B4060
B4060 | ||||||||||||||||
Location Map ( geo) | ||||||||||||||||
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From: | Chipping Sodbury (ST733817) | |||||||||||||||
To: | Cam (ST745998) | |||||||||||||||
Distance: | 14.9 miles (24 km) | |||||||||||||||
Meets: | A432, B4059, B4509, B4062, B4058, B4066, A4135 | |||||||||||||||
Former Number(s): | A432, B4064 | |||||||||||||||
Highway Authorities | ||||||||||||||||
Traditional Counties | ||||||||||||||||
Route outline (key) | ||||||||||||||||
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Route
The B4060 is a rural B-road running through the Cotswolds between the A432 at Chipping Sodbury and Cam on the A4135.
Chipping Sodbury - Cam
The B4060 starts at a large roundabout junction with the A432 on the eastern side of Chipping Sodbury. Entering the town along the pre-bypass A432, we come to the wide, picturesque shopping area of Chipping Sodbury. The main B4060 heads off northwards, whilst the old main road carries on through Chipping Sodbury before entering its now much larger neighbour, Yate. Coming to the large central shopping area, the B4059 crosses at a roundabout and shortly after, Church Road joins on the right. This is the southern end of the old B4060 spur to Yate, but the middle section has been built on. The B4060 carries on around the shopping centre to rejoin the A432.
Back to Chipping Sodbury High Street and the B4060 Wickwar Road heads northwards out of Chipping Sodbury on a ridge of limestone, which has been quarried for centuries. The modern Hanson Aggregates quarry produces 700,000 tons of limestone a year and there are signs of quarrying on both sides of the road, although much one of the biggest is now a nature reserve. After a mile or so, Southfield Way/Peg Hill joins on the left, which is a short spur of the B4060 joining the B4059. The next road joining on the left, Gravel Hill Road, marks the (current) northern limit of quarrying. This road is the northern end of the historical spur of the B4060 to Yate.
At Wickwar, the road narrows through the town and the B4509 joins on the left. The road continues north, crossing under the Gloucester to Bristol railway a couple of times, before passing through Kingswood, where the three-quarters-of-a-mile long B4062 joins from the left. Just before Wotton-under-Edge is reached, we join the B4058 and multiplex through Wotton. At a crossroads in the town, the B4060 turns off to the left whilst the B4058 turns off to the right.
This section of the B4060 was originally the B4064 but it was renumbered as the B4060 in 1935. Leaving Wotton-under-Edge, the road gains some height and skirts around the edge of the Cotswolds, through the villages of North Nibley and Stinchcombe, before coming into Cam along a tree-lined avenue. At the Yew Tree Inn, the B4060 crosses the B4066 on a skewed crossroads and then carries on into Cam. Dropping down Woodfield Road, the B4060 terminates at a small roundabout on the A4135.
History
The B4060 originally ran from a junction with the A432 Chipping Sodbury High Street to a junction with the B4058 just south of Wotton-under-Edge.
The OS Seventh Series one-inch map from 1953 shows a couple of changes. The first is a spur of the B4060 from the centre of Yate joining the original road around a mile north of the town. The second change is that the B4060 has been extended northwards from Wotton-under-Edge to Cam by taking over the B4064; this change actually took place in the 1935 renumbering.
With the massive expansion of Yate in the 1980s, a new A432 bypass was built around the south of Chipping Sodbury and Yate, and the old road was renumbered the B4060. So now on Chipping Sodbury High Street there is a T-junction where the original B4060 joins the B4060. Sometime during the 1980s or 1990s, the spur to Yate is built over with a new housing estate, and the B4059 is extended as a loop around the northern side of Yate, taking over the function of the old spur, but on a different route. A new spur is built from the B4059 to join up with the B4060, although this is little to the south of the old spur junction. This leaves the B4060 as three separate but connected roads.
Link
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