A1094

Route

Snape

The A1094 is a reasonably short A-road in east Suffolk.

The road starts on the A12 at Friday Street, on the short D2 stretch just south of Saxmundham. The road heads east and soon crosses the Ipswich to Lowestoft railway line and then the River Fromus. The road then skirts the village of Snape, where it meets the B1069 and starts a multiplex with the road. As it happens, Snape is the home for the Aldeburgh Festival, named after the place the A1094 is heading to and which was the original home of the festival.

We continue east along a straight road, bending to the right on meeting the B1121 before the B1069 multiplex ends with that road turning off left just afterwards. We now head southeastwards across the fields and pass a golf course to enter Aldeburgh. The B1122 is met at a roundabout (the adjacent Railway Inn was next to the town's station, of which nothing now remains).

We continue into the town centre along Victoria Road, to reach a crossroads with a glimpse of the sea along the road ahead. However, we TOTSO right (although the road number is not mentioned) and head south along the High Street parallel to the coast on the left. The A1094 now peters out. The road's official end is where the High Street changes its name to Slaughden Road, although there is nothing to announce this - and there seems no reason why the road should not have ended at the crossroads.

History

In 1922 the road to Aldeburgh was the B1121. This left the A12 just south of Saxmundham and headed east, as indeed it still does. However, it then continued as far as Aldeburgh Moot Hall, where it ended. The road from Friday Street via Snape was initially unclassified but was soon upgraded to the B1353.

It was quickly decided that Aldeburgh needed to be connected to the Class I network. As such, the B1353 was given the A1094 number, which then took on the original eastern end of the B1121. The road still ended by the Moot Hall, however, and it was not extended south along the High Street for another few years.