B1085
B1085 | ||||||||||
Location Map ( geo) | ||||||||||
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From: | Fordham (TL644709) | |||||||||
To: | Lidgate (TL717594) | |||||||||
Distance: | 12.2 miles (19.6 km) | |||||||||
Meets: | B1102, B1104, A11, B1506, B1063 | |||||||||
Former Number(s): | A11, B1410 | |||||||||
Old route now: | A1123 | |||||||||
Highway Authorities | ||||||||||
Traditional Counties | ||||||||||
Route outline (key) | ||||||||||
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Route
The B1085 is a short road on the Cambridgeshire/Suffolk border with a complicated history.
At present, the B1085 starts on the B1102 to the east of Fordham in Cambridgeshire. It heads southeast through Chippenham to reach a GSJ on the A11. This junction only has south-facing sliproads, so there is also a spur of the B1085 north from here along the original line of the A11 through Red Lodge to reach a full-access GSJ at the other end of the bypass.
Back to the mainline, the B1085 passes Kennett station and crosses the A14 without a junction before going through Kennett End, where it crosses the B1506 (the pre-bypass main road east of Huntingdon). It then continues south through Moulton to end on the B1063 to the north of Lidgate.
History
In 1922, the above road was unclassified, apart from the section already described as A11. The B1085 existed further west.
It started on the A141 at Hartford, now a suburb of Huntingdon but then a separate village. It headed east through St Ives to Earith. Here it crossed a couple of watercourses and changed county.
Continuing on, the B1085 went through Haddingham to reach Stretham, where it ended on the A10, a few miles to the south of Ely.
The section east of Haddingham was upgraded to Class I status very early on, becoming part of the A1072.
In the 1930s, the road was extended east of Stretham, giving it a gap in the middle where it multiplexed with the A1072. This new section went through Wicken to end on the A142 to the south of Soham. Round the same time, a road was classified between Fordham and Kennett End and given the number B1410.
The B1085 continued to move east. In the general renumbering of 1935 the entire of its original section including the part that was A1072) was renumbered A1123; furthermore, the B1410 was renumbered as an eastern extension of the B1085, forcing the B1085 to multiplex with the A142 and B1102 to get between the two halves.
After World War II, the B1085 was extended beyond Kennett End to its current eastern terminus near Lidgate. The section west of Fordham became an extension of the A1123 in the 1960s, giving the B1085 its current route.