A30/Penzance - Lands End

East

Penzance - Lands End

After leaving the final roundabout on the Penzance Bypass (Mount Misery) we head off on our final jaunt towards Lands End. The road after only a mile shows it's former B-Road status quite well as there have been little to no improvements along this road since it was reclassified, and as such is quite substandard, much like a lot of the other Non-Primary A-Roads in Cornwall.

The first junction is a crossroads with the B3315 and B3317. The B3315 heads off into Newlyn, and then along the south coast towards Porthcurno and the Minack Theatre, although it isn't signposted for that here. The B3317 is not much more than a narrow back lane, and hasn't been improved to the same standards of most of the B Roads in the area, being only just wide enough for a Tractor in places. But it isn't well used due to the A3071 being so near, and it being quite dangerous, it is generally avoided. The road continues onto Buryas Bridge before it comes out of the trees and into Drift, where there is another crossroads with a couple of unclassified roads and the speed limit is 30. There's a small used car garage there too.

Out of Lower Drift the road returns to NSL and meets the B3283. Its number seems rather out of place considering most of the local B roads are part of the B331x series (the A30 here is a reclassified version of the B3313). This road takes the traffic for the Minack Theatre to the B3315 further south. From here there isn't much to report apart from a few little hamlets alongside. The only interesting thing is that the road signs pointing towards Lands End are White on Brown.

The A30 at Crows-an-wra

We soon get to Crows an Wra, and as soon as it's met, it is gone again as it's that small. There is a sign for Lands End Aerodrome though, which takes passengers over to the Isles of Scilly, and is busier now than before as the Heliport has closed in Penzance. A few hundred yards later an unclassified road takes any traffic to the Aerodrome. The A30 keeps on going. There's only 4 miles left now.

Apart from the open countryside and normal Cornish hedges, there really isn't much along this road. The next junction is with the B3306. This weaves it's way across the north coast from the end of the A3074, meeting the A3071 at a 'Useless Multiplex' and then heads off to meet the A30 in the middle of nowhere. Another mile on and we get to the village of Sennen, which is famous for it's life boat and it's beach. And it's not even that famous. The speed limit is 30 once again and strangely, considering this is still the A30, there are speed bumps! A mini roundabout takes traffic down to the beach and the A30 continues for it's final mile and a half.

The speed limit rises to 40mph as we pass Sennen School and out to one of the many little villages along here. All seem to be built off of the A30 so the road remains quite uninterrupted by the area until we reach the old part of Sennen, where the road narrows up through the village and the centre markings come and go sporadically. We then pass 'The Last Inn in England' and a little further down the road, the speed limit returns to NSL.

Next there is a junction with a local road which cuts the corner off between the A30 and the B3315. There is some confusion here though because the signs on the A30 are 'White on Green' Primary A Road signs, when this road is still non-primary (unless someone can prove otherwise). We then head straight on to Lands Ends. Just 500 yards from the end, the B3315 rejoins us. The signs here have not been changed in years though as they still acknowledge the existence of the A3077, which hasn't been in Penzance or Newlyn for years! The signs for the A30 have returned to White on Brown for Lands End, and Black on White for Penzance.

This is it then. The last 500 yards before Lands End are nothing special at all, and you sort of expect something to say this is the most westerly classified road on mainland Britain. What actually happens is the road butts straight up to the road into the car park and another road joins to let traffic out of the car park. A rather unceremonious way to end what started as the Great South West Road in Hounslow, but at least you can spend your money on a souvenir at Lands End! (Not that you'll have much if you've driven all the way from London!)

History

The B3313 at Lands End before renumbering in 1925

As mentioned earlier, the A30 was once numbered the B3313 where it started on a junction with the A30 and the B3312 in the centre of Penzance. It was renumbered as an extension of the A30 in 1925.

Where the A30 meets the B3315 near Lands End, the road originally went south through Trevescan where it turned right and followed the current route of the B3315 and continued straight onto Lands End. Sometime in the early thirties, the A30 was realigned a 400m bypass of Trevescan to the north and this is how the road remains to this day.