B3053

The B3053 is a short B-road on the edge of the New Forest.

Route

Ower Farm

The B3053 now starts at a roundabout at the end of the A326 with the Fawley Oil Refineries on the left hand side. There are no other classified roads at this junction.

The road heads roughly eastwards to passes the edge of Fawley (originally it went through the village) then on to Calshot. There is a one-way loop (clockwise) in Calshot owing to the narrowness of the roads; the B3053 ends on this loop on the far side of the beach huts from The Solent (although originally the road just went straight).

History

The B3053 originally started on the A35 Totton High Street and headed southeast through villages such as Eling, Marchwood, Hythe and Fawley to reach the coast.

The northern section was diverted in 1927 to end on A35 in Hounsdown using Jacob's Gutter Lane. The 350 yard Eling bypass to the south of the village connected Jacob’s Gutter Lane to Marchwood Road and was reported as open in the Hampshire Advertiser of 12 March 1927. It bypassed the dangerous bends at Village Bells Inn and in Eling, and also the toll bridge on the Totton to Fawley road which was being remade. A bog was traversed by infilling and laying a reinforced concrete foundation, similar to that used in the Fens.

The northern end then had a third start point between 1958 and 1961 with a new road and Marchwood Bypass. The start was now on A35 at Rushingdon. Marchwood bypass was 3.25 miles long, had a 24 foot carriageway and was expected to cost £300,000. The Ministry grant of £185,000 had been authorised in July 1958. It was mentioned in Hansard on 8 June 1961 that the bypass was one that had been completed.

Hythe was bypassed between January 1963 and March 1966.

The section between Rushingdon and Church Lane, Fawley became A326 between January 1971 and May 1972, leaving a short section of B3053 remaining south of Fawley. Since then, Fawley Road has been added back to B3053 so that it finishes at the Long Copse roundabout with A326.