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A30/Shaftesbury - Yeovil

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A30
Location Map ( geo)
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From:  Shaftesbury (A350) (SU461421)
To:  Yeovil (ST534145)
Distance:  23 miles (37 km)
Meets:  A37, A350, A357, A3088, B3092, B3145, B3148
Highway Authorities

Somerset Council • Dorset Council

Counties

Somerset • Dorset

Route outline (key)
East Arrownortheast.jpg Wilton - Shaftesbury
A30 Ivy Cross Roundabout - Hospital Roundabout
A30 Hospital Roundabout - Bunford Hollow Roundabout
Arrowsouthwest.jpg West Yeovil - Upottery

West | East

Shaftesbury - Yeovil

Ivy Cross Roundabout in the snow

We restart once more at Ivy Cross Roundabout, where we leave the A350, where we soon lose the 40mph limit for NSL, and once again head west on a reasonable new alignment. It is S2/1 with the climbing lane on the eastbound side, but this, like so many improvements on the A30 is to be short lived as we re join the old alignment after a T-Junction and head into a 40mph limit as we reach Long Cross. We pass through the village and out the other side quite quickly through the other side, but it isn't until we pass a few tight bends that we return to NSL.

Not long after we meet another village as pass through the few houses that line the road as it straightens out for a while. The scenery is nice around here and would make a nice change to the A303 if you do come this way one day! There is one slight bend in the road and then all of a sudden the road closes in on you and there is a warning for a tight left hander with an advisory 40mph limit.

We now head down Fern Hill and down past East Stour Common. Soon after we get to East Stour itself, where we meet the to normal 40 mph limit. We head into the countryside again while we are in the village, which is a bit odd, but we soon meet the rest of the village, a 30mph limit, and our first classified road since we started. This is a cross roads with the B3092, which goes between Sturminster Newton (I have no idea where either) and Mere on the A303. After the cross roads is a tight right hander with an advisory 30mph, which is odd considering the limit is 30mph.

We leave East Stour and head across the countryside and lose the 30mph limit for 40mph once again, and is more like roads in Cornwall where the trees come right over the road, leaving a tunnel shaped hole for you to pass through for a little while. Of course, there wouldn't be an East Stour if there wasn't a West Stour, and that is our next destination. We pass a small petrol station on the left and we also pass the Dorset Showground here on the right. The signs for West Stour are next and as such the limit returns to 30mph when we drive by. We pass through the village, which is made up of rather pretty old houses, and once as we leave the village we return to NSL yet again.

The next section is twisty, much like between Salisbury and Shaftesbury, and there are numerous places where there are single white dashed lines instead of solid double whites, but you'd have to be a complete fool to try and overtake around here. Eventually the road does open up and it is a pleasant drive in the countryside. There is a small improved section around the River Cale where the old sections make up laybys on either side, like the A394 just before the Marazion bypass, although there are numerous other examples.

Further on we pass a turning for a golf club and we enter Somerset for the first of many times! We straddle the Somerset/Dorset border all the way to Yeovil from here. Soon after we get to Henstridge, a small village built mainly to the south of the A30. We get another 40mph limit (which later reduces to 30) and the road narrow for a bridge, where we see our first double white lines. We soon meet the A357 in the centre of the village at a signalised cross roads and then head up hill past the A357 along Sherborne Road to return to 40mph along a nice straight road. Somerset do seem to have cared for the A30 in it's old age, unlike Dorset who seem to treat it as a B-Road.

A couple of miles down the road we the road narrows under trees as we re enter Dorset and back out again soon after on to quite straight sections connected by long corners. It isn't long before we are back in Somerset and signs tell us that we are at Milborne Port. How it was a port in the middle of the countryside is beyond me. Anyway, as with most villages, we return to 40mph and soon after 30mph once more as we pass through yet another old village. Apart from a pub and the road narrowing a few time, losing it's centre lines as it does so, there isn't much to note here, as we leave the village as we pass a petrol station before returning to 40mph. We stay under tree along some quite narrow sections of road, where there has been works to keep the verge on the westbound side from falling into the road. It is quite a deep cutting along here but once again we exit the tree and return to NSL as we pass the Dorset border once again!

We head along another straight section before meeting a rail bridge, a sign for Oborne and another 40mph limit. We turn hard left over the bridge. It's not long before we meet our first junction with the B3145, which forks off to the left. We head straight on up a steep hill as Oborne blends into Sherborne. We gain a 30mph limit just before a roundabout for local traffic and head to the town centre. We pass the B3145 once again at North Road, a little further we pass it again at traffic lights, this time on the Eastbound side, and quickly after again on the westbound side, but this is one way southbound. Not long after we meet the B3148 at another set of Traffic lights before our final junction with the A352 at one final set of lights. From here, we hit dual carriageway, and a good lot of it. We only meet 5 other roads along here at grade, all of which are unclassifed and it is a great stretch of road. We quickly pass NSL Signs and leave Sherborne, which is the last town before Yeovil.

The first roundabout as you enter Yeovil

Before you know it, you turn slightly to the north before meeting a roundabout. This signifies the end of the dual carriageway as we enter a business park. Immediately we cross the Somerset/Dorset border for the final time. We pass a petrol station on the right and head into Yeovil. It's not long before you are in a residential area, and then the road becomes dual carriageway once more, although the limit has reduced back to 30mph. There is a stray primary A30 sign along here, but before long, we meet the A37 at Hospital Roundabout, and we actually become primary!

We head straight on here along the Queensway dual carriageway, and the A37 meets us at this roundabout, also as dual carriageway, but it is the A30 that becomes the dominant number in the multiplex. We next meet Horsey Roundabout, where the A3088 leaves to the West as partial dual carriageway and towards the A303. We continue west with the A37 to Quicksilver Roundabout, where the A37 heads south to Dorchester. We carry on along West Coker Road, another urban S2, to meet the A3088 at Bunford Hollow Roundabout, which descends to the other A3088. We lose Primary status here as the A3088 takes it up to the A303.

History

This section of the A30 is almost untouched in terms of route since classification. In Shaftesbury, the old route continues across Royal Chase Roundabout onto the B3091. This swings through Shaftesbury High Street, before heading onto the B3081 towards Gillingham. We pass under the modern A30 flyover near Ivy Cross. Soon the old route leaves the B3081, onto a D road ironically called New Road. This rejoins the modern A30 below the flyover, with a short section of abandoned tarmac the main hint that this used to be the main route.

Adjustments on this next section include smoothing out the bend at Lotmoor Hill (just after leaving East Stour), where the fence line recedes, and realignment with the construction of a new bridge across the River Cale, a large layby with an odd spur the only hint of this one.

The A30 approaching Yeovil down Babylon Hill, with old alignment

The next major change is all after Sherborne, with the fairly obvious dualling of the A30. This was performed online, although another bend has been smoothed out at Babylon Hill, with a very small piece of tarmac and a gate on the old route, virtually invisible as you drive past. So much so, you might see a police car parked there!

In Yeovil itself, the A30 used to go straight on where the modern road diverges at Reckleford (the urban dual carriageway section). This is now a one way system, but if you could carry straight on, it quickly follows the course of the pedestriansed Middle Street and onto the High Street, then turning left onto Hendford. While Horsey Roundabout has adjusted alignments, the old A30 is the car park outside the Medical Centre, and then rejoins the modern multiplex with the A37 up Hendford Hill.



A30
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