Totnes Bypass

The Totnes Bypass has arisen from a number of schemes and, of course, different names. Some modern references are to the “Totnes Inner relief Road” but “Totnes Bypass” is used here since the western part is known as “Totnes Western Bypass”. Its history, like a lot of town centre bypasses, started a long time ago.

Schemes were put forward in the 1930s to bypass Totnes Town Centre. Initially these were the Northern Bypass and a Southern bypass. The Southern Bypass was dropped in May 1934 after a Western Bypass was suggested.

The two remaining schemes were:

• The Northern Bypass from A385 Totnes Bridge to A385 Ashburton Road.
• The Western Bypass from A385 Ashburton Road to A381 Kingsbridge Hill which included a new road to bypass the hill. It was known at the time as the “Westerly Bypass”.

There have been later schemes:

• The Inner Relief Road and Brutus Bridge - an eastwards extension of the Northern Bypass to bypass the old Totnes Bridge.
• A 2019 scheme for a new A385 bypass which was abandoned in the planning stage due to cost and environmental reasons.

Historic road numbers will be used for the rest of this article unless noted.

History

The Northern Bypass

The scheme

Totnes before the bypasses

Totnes Northern bypass was the first to be started in the Southern Division from Devon County Council's Five Year Road Programme of 1935. That envisaged expenditure of £727,700 of which nearly half, £345,000, was to be expenditure on bypass roads.

The road through the town centre was a major bottleneck and a hindrance to traffic, compounded by the narrow arch between Fore Street and High Street. South Street allowed a way round the arch and High Street for Plymouth bound traffic. Station Road came off the top end of Fore Street with a severