B3279
B3279 | |||||||
Location Map ( geo) | |||||||
| |||||||
From: | High Street (SW967532) | ||||||
To: | Indian Queens By Pass (SW921591) | ||||||
Via: | Foxhole, Nanpean & St Dennis | ||||||
Distance: | 5.8 miles (9.3 km) | ||||||
Meets: | A3058, A30, A39 | ||||||
Old route now: | A392 | ||||||
Highway Authorities | |||||||
Traditional Counties | |||||||
Route outline (key) | |||||||
|
Route
The B3279 takes a tour through the Cornish "Alps", the china clay mining area to the north of St Austell.
It starts at a fork junction on the A3058 St Austell to Newquay road at a hamlet called, rather confusingly, High Street. China clay mining is one of the few remaining heavy industries in Cornwall and the road certainly has an industrial feel to it. Small granite and slate terraced houses line the road at the start and continue, as this is mostly ribbon development. Carpalla becomes Foxhole becomes Goverseth without real change. There is, however, a 20mph zone with humps and chicanes in Foxhole. As the road drops down Gotherseth Hill there is a clear view of the spoil heaps from the local industry.
A very short NSL section is ahead before another 30mph limit at Nanpean. After that is another NSL section but it's not a typical rural scene. Industrial buildings: quarries, china clay works and spoil heaps dominate. A sign warns of "Heavy Plant Crossing". Hendra is the next village and is joined to St Dennis. There are many bends on the road as it passes through these villages. Subsequently there is another NSL section. At the bottom of Domellick Hill is a traffic light for a single-track bridge, which crosses a long-disused mineral railway. It is much more rural in this area and a temporary light for the movement of cattle is passed.
A roundabout is reached. Formerly the road would have continued straight ahead into Stamps Hill and then Highgate Hill and to Indian Queens. These two roads have now been bisected by the A30 Indian Queens bypass and the road instead turns right along a short new section that leads to the Highgate Hill Roundabout, the grade separated junction between the A30 and A39, where it ends.
History
Historically the B3279 met the A30 at a crossroads, then continued through Indian Queens to St Columb Road where it met the A39 at another crossroads, before continuing to White Cross and Mountjoy before terminating at Quintrell Downs. As such, in 1922 the B3279 had both ends on the B3278. The section from Indian Queens to Quintrell Downs was upgraded to the A392 in the 1935 renumbering scheme and, with the growth of Newquay as a holiday destination, is now actually a primary route. The section from Indian Queens to St Columb Road subsequently became unclassified when the A30/A39 bypasses of those two settlements opened in 1995.