B6386

Heading east towards Oxton

The B6386 provides a useful alternative to the A612 for those travelling to Southwell from north Nottingham - it is far quieter than the A-road, and passes through fewer villages (and indeed misses Nottingham itself). Our road was originally unclassified, gaining its number in the mid-1920s.

From the T-junction with the A614 north of Redhill, the road starts off straight and fast, passing the new Arnold Town Football Club and Hollingwell Golf Club on our right. Soon we reach a crossroads with the C9, where a right turn takes us into Calverton, and a left back towards the A614 – although the junction with the main road at the far end has since been closed on safety grounds. We now pass by industry, with the old Calverton Colliery on our left (but not visible through all the trees), and a transport depot on our right.

We soon return to open farmland, and another crossroads. Again, the right turn leads into Calverton, and the left to a safer connection to the A614, at the Whinbush Roundabout. We cut through a forest as the road narrows slightly, and come to a stop at a roundabout junction with the A6097, which at this point forms a bypass of Oxton village. Already we have reached the end of the B6386, yet it has taken barely five minutes.

Prior to 2016, when the roads in Southwell were declassified, the B6386 continued ahead; there was then still about two-thirds of the road to go. We crossed the roundabout to enter Oxton. However, the B6386 never reached the centre of the village; at one time there was a multiplex right along the pre-bypass A6097 (numbered B688 in 1922) and our road took over the old road when the A-road was given its present route. It had to TOTSO to the left just outside of Oxton. Leaving the main village over to our left, we now climbed a steep hill to travel onwards to the outskirts of Southwell. On entering Southwell, the road followed a suburban street called Westgate before ending where the onward direction became the eastbound A612. Traffic in this direction has priority here; the A-road used to TOTSO before it was declassified. The old section of road is now Nottinghamshire's C42.