B6114

Route

The Scammonden Bridge carries the B6114 over the M62

The B6114 has the distinction of crossing over the M62 at Scammonden, so you know there must be something about this road that makes it worth a drive. Sadly, either side of the bridge is a rather dull local B road that still has far too many signs referring to it as its original incarnation, the A6025.

The eastern end of the B6114 is at the Sun Inn Crossroads, from where the road immediately heads west down a steep hill under the A629 Elland Bypass, before hitting the Elland-Riorges Link, built in the 1970s to bypass the notoriously narrow streets of Elland town centre (and originally part of the A629), and heading down along the much older Briggate to Saddleworth Road, which was originally the A6025 as discussed on the eponymous page. There's also a spur over Elland Bridge over the River Calder to reach the present A6025.

The short single-track section up to the Scissors Junction in West Vale is a known problem spot and is usually easier avoided by detouring through Hullenedge, before rejoining the main road and heading under the disused railway arches towards Barkisland. This section of road is ridiculously fast, with very few drivers adhering to the initial 40 mph speed limit which later rises to NSL. Eventually, the road enters Barkisland and starts to climb rapidly up past Clock Face Quarry and a reservoir before reaching the Scammonden Bridge and crossing into Kirklees.

Another rocket-fast section of road follows, but the width of the road is less than ideal so if an oncoming lorry approaches be ready to move over for it! This eventually sees the road meet the A640 at what should normally be the middle of nowhere but is nearly always chock-full of parked cars and an ice-cream van. Ahead, on a clear day, you'll see the sharp bend on the A62 at Marsden, but as there's no direct way there, you'll either have to go to Huddersfield, or Denshaw, to get to it.

Or maybe you could park up with everyone else and go rambling, the choice really is yours...! After all, there aren't many places where the public road will take you nearly 1500 feet up.

History

The original B6114 used to run between the A62 in Bradley and the A6025 in Elland. The 1932 Ten-Mile Map suggests that the whole of the road was by then taken over by the A6107, although if this is the case the B6114 was quickly reinstated west of the A643 (A6028 before 1935). The road through Bradley has the look of a 1930s improvement, although the A6107 had already come into existence before the great 1935 numbering revision.

Our road's original route through Elland was along Victoria Road and Jepson Lane, with Briggate being the pre-bypass A629.

West of Elland the road was numbered A6025 for the rest of the route. That was downgraded in the early 1980s, giving the B6114 its present length.