B4055
B4055 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Location Map ( geo) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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From: | Westbury on Trym (ST572767) | |||||||||||||||||||||
To: | Northwick (ST556867) | |||||||||||||||||||||
Via: | Cribbs Causeway | |||||||||||||||||||||
Distance: | 7.6 miles (12.2 km) | |||||||||||||||||||||
Meets: | A4018, B4057, M5, B4064, A403 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Old route now: | A4018, B4064, A403 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Primary Destinations | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Highway Authorities | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Traditional Counties | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Route outline (key) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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The B4055 is a local road that runs north out of Bristol.
Route
The first section spends quite a bit of time meeting the A4018. It starts on that road to the south of Westbury on Trym and runs through the middle of that village and also Henbury, before meeting the A4018 – which has bypassed both places – once again. There's then a multiplex up to the M5 at J17 (Cribbs Causeway), where the A4018 ends.
After the motorway junction the road changes to become rural in character. It heads through Easter Compton and Pilning, where it TOTSOs right by the war memorial. After going over the M4 it ends on the A403 at Northwick.
History
The B4055's route has extended and contracted numerous times as changes to the road network around Bristol occurred.
Its original route started at the northeast corner of Durdham Down on the A4018, which at that point ran west through Shirehampton on the old (pre-Portway) Bristol – Avonmouth road. When the A36 (later A4) Portway opened in 1926, the A4018 was downgraded and the B4055 was extended back over the line of the A4018 to the A36 by the Cathedral. However, sometime between then and 1945, the A4018 was reinstated back as far as Durdham Down, ending on the B4055 / B4054 fork.
When the first section of the M5 in Bristol was built in the early 1960s, the A4018 was improved to meet it at Cribbs Causeway, partially taking over some of the B4055's route, but also running on new-build bypasses.
At Pilning, the original course of the B4055 continued northwestward to end by the Severn Estuary at New Passage, following a route which is now partly a section of the B4064. Between 1935 and 1945, the B4055 was diverted north-north-eastward to end at the Aust Ferry, Old Passage, where it met the B4461. When the A403 was built in the 1970s, it took over part of the B4055's line, although some of it was new build. The B4055 was subsequently truncated back to its current endpoint.