B3395
B3395 | |||||||
Location Map ( geo) | |||||||
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From: | Sandown (SZ601843) | ||||||
To: | St Helens (SZ626890) | ||||||
Via: | Bembridge | ||||||
Distance: | 7 miles (11.3 km) | ||||||
Meets: | B3329, A3055, B3330 | ||||||
Former Number(s): | B3336 | ||||||
Highway Authorities | |||||||
Traditional Counties | |||||||
Route outline (key) | |||||||
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Route
The B3395 is a winding B-road on the eastern side of the Isle of Wight.
The road starts by the coast in Sandown at a mini-roundabout where the three branches of the B3329 meet. The coast is followed eastwards to the zoo, after which the road starts to bend inland. As we move away from the sea the road becomes narrow and hemmed in by trees. We run through the scattered village of Yaverland to reach a mini-roundabout. Left takes us over the River Yar and railway line to end at traffic lights on the A3055 on the southern edge of Brading but the mainline of the B3395 turns right.
We follow a winding course around the edge of Bembridge Down and pass Bembridge Airport and running to the north of the village of Hillway. The character of the road soon changes as we enter the suburbs of Bembridge. After a mini-roundabout we follow the residential Steyne Road to a sharp left-hand bend. We continue along the leafy Foreland Road into the town centre.
At the north end of Foreland Road we reach a T-junction on a one-way loop. Traffic must TOTSO left to run along a short section of the High Street before passing the church and then bearing left to become two-way once more. Traffic in the other direction would use the other section of the loop, which runs along more of the High Street before having to TOTSO left as above.
After becoming two-way once more the B3395 follows the winding King's Road onto Embankment Road, which runs along two sides of Bembridge Harbour. The road crosses the River Yar to enter St Helens and climbs Station Road past the village green to the end of the road at a mini-roundabout on the B3330.
History
All of the above was originally unclassified as the B3395 did not come into existence until the mid-1930s. At that time the road started on the A3055 (present B3329) in the centre of Sandown and followed the road's current route into Bembridge, where it ended by the station as the road became a toll road, Embankment Road, around the harbour. At the other end of the toll road the B3336 appeared by St Helens station and carried on to meet the B3330 in the centre of the village; the B3336 presumably gained its number around the same time as the B3395.
The spur to Yarbridge was not originally classified; maps seem unclear as to when it was, but it was definitely part of the B3395 by the mid-1950s.
The Bembridge Harbour toll road was nationalised in 1971 and the B3395 was extended along it and then the whole of the B3336 shortly afterwards, giving our road its current route.