B3062

The now-unclassified former B3062 Holdenhurst Road

The B3062 used to start at the Cooper Dean roundabout in north Bournemouth, run past Queens Park and then on through Springbourne. Passing Bournemouth Railway Station, it then carried on towards the centre of Bournemouth. If you know anything about the roads of Bournemouth, you are probably now saying "isn't that the A338 Wessex Way?" and the answer is yes, partially.

Prior to 1970, the B3062 started on a T junction with the A3060 at Littledown. It then headed south-westwards towards Bournemouth along the course of the current A338, passing Queens Park and on into Springbourne where it became Holdenhurst Road. In Springbourne, the then-B3061 (now A3049) crossed over with two junctions around 300 yards apart. It is not clear from the contemporary maps whether the section of road between the junctions was the B3061 or B3062, although given that the B3062 only existed south of the B3061 until after World War II the former is far more likely. The B3062 carried on as Holdenhurst Road, crossing over the railway next to Bournemouth Central Station and coming to the Lansdowne roundabout, where the A35 crossed over and the B3064 entered from the right. The straight-on route went down towards the beach and then looped back into the centre of Bournemouth to meet the A35 again and the A347. Today most of this road is the B3066 but it is not clear from the maps whether it was the same before 1970 or whether the B3062 carried on along this route.

When the A338 Bournemouth Spur road was built in the late 1960s, it terminated at the same junction where the B3062 started which by now had been converted to a roundabout called the Cooper Dean roundabout. On the Ordnance Survey One-Inch map from 1970, the next section is shown as dualled as far as the new Queens Park roundabout, but still classified as the B3062. By the time the first series 1:50,000 map was surveyed in 1972, this section of road had become the A338 so it is unclear whether the classification changed with dualling and the OS didn't update the map, or if the classification changed after dualling. For the first third of a mile, the dualling was done by adding a second carriageway on the western side, but then the rest was all new build, with the original road becoming a local access road called Littledown Drive. The new dual carriageway terminated on a new roundabout called the Queens Park roundabout and the road carried on into Bournemouth, still as the B3062.

By 1972, when the first series 1:50,000 OS map was surveyed, the B3062 has been classified as the A338, and sections of the Wessex Way are appearing. The section along Holdenhurst road between the Queens Park roundabout and Lowther Road is the A338 but then Lowther Road and Methuen Road are used as a gyratory system to link the section of Wessex Way past the railway station. The next section of Holdenhurst Road has been declassified until after it has passed the railway station, after which it appears to have been classified as part of the A35. By 1974, the whole of the road through Springbourne has been bypassed and has now been unclassified. The section classified as the A35 remains as such until todays St.Pauls Road and St.Swithuns South road are completed in the early 1980s. Thereafter, the section of Holdenhurst road approaching the Lansdowne is classified as part of the B3066.