A394
From Roader's Digest: The SABRE Wiki
| A394 | |||||||||||||
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| From: | Marazion (A30) (SW503316) | ||||||||||||
| To: | Penryn Bypass (SW766348) | ||||||||||||
| Via: | Helston | ||||||||||||
| Length: | 20.8 miles (33.5 km) | ||||||||||||
| Meets: | A30, B3280, B3304, B3302, A3083, B3297, A39 | ||||||||||||
| Now part of: | A39 | ||||||||||||
| Primary Destinations | |||||||||||||
| Falmouth • Helston • Penzance • | |||||||||||||
| Highways Authorities | |||||||||||||
| Traditional Counties | |||||||||||||
| Route outline (key) | |||||||||||||
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The A394 is a primary route running along the south coast of Cornwall linking Penzance to Falmouth via Helston and beyond.
Contents |
Route
The route starts at a roundabout on the A30 Long Rock Bypass, followed by a modern high quality single carriageway bypass for Marazion. Both were constructed in 1982. There are no junctions on this stretch, but bridges over the railway line and two minor roads. This ends at another roundabout, where the B3280 goes off to the left, through the village of Goldsithney and on towards Redruth. Going right at this roundabout takes you along the old route through Marazion.
Continuing on the A394, although still well aligned and straight, this is obviously a much older road and has lots of junctions, with roads going off to all the tiny villages and hamlets around here and along the south coast. It runs through the village of Ashton, and then, a lot less straight now, just avoids Breage. It then heads down hill alongside a stream, a stretch of road notorious for accidents due to a steep drop, low wall and slippery road under the trees. The road then curves sharply left where the B3304 is on the right near the bottom of the hill; it goes down into Porthleven, a large village, and back out. The road climbs back through trees, upon a section of road which saw large re-engineering works in 2013 when the road started to fall into a small stream, and a little further on you reach the top of Sithney Common Hill where the B3302 on the left goes to Hayle and Camborne via the B3303. The road then heads down a steep hill into Helston.
Your are imediately greeted by the usual 30mph speed limit and there's a road on the left that goes into the middle of the town, but it's rather narrow and isn't signed. After crossing the river, there's a small double roundabout. On the right is the other end of the B3304 from Porthleven. Left is the bottom of the Monument Hill, which leads to the main street. The A394 bypasses the town, giving it a most ridiculous route. It continues up a steep hill along Furry Way, then goes round to the left to a mini-roundabout. If you go left here, then right at the bottom of Trengrouse Way, you come out on the B3297 near Tesco, which follows the old route through the outskirts of the town and this cuts off a substantial distance in town, and what most locals do (the High Street is an even more direct route, but is slower). Anyway, sticking to the A394, after the mini roundabout the speed limit is increased to 40mph in the outskirts of town and the road heads south-east to a roundabout. Right here is the A3083 which goes past RNAS Culdrose and down to the Lizard. The A394 turns left, where there is another roundabout for a new supermarket and the local theme park. The road continues curving further to the left after this.
After quarter a mile there is yet another new roundabout where you turn right, followed by one more for a housing estate and Hotel, and then along a short new S2 bypass which avoids the Turnpike and Tesco area of the town. The road is remains at 40 mph for this strech. It then crosses it's final roundabout before the A39 and picks up the orignal route of the A394 just east of the Gwealdues Hotel. Here you turn right toward Falmouth on the A394 or turn left to go back towards Helston. The new bypass relieves the town of congestion from nearby Culdrose Air Station and summer tourist traffic to the Lizard Peninsula..
It leaves Helston, goes through the villages of Trewennack, which is a quite tight bottleneck. There were plans to bypass Trewennack when the Heelston bypass was completed but the plan hasn't come to fruition yet. Next up is Trevenen, and then along three S2/1 sections, to allow overtaking on the hills up to Rame and Hernis, and then Longdowns. In Longdowns, there's a turn on the right after the speed cameras which joins the A39 east of Mabe Burnthouse and is a shortcut to Penryn and Falmouth, but from which traffic is discouraged by "Unsuitable for through traffic" signs at either end. The A394 takes a more northerly course which has been widened to allow higher traffic flow, and continues on to the A39 about a mile and a half later on at the Treliever Roundabout, now the Western terminus of the road.
History
Penryn
At Penryn, the A394 used to continue across Treliever Roundabout to Penryn Harbour past the new Tremough University from what is now the A39 Penryn bypass. That section of road can be accessed just to the east of the current A39 junction but is now unclassified. It ended on what was the A39 (now the B3292) on Commercial Road.
In addition, part of the A39 bypass (the section north of the current junction) used to be another spur of the A394 continuing to the current junction with the A393 at Treluswell Roundabout. The 1994 bypass had a new build south of the junction but north is just this route re-numbered. That section was itself a renumbered A3046 (Penryn) which was possibly changed in the 1935 renumbering.
Marazion
The A394 also used to go through the village of Marazion and terminated at the A30 at Long Rock, but this road and the A30 through Long Rock were declassfied when the A394 Marazion Bypass and the A30 Long Rock Bypass were constructed in 1982 to improve links with Helston, Penzance and Hayle. New roundabouts were constructed at either end on the new A394 bypass, Newtown Roundabout with the A30 and the other with the B3280, where the old route can still be followed into Marazion. The route towards Rosudgeon from there was re aligned at the same time up to the Perranuthnoe turning. The bypass severed the B3310 near the Newtown Roundabout with the A30, but a small link road was placed to keep easy access between Marazion and the A30 to Hayle at this roundabount although the road became unclassified. These works would have prepared for a new bypass around the current A30 between Hayle and Newtown roundabout but the plans were scrapped when the New Labour Government came to power.
Helston
The A394 in Helston used to go through the town itself, through Monument Road, Coinagehall Street, Wendron Street and Godolphin Road. In 1980 the Furry Way was built to what was the B3295 Meneage Road (at the time it had be re-classified as an extention of the B3293 to St Keverne) to get through traffic to go around the town, instead of through it. This bypass used the old B3293 to the junction at the new Cottage Hospital, and then took the A3083 up through Clodgey Lane. The B3293 was then de-classified into the town, and the route towards Culdrose Airbase from Furry Way was reclassified as the A394. The roundabout at the Cottage Hospital became the northern terminus of the A3083 and the rest to Clodgey Lane became A394, with only a small re-alignment to remove the 90 degree turn on the old A3083 junction with the unclassified road to Pemboa and Gweek. All of this explains the roads odd route around the town. After this the whole town centre became de-classified although a pre-Worboys sign at the bottom of Meneage Street still tells road users that Penzance is left from their position along the A394. Both Wendron Street/Godolphin Road and Meneage Street became one way after the A394 was diverted around the town, and traffic lights were placed there.
The B3297 regained half of it's former route on Clodgey Lane in 2005 as well as the road out towards Falmouth to a new roundabout, when the new A394 Helston bypass was constructed around the south east of the town from the Rugby Club to the new roundabout near the Gwealdues Hotel to avoid the Tesco area of the town. The road the new bypass replaced was reclassified the A3083 from the B3297 in 1935 with the B3295 road to the Lizard and remained so until 1980 with the first A394 Helston bypass at Clodgey Lane.
Original Author(s): Mark & Pete(Jack Russell)
