A30/route

Hounslow - Bagshot

The A30 starts its trek to Cornwall in a fairly uninspired fashion, as a congested dual-carriageway, infested with traffic lights and speed cameras. It leaves the A4 at Henlys Roundabout, just west of Hounslow, as the 'Great South West Road'. Within a mile, it has already crossed the A312, and from here to the junction with the A315 at Bedfont Lakes, the road is dominated on both sides by Heathrow's Terminal 4 and its ancillary services and businesses, such as courier, catering and car hire companies. Just before Hatton Cross tube station, you pass under the flightpath for the Southern Runway, which can be very alarming when an A380 passes right over the roof of your car. Just after the partial trumpet intersection for Terminal 4, the speed limit changes from 40 to 50, but there are still cameras every mile or so.

At Bedfont Lakes, the A30 joins the course of the London - Land's End postal route, becoming London Road for the first time. Still a dual-carriageway, it first passes Ashford Hospital and then Staines Reservoir. This section was originally a Roman road, and is fittingly, completely straight. At the Crooked Billet roundabout, the present road again departs from its original route. Whilst the traditional route takes the A308 through Staines town centre, the Staines bypass curves away towards J13 of the M25 through the middle of a 'hamburger' roundabout.

At Staines Moor roundabout, there is a filter for traffic continuing west on the A30, as well as, perhaps more importantly traffic heading towards the southbound M25 and the M3. At this point, there are 12 lanes of traffic, with 2 lanes each way being used by the A30. The road loses its primary status here as well. After crossing the River Thames, there is a tight loop, known as 'The Glanty', which runs into the Runnymede Roundabout.

Runnymede is, of course, famous as the site of the Magna Carta in 1215, and further details can be found here.

After the roundabout, the road runs around Egham on the bypass, and at the Eclipse roundabout, climbs up Egham Hill past Royal Holloway College. As the road skirts the southern edge of Windsor Great Park and passes Savill Garden, there is the first feeling that London is being left behind.

At the junction with the A329 in Virginia Water, the Wentworth Estate begins on the south side of the road. Famous for holding the European PGA Championship and The World Matchplay Championship, Wentworth's West Course is one of Britain's finest golf courses. Passing through Sunningdale, the road skirts the Berkshire border and just after passing north of Windlesham, the A322 is reached at a partial, albeit elongated, cloverleaf.

Original Author(s): mistral

Bagshot - Bullington Cross

After crossing the A322, the road descends into Bagshot before climbing for a mile and a half up to the 'Jolly Farmer' roundabout on the eastern edge of Camberley. The entire section from Egham to Blackwater is single carriageway apart from 1/2 mile at Camberley Fire Station and in Camberley but in many places has lanes that are wide enough to be suitable for overtaking. The road skirts the northern edge of central Camberley, and as you approach 'The Meadows' roundabout with the A321, you go past the Sandhurst Military College. This roundabout straddles the Surrey-Berkshire border.

Crossing the Reading to Guildford railway line at Blackwater, the road enters another new county; Hampshire. Now, very much a secondary route, it passes Blackbushe aerodrome, which has some of the biggest car auctions in the south of England. For the next ten miles, the road is mostly single carriageway, but with short stretches of dual. After Hartley Wintney, there is definitely a feeling of being in the countryside, but this is a short sensation, because after the junction with the A287 outside Hook, you are already in the outskirts of Basingstoke.

Running to the south of the town centre, there are a few roundabouts and a couple of junctions with the M3, but the dominant feature is the phenomenal amount of traffic.

The original route through the centre of Basingstoke is easily traced, but often contested. From the M3 junction, the old road would have climbed London Road into the centre of town, following the pedestrianised London Street to the Market Square, then leading out via Winchester Street. At Winton Square, the road bears right, with a TOTSO to stay on the Winchester Road; the natural route leads to Sarum Hill and out to the B3400 across the Test Valley. If this route is followed naturally, it carries us through Overton, Whitchurch and Andover, before becoming the A343 to rejoin the current A30 just east of Salisbury. This is obviously an ancient route and was indeed the A30 until 1933.

Returning to the current road, a TOTSO just before junction 7 of the M3 takes us onto the two mile A30/A33 multiplex at Dummer, the A33 carrying straight on to Popham, whilst there is a right hand TOTSO for the A30. After spending 40 miles in the shadow of the M3, we now join the road which has usurped the main road status of the A30 in West Hampshire, Wiltshire, Somerset and East Devon: the A303.

The A30 now multiplexes with the A303 for the 5 miles to Bullington Cross, before heading south to Sutton Scotney and Stockbridge. The original route was more direct, veering left at Micheldever station, but that section is now unclassified. The A303 route is dual carriageway, albeit quite twisty and with short slip roads at the junctions.

Original Author(s): mistral

Bullington Cross - Yeovil

After its short multiplex with the A303, the A30 starts again as non-primary, running parallel to the A303 all the way to Yarcombe in Devon. This section begins at the Bullington Cross junction with the A303 and A34. The junction was built to avoid the local Bullington Cross Inn (now sadly closed and demolished) and so has a rather unusual shape - see map. From Bullington Cross the A30 briefly takes the original route of the A34, past the village of Egypt and then into Sutton Scotney, where it meets its original route at a roundabout. It continues over the current A34 along a dead straight section, where it meets a disconnected section of the A272 (not the original route, which ran along the B3049 to Stockbridge; my map marks it as a Roman road - it was the A342 until 1933 when it was downgraded to B3420 owing to the rerouting of the A30.

The rural nature of the A30 in this section is briefly interrupted at Stockbridge

At Stockbridge the A30 is joined by the A3057 at a roundabout, where it turns left for a brief multiplex. At the next roundabout the road continues right over the River Test, then to a short dual-carriageway section around Meon Hill where the original route went straight over the top. Another straight section continues across the Hampshire/Wiltshire border, past the original Haynes Garage to the A343 junction at Lopcombe Corner. The A343 from Andover was the original route of the A30. At Winterbourne Down the road has a short dual-carriageway section through a cutting, then it runs to a roundabout at St Thomas's Bridge on the outskirts of Salisbury, where it's joined by the A338. It crosses the River Bourne and goes through two more roundabouts, continuing through the district of Bishopsdown. As with all the roads on the approach to the centre of Salisbury, this road can become rather congested.

Around the centre of Salisbury there's a fairly old dual-carriageway relief road, which serves its purpose rather well – it's a pity the approaches to it are all so clogged up. A30 traffic turns right at the first roundabout for a multiplex with the A36. Once upon a time the A30 was considered more important than the A36 and this road was numbered A30, but it's been the A36 for many years now. The A36 continues round the relief road and out to the nearby town of Wilton – famous for carpets, and less famous for being the name from which “Wiltshire” was originally derived.

Here the A30 leaves again at a roundabout, running parallel to the railway line for a short distance. At Barford St Martin it swings round to the left, with the B3089 continuing straight ahead. The next stretch runs through the villages of Compton Chamberlayne and Fovant, and through Swallowcliffe and Ansty along the edge of Swallowcliffe Down and White Sheet Hill. At Ludwell it crosses the River Nadder, shortly after which it crosses the border into Dorset. It meets the A350 on the outskirts of Shaftesbury, at another roundabout where the road turns right for a short multiplex round the town centre. At the next roundabout the A30 turns left, heading out along the “Sherborne Causeway”.

It passes though East Stour, then over the River Stour to (naturally) West Stour. At Henstridge it crosses the A357, then it runs past Toomer Hill to Milborne Port. After crossing the railway line it comes in to the town of Sherborne, famous for its school and castle. After the junction with the A352 the road becomes dual carriageway for most of the four-mile journey to Yeovil. This ends at a roundabout right on the Dorset/ Somerset border, where the road crosses the River Yeo. After entering Yeovil it runs along a dual-carriageway relief road round the town centre, where it multiplexes with the A37 for a short distance. Then the A37 turns off towards Dorchester, and the A30 continues straight ahead.

Original Author(s): Guy slightly amended by BikerPaul

Yeovil - Exeter

After leaving a multiplex with the A37 skirting Yeovil town centre, it runs as a fairly quiet, gently undulating road through the villages of West Coker and East Chinnock. The A3066 branches off near Haselbury Plucknett, and then we come into the town of Crewkerne. This is a fairly nondescript South Somerset town. Here the road crosses the A356, and makes a couple of sharp turns to continue on its way out westwards. A few miles later you pass the wildlife park at Cricket St Thomas, a village that to people of a certain age that will always be associated with 'To the Manor Born', an early 1980s TV series that starred Penelope Keith. The road then continues to Chard, where it crosses the A358.

Apparently the original coaching route to Honiton continued along a now unclassified road via Stockland, and across Stockland Hill. This seems like an unsuitable place for a two-digit A-road and indeed the A30 has always had its current route around here. Certainly the milestones in the area suggest the A30 has been the commonly known and the turnpike route for over 200 years. Anyway, the route now continues rather north of that road, to cross the Devon border just before Yarcombe. Only 2 miles later, and this marks the end for this section of the A30

The road between the A303 and Honiton is mostly a rural S2

From just north of the small village of Monkton, the A30 dramatically changes character. No longer is it playing second fiddle to any other roads as to all intents and purposes it's a different road - it is now the main London-Exeter trunk road. This section starts at a TOTSO with the A303 (single-carriageway here, though recent plans have been mooted to upgrade it). Traffic merges into the main road from the left, and the next section is more or less straight, down through the village of Monkton. Then there's a junction with the A35, where the Honiton bypass starts. This is a fairly old section of dual carriageway, opened Dec 1966. After that, though, there's a much more recent section of (continuous) dual carriageway, completed Feb 2000, which has gained infamy in two ways. First, it was one of the roads that "Swampy" tried to stop in the 1990s, and second, it had a reputation as being one of the noisiest road surfaces in the country. Balfour Beatty apparently used some new material for the surface, and you could see signs along the road complaining about the noise. It has multi- grade junctions near Fenny Bridges, Fairmile, West Hill and Exeter Airport. Finally it joins the M5 for a multiplex at junction 29 — the original road through Exeter is now downgraded to B-road status. When originally built, this junction was free-flow and allowed access from the A30 to southbound M5 and the corresponding return journey only. Dualling the A30 led to extra slip roads being built, so more movements are possible but it's no longer free-flow. The junction has been further remodeled by the addition of a new link road to the new Exeter Science Park, which has meant that more traffic lights have been added to the junction, making it even more complicated. Westbound traffic now moves into the left hand lanes to join the M5 Southbound for nearly 5 miles.

Original Author(s): Guy slightly amended by BikerPaul

Exeter - Okehampton

The A30 is no longer the poor relation, playing second fiddle to any other roads. For 111 miles, from the end of the M5 to Penzance, it is the main road to and then within Cornwall. Sweeping away to the west, the A30 is now a tremendous road. It is now a grade-separated dual carriageway for over 80 miles, with the road becoming single carriageway again at Carland Cross. In contrast, in 1976, the only sections of dual carriageway between Exeter and the Far West were the Launceston and Bolventor bypasses. Dualling at Temple was completed in 2017 - and the stretch between Chiverton and Carland Cross is currently being dualled, at which point the length of contiguous dual carriageway will be just shy of 100 miles, ending at the Camborne Bypass.

Soon after leaving the M5, we have our first junction on our way to Cornwall. The A377 forms the main road from Exeter to Crediton and onwards to Barnstaple, where it meets the A361 North Devon Link Road. The A30 passes over the top of the junction and soon after the old alignment is met next to the Eastbound Carriageway.

The next junction on the way is for Pathfinder Village which meets the A30 on an at grade junction, which can be quite dangerous when a car suddenly flies out in front of you. We then have a grade separated junction a Cheriton Bishop as the old road flies over the top and the A30 heads slighly further north to meet the boundary of Dartmoor.

Soon after the old road flies back over and we meet the A382 at Whiddon Down Junction. This used to be Merrymeet Roundabout, and it used to cause ques for miles leading up to it on either side, but it has now been replaced by a simple grade separated junction, which has made life a lot easier for through traffic on the A30. The A382 takes the old route of the A30 through Whiddon Down before it goes toward the A38 and onwards to Newton Abbot. The main road now reaches its highest point of 939 feet above sea level.

The border of Dartmoor leaves us for a small while, but the views over the hills in the area are really good. The old route ploughs through Dartmoor, towards Sticklepath and South Zeal before meeting us again on the Dartmoor border at the start of the Okehampton Bypass. This road opened in 1988 to much relief from the town and the long distance traffic along the A30. Two junctions with the B3260 lie at either end, both of which are spurs of the main route, and both use the old sections of the A30.

Okehampton - Bodmin

The next road we meet is the A386, which is joined to the A30 by yet another grade separated junction and this allows traffic from Bideford to Plymouth. This also takes over as making the rough boundary of Dartmoor to the south as we now head towards Launceston. The old road also leaves here towards Bridestow and Lifton. The first section of this is used to allow A386 traffic to join the west bound A30. The main road now heads towards the south of the small village of Broadwoodwidger, where there is another small grade separated junction.

We now head towards our last junction before the River Tamar (and therefore the Cornish border) which is where we meet the old road once more and the non primary A388. The A388 has now got two spurs to meet either end of the Launceston bypass, both of which are the old A30 through the town. The road now decends into the Tamar Valley and the Cornish border is signed by the bridge across the river and a small sign.

