B1069
B1069 | |||||||||||||
Location Map ( geo) | |||||||||||||
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From: | Leiston (TM443626) | ||||||||||||
To: | Rendlesham (TM344535) | ||||||||||||
Via: | Tunstall | ||||||||||||
Distance: | 9.4 miles (15.1 km) | ||||||||||||
Meets: | B1119, B1122, B1353, A1094, B1078, A1152 | ||||||||||||
Old route now: | A1152 | ||||||||||||
Highway Authorities | |||||||||||||
Traditional Counties | |||||||||||||
Route outline (key) | |||||||||||||
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For the original B1069 further west, which quickly became the A1071, see B1069 (Newton - Ipswich).
The B1069 is a short, rural B-road in eastern Suffolk, running parallel to the A12. The road was originally unclassified but had gained its number by the mid-1920s, making it an early example of a recycled number.
The road's northern end is actually an extension dating to around 1930. It starts at traffic lights in Leiston, where it meets the B1119 and B1122, and heads south and south-west. Soon after leaving Leiston we find ourselves at Coldfair Green, part of the dispersed parish of Knoddishall, where the B1353 comes in from our left. There's then about a mile of open country before the A1094 is met, to the south-east of Friston. We follow the A-road west for a mile and a half before the B1069 turns off again to the left at Snape Crossroads.
This is where the B1069 originally started, at Church Common: the "estate" end of the village of Snape, where the hall and parish church are situated. The road heads southwards and through the village proper, before crossing the River Alde. This is the last bridge across that river before it reaches the sea, though that is still some distance away. On the far side of the Alde the road passes the famous Snape Maltings (home of the Aldeburgh Festival), and then resumes its overall south-westward course and passing through the north end of Tunstall Forest.
Approximately a mile after the forest, we come to the village of Tunstall and a meeting with the B1078, which joins us from the left. Although the onward route through the village is a continuation of our own B1069, at this first junction with the B1078 (it takes off again to the right after little more than 200 m) it is we who must stop and give way as the turning is a blind one with buildings hard up against the edges of both roads.
Within little more than a mile beyond Tunstall – which we leave at a tight bend to the left – the B1069 reaches a roundabout adjacent to the former RAF Bentwaters station (closed since 1993, although the runways are still extant), and clearly built to serve the base as it grew to particular importance after 1951 when it became the European headquarters of the USAF's 81st Fighter Wing. For the same reason, the route beyond the base was upgraded to Class I status (as the A1152), straightened and improved. The roundabout marks where the Class II and Class I roads now meet – and terminate end-to-end. Originally, the B1069 (first classified in the late 1920s) had continued from here through Eyke as far as the B1084 in Bromeswell.