – instead we are invited to take the A2280 towards the coastal A259 road. Welcome to sunny Eastbourne.

Original Author(s): SteveA404, Christopher Larsen