The next junction is once again with the A388. It now has primary status south towards Callington and then Saltash where it meets the A38 at the Carkeel Roundabout. North, the road heads toward Launceston town centre and onto the A386 south of Bideford. We then have our final junction with the A388, using the line of the old A30 to the South west of the town and the A30 head off towards Bodmin.

Soon there is a junction for the village of Tregadillet with only East facing slip roads, as the west facing slip roads are provided by the next junction with the A395, which heads off towards the A39 near Davidstow (the home of the Cheese of the same name). The road then descends in an odd section of road, where there are two at grade junctions. The first is where a local road to the village of Polyphant is met. The old route is used by the Eastbound carriageway, which takes a very tight right corner, and a new road was built for the Westbound traffic, which is obviously a better alignment. Sadly, local traffic has to swerve across the Eastbound carriageway to access the Westbound A30.

The next junction is a standard at grade dual carriage cross roads, but there isn't much traffic that uses it, so it isn't too bad. On the Westbound side, there is a toilet block and normally there is a burger van, and the Eastbound side has a Public Weighbridge.

The old route leaves us again towards Plusha, and the road climbs to meet the old allgnment just west of Plusha. The old road now forms part of the B3257, which was realigned to take through traffic, instead of sending it towards Lewannick. The road then uses part of the old road towards Five Lanes, where there is another grade separated junction. The old road makes up the eastbound slip roads, where as a new roundabout was built on an existing road, with sliproads connected to it. This Junction marks the start of Bodmin Moor.

The road starts to climb again, with a summit of 819 feet between Five Lanes and Bolventor. Whilst Bodmin Moor does not have the scale of Dartmoor, it is nevertheless very beautiful scenery. The road now uses a mixture old alignment for one lane and new alignement for the other, changing where it was deemed appropriate. There are a few at grade junctions before a couple of grade separated ones as the new route moves over for firstly a farm, and then for Bolventor. The old road is clearly visible on the Westbound side, just before the westbound sliproad. Bolventor is known for being the place where the Jamaica Inn is.

The next section was one of the two worst parts of the A30 since the Goss Moor Bypass, Temple. Now, drivers whistle through Temple which is in stark contrast to the years of congestion caused by a 3-mile stretch of single carriageway. There are a few junctions along the route with local places, like the lakes at Temple and a few houses along the route. Most other junctions are with realignments of the road along the route.

After Temple, the road now becomes the start of the Bodmin bypass. The road has a couple of at grade junctions as it leaves Bodmin Moor, but eventually, it becomes an extremely well aligned section of road (Something the southern end of the M271 can only dream of). The road curves South where it meets the A38 for the first time since the M5. This only has East facing slip roads, due to the layout of the surrounding roads, and so that traffic is sent around a few roads before meeting the A38 proper at Carminnow Cross. This section junction then has the West facing slip roads for the A38, where the majority of A38 traffic goes, and the A30 carries onto the Goss Moor bypass.

Bodmin - Redruth

Beyond Bodmin, the A391 leaves to the south towards St. Austell, taking traffic for the Eden Project, For the next 8 miles the A30 is on a new (2008) dual carriageway alignment, bypassing the village of Victoria and the 'Iron Bridge' which carried the railway over the road, was susceptible to bridge strikes. The bypass travels to the north of Goss Moor, whilst the old route is now a cycle route. At Indian Queens, the road rejoins the older (1995) alignment. There is a grade separated junction with the A39 north to Bude and Barnstaple, which is known widely as the Atlantic Coast Highway. This is also the junction with the A392 to Newquay which multiplexes with the A39 for about a mile. The road is multiplexed for 5 miles with A39 to the Carland Cross roundabout. The A39 leaves us towards Truro and we continue along a mostly unimproved section for the next 8 miles.

The Carland Cross to Three Burrows is all single carriageway with the only overtaking section at the Zelah Bypass (built in 1992), and is generally quite slow to be on and this can be very annoying for both local and holiday traffic, and can be as congested as the single carriageway section at Temple. The only classified road it meets on this section is the B3294 which heads into Truro city centre. It meets the A30 at a rather impressive staggered crossroads where the A30 carriageways split. The next point of intrest is Chiverton Cross Roundabout. Famous throughout Cornwall and possibly the busiest Junction in the county, it sees large tale backs along both the A30 and A390 for miles on end during school holidays and rush hour. The resumption of dual-carriageway marks the start of the Blackwater bypass. This part of Cornwall is one of the poorest parts of Britain. In the past, this was the heart of the tin mining industry, and is a long way removed from the traditional Cornish image of beaches, seafood and cream teas, despite being only 4 or 5 miles away from the Atlantic coast. The Camborne/Redruth bypass section starts at the first Junction with the A3047.

Original Author(s): mistral, slightly amended by BikerPaul

Redruth - Land's End

Junction of A30 with B3309

The Redruth-Camborne section serves to remove traffic from both slowly spreading towns, whilst also superseding the original Redruth by-pass, long past its usefulness to the increasing volumes of traffic. This original relief road (now numbered A3047 and built to take the A30 in 1939) followed the line of the hills it traversed and even featured its own grade-separated junction with the B3300 at Tolgus Mount. A roundabout now dissects the road at the northbound on/off lanes junction although everything else including the original bridge remains in place otherwise.

The A30 meets the A3047 4 times along the Cambourne/Redruth bypass. The first meets the old A30 through Blackwater, the second meets the original A30 Redruth Bypass, the third meets a spur of the A3047 and this goes past Cornwall College and into Pool, and the final, Treswithian Junction, meets at the end of the Camborne/Redruth bypass and the start of the Connor Downs bypass.

Once the slip roads have been passed, the A30 becomes a single carriageway until just east of Penzance. Whilst the road and its immediate surroundings are of little interest, in either a roads or a scenic sense, there are some treats just off the road. There are lovely beaches north of Hayle, whilst north of St. Erth lies the picturesque little town of St. Ives. Although St. Ives has many attractions such as a branch of the Tate Gallery, it does have horrendous parking problems during the summer. The road itself is a Wide S2 road with a few S2/1 and S4 sections in the bottoms of the hill. Admittedly, the view over Hayle on a clear day is quite is quite spectacular, but the road iself is quite dull. The A30 crosses the old road at Hayle and runs around the south of it. It passes and small Shopping centre and remains S2/1 for most of the route. Again, the road is quite dull but it does it's job reasonably well, although Hayle town centre remains quite busy through out the day as there is no junction with the B3302, relieving any traffic to and from Helston.

The road then returns to its original alignment at a large roundabout South-West of Hayle and goes through Canon's Town and Crowlas. Thsi strech is another accident blackspot but nothing is likely to happen here as the county has several other issues with it's current road network. It passes through a few villages, passing the B3309 at Crowlas, until Newtown roundabout which it shares with the A394 Marazion Bypass and the local road to Marazion, situated on Mount's Bay. Just off the coast sits St. Michael's Mount, a small rocky island, now run by the National Trust.

From this roundabout A30 becomes a dual-carriageway for the short run into Penzance, and just after passing the former Heliport (now just another supermarket), it reaches Branwell Lane roundabout. The first part of the old A30 through the town is re-numbered as B3311 whilst the newer route takes a single carriageway bypass that opened in 1989 around the back of the town. Penzance is home to two great gardens, Trengwainton and Trereife. As there is hardly ever any frost or snow in this area, they are able to grow plants which cannot be grown anywhere else in Britain. The bypass hasn't got much to shout about, and is pretty dull to drive, so it isn't worth much space here.

At the Mount Misery roundabout, the final roundabout before Lands End, the A3071 to St Just and Cape Cornwall leaves. The primary status of the route is lost and the A30 becomes nothing more than a glorified B-road. The road passes through some odd, and dangerous, junctions and the is subject to numerous wrong signs, still acknowledging the A3077. The final classified road that the A30 meets along the eight-mile stretch to Land's End is the B3315 back to Penzance and then the A30 runs the last third of a mile to the Lands End car park. This, as England's most westerly point, is a fitting end for, what is still one of Britain's most important roads. Arguably, the area has been spoiled by the construction of a theme park, however it is still worth a trip just to see the sunset, which is truly spectacular.

Mileage table

Mileage	Location	Road
0	London (Hounslow)	A4
2	Heathrow Terminal 4
7	Staines	M25 J13
16	Bagshot	A322
21	Camberley	A321
36	Basingstoke	A339
40	Dummer	M3 J7
73	Salisbury	A345
93	Shaftesbury	A350(N)
110	Sherborne	A352
115	Yeovil	A37(N)
124	Crewkerne	A356
132	Chard	A358
145	Honiton	A35
158	Exeter	M5 J29
163	Exeter	M5 J31 A38(S)
178	Merrymeet	A382
187	Okehampton	A386
206	Launceston	A388
228	Bodmin	A38
239	Indian Queens	A39(N)
256	Redruth	A3047
274	Penzance	B3311
284	Land's End