B3391

Walderslade Cross

The B3391 is a rural route into Devon's Culm Valley.

The road starts on the A38 east of Burlescombe and heads east, with the Blackdown Hills clearly visible ahead. It soon goes over the M5 before continuing across the fields, remaining largely flat, although Culmstock Beacon can be seen to the left. Presently the road descends into Milmoor, where it bears sharply right to follow a narrow road between houses to cross an old narrow bridge over the River Culm to enter Culmstock itself.

The B3391 bears right at the village war memorial and then TOTSOs left at a poorly signed crossroads to run along Fore Street. There's a right-hand bend by the church after which the road climbs out town and back into the fields. It follows a winding route above the Culm Valley, with the road rarely wide enough for a centre line. Presently it reaches Hemyock where the road bears right to pass the church then ends at the next road junction opposite The Catherine Wheel PH. The other roads here are unclassified.

History

The looped B3391 in 1956

The route of the B3391 has changed several times over the years and what remains is only a short length.

The road came into existence in the mid-1930s. At that time it ran from the A38 to Culmstock as now but it then followed the Culm Valley downstream via Uffculme to end back on the A38 in Willand. In the 1970s the road was extended along the southern spur of the A373 (being the original route of that road) to end on that road in Halberton.

By 1991 the loop had been removed, with the section from Uffculme to Willand renumbered B3440 and the rest declassified. The road was extended at the same time from Culmstock to Hemyock.

Heathcoat Way,Tiverton

Meanwhile the road was also extended west along a multiplex along the A373 (later A361) into Tiverton and this survived the rest of the downgrading in this area. The eastern side of Tiverton's relief roads was originally the B3391, before becoming a re-routed A396 in 1997. At that point, the original route of the A396 was renumbered to A3126. It is possible that this has now been reversed, with the B3391 once more serving eastern Tiverton, although no official documentation can confirm or deny this.

From the roundabout with the A396, the road headed east across the River Exe and then across two roundabouts on Great Western Way. At the third roundabout, we briefly picked up the course of a branch line up the Exe Valley, before cutting a new route between housing estates to the dumbbell junction with the A361.