B3115
B3115 | ||||
Location Map ( geo) | ||||
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From: | Dunkerton (ST720608) | |||
To: | High Littleton (N) (ST646596) | |||
Via: | Timsbury | |||
Distance: | 5.1 miles (8.2 km) | |||
Meets: | A367, A39 | |||
Highway Authorities | ||||
Traditional Counties | ||||
Route outline (key) | ||||
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The B3115 really is no more than a B-road to serve the village of Timsbury in the rolling hills of Northern Somerset between Bath and Midsomer Norton. It also connects the A367 to the A39, although there will be little traffic making an end to end journey along the route.
Heading south out of Bath on the A367, the road forks off at the top of the long hill down to Dunkerton Bottom. At the junction is a former pub, which had the rather unusual name of 'Titfield Thunderbolt' (previously called the Crossway Inn). Sadly, whilst it survived for several years, the sign has now also gone. Anyway, the name of the pub came from a rather amusing 1950s Ealing comedy which was filmed on a disused railway line in the area, although it is not thought that this building features in the film. The junction itself is a large fork, with a cross road making a triangle, although this link is unclassified.
The first few miles of the B3115 are narrow and twisty as it wends its way between high hedges to the strung-out village of Tunley, which seems to sit on a steep ridge, with long steep lanes dropping to the villages to the south. The road takes a sharp right turn and then, without really realising it, Tunley blends into Timsbury these days, although soon Timsbury becomes a proper village, rather than just scattered roadside properties.
On the left, South Road stretches off to the A39 to the south of High Littleton, and is a useful linkfrom the village, and indeed combined with the eastern end of the B3115 provides an escape from the A367 on the odd occasion when it still gets congested. Anyway, South Road itself had a curious sign for many years, there was a finger post pointing down it which simply said 'Road', or if going the other way 'South'. It has now been repaired and says 'South Road' on both sides!
We now pass through Timsbury on the equally imaginatively named North Road, and then a mile beyond the end of the village, we reach the A39 at Cross Ways to the north of High Littleton. The last section is in a walled avenue, alongside the parkland of Kingwell Hall. A curious point about this route is that it appears to both start and finish at a junction historically called 'Cross Way(s)', although these names are no longer in common use at either end.