B3233
B3233 | |||||||
Location Map ( geo) | |||||||
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From: | Bideford (SS454264) | ||||||
To: | Bickington (SS540324) | ||||||
Via: | East-the-Water, Instow, Yelland & Fremington | ||||||
Distance: | 8.3 miles (13.4 km) | ||||||
Meets: | A386, A39, A3125 | ||||||
Former Number(s): | A386, A39 | ||||||
Primary Destinations | |||||||
Highway Authorities | |||||||
Traditional Counties | |||||||
Route outline (key) | |||||||
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Route
The B3233 is the "old" route between the Devon towns of Bideford and Barnstaple.
The road starts on the A386 on the western side of the Bideford Long Bridge, which it crosses to reach East-the-Water. Heading north, it reaches the East-the-Water relief road and then the Westleigh roundabout, where a spur of the B3233 (or is it the A39?) meets with the A39 at a traffic-light-controlled junction. When we reach the entrance to Instow, we reach the end of NSL for this route, continuing at 30 or 40mph for the rest of the journey. The road then goes through Yelland, Fremington and Bickington, before ending at a roundabout with the A3125, known locally as the Cedars Roundabout due to the hotel next to it.
History
All of this route was at one point the A39 before first the opening of the Bideford bypass in 1987 and then the rest of the North Devon Link Road a few years later.
The B3233 used to continue past the Cedars Roundabout along the route of the A3125 through Sticklepath, and down Sticklepath Hill into Barnstaple, ending at the TA Roundabout. The Strand and North Walk were a spur of this route as far as Mermaid Cross - and retained the B3233 number even after the A3125 came into being; they were declassified in 2007 when the road was closed to traffic following the construction of the A361 Barnstaple Western Bypass.
At the western end the B3233 originally ended on the A386 at the Westleigh Roundabout. In 2011 that road was diverted along the more obvious route along Bideford Quay, to take through traffic away from the Long Bridge. The B3233 was extended to meet it, although some maps don't seem to have caught up with the idea yet.
Originally, of course, the B3233 was much shorter. As shown left it consisted entirely of a short road in Instow bypassing the A39 which went through the village centre. By the 1970s (although surprisingly not earlier) the two roads had swapped, so the A39 avoided the village centre. Now, of course, the B3233 has returned to its original route - albeit with extensions at either side.