B31 (Cregneash)

This article is about the original B31, now the A31 through Cregneash.
For the current B31 in Onchan, see B31 (Isle of Man).

Descending to the end of the A31, former B31

The original B31 is a rather unusual route. It started in Port St Mary and ran south west to the most westerly point on the Isle of Man, overlooking Kitterland in the Calf Sound, with the Calf of Man beyond. However, when originally classified, sometime between 1926 and 1929, classified routes did not extend into the towns, which means that the B31 started at the Port St Mary Boundary, somewhere near the current A29 / A31 crossroads on the edge of the town, and so doesn't appear to have connected with any other classified road. This is backed up by the mileage listed, which is approximately 2.6 miles, roughly the distance from the crossroads to the current end of the A31. To make things even stranger, the western part of the route, beyond Cregneash, appears to be simultaneously listed in 1937 as the B36, a highly unusual situation. The only mapping evidence we have is from 1929, when the route is labelled as the B31.

All of the B31, was renumbered as the A31 at some point before 1963, by which time the route extended east to reach the old line of the A7. It is the only example on the Isle of Man of a B road being upgraded to an A road with the same number, so far discovered.

The Manx Government Circular 1814 of 17/08/1937 defines this route as: Howe Road, from Port St Mary boundary to the Sound