B3098

Cheverell Road, near West Lavington

The B3098 stretches across a sizeable chunk of Wiltshire, and seems to provide the northern boundary of Salisbury Plain for much of that distance.

Starting on the A342 at Wedhampton it heads west along the foot of the ridge along more-or-less the same route as the railway line. At the western end, just before reaching Westbury, the road passes through Bratton, and then under the Westbury White Horse, an ancient monument which can be accessed on foot from a car park.

History

The section of the route west of Westbury was reclassified in the 1960s as the imaginatively numbered A3098 all the way to Frome, although the actual road has not seen a great deal of improvement apart from the junctions with the A36 and A362/A361.

Before that, however, the B3098 actually crossed the A362 and ran through Keyford to the old A361 alignment, now the B3090. In 1922 this short road was given the B3097 number as far as the B3092 (it was unclassified beyond), but it was renumbered as an extension of the B3098 in 1935. This short section was still classified as a B-road when the A3098 came into existence, and although its short length makes it difficult to determine its number, old mapping suggests it remained a detached part of the B3098. However, as this stretch is now unclassified the question is academic.