B3013

Crossing the M3

The B3013 is a largely wooded B-road in northeast Hampshire.

Route

The route starts at a roundabout on the A287 near Ewshot. It heads north over Beacon Hill and enters Church Crookham, now a suburb of Fleet. After crossing the Basingstoke Canal it meets the A323 in the centre of town.

The B3013 multiplexes along two A-roads for well over a mile through Fleet. The A323 takes traffic to the civic centre then the A3013 takes us further north to the station. On the far side of the railway line that road turns right at a roundabout and the B3013 regains its number and its northward course.

After a further roundabout, the B3013 crosses the M3 with no junction; the bridge is future-proofed for the road to become D2 but there is little evidence of future dualling elsewhere. The road then reenters a wooded area and goes through Yateley Heath Wood before bending to the right and running parallel to the A30 for over a quarter of a mile. It ends at a roundabout on the A327 just to the south of the A30.

History

Fleet on the 1927-28 MoT Map, showing the original southern end of the B3013

Originally the road from Ewshot to Church Crookham was unclassified and Church Crookham to Fleet was the B3011. In 1935 the latter road was rerouted to Aldershot and so the B3013 took on the southernmost section of the B3011 as well as being extended to Ewshot. At this time there was only a short multiplex in the centre of Fleet, along the B3011. This was renumbered A323 in the 1970s but it was not until the 1990s that the A3013 came along, to link Fleet with the newly opened Minley Interchange on the M3.

At the northern end, the B3013 originally went straight through Yateley Heath Wood to reach the A30. It was diverted east in the 1940s and the original route returned to nature. It did, however, continue to reach the A30 on Yateley Common until the renumberings associated with Minley Interchange brought the A327 to the area, and this road took over the northernmost section of the rerouted B3013.