A1301

This article is about the present route in Cambridgeshire.
For the former route in Essex, see A1301 (Essex).

The A1301 comprises the former A130 linking the south of Cambridge to Stump Cross via several villages. It is relatively free of long-distance traffic due to the parallel M11 a few miles to the west.

The road starts in Trumpington, on the southern edge of Cambridge, by turning off the A1309 at traffic lights. The road heads southeastwards along Shelford Road, soon crossing a bridge over the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway. Traffic lights are then reached, from where a spur of the A1301 heads back to the A1309, joining it not far from the M11; traffic is advised to use the spur unless it wants Cambridge city centre.

We soon reach the city boundary - but ribbon development means that the road remains built-up. We're now technically in Great Shelford. Fields are briefly visible to the right after which we cross over the London Kings Cross to Cambridge railway line and soon reach the village centre. After we go over the London Liverpool Street to Cambridge railway line we pass through the connected village of Stapleford before crossing the River Granta to enter open country for the first time.

A few fields further on the A1301 bears right onto the Sawston bypass, with the old road through the village now unclassified. We pass to the west of Sawston, running close to the railway line in the valley of the River Cam or Granta (which, confusingly, is not the same as the River Granta). The old road comes in from the left and we cross the A505 at a roundabout very soon afterwards.

A1301 near Hinxton

We continue on across the fields and pass to the east of the village of Hinxton. A roundabout gives access to something unnervingly signposted as "Genome Campus"; this is a genetics research centre run by the Wellcome Trust. A short distance further on the road reaches Stump Cross Interchange, a dumbbell interchange also known as M11 J9A and formerly a crossroads on the A11 and A130. The former A130 ahead is now numbered B184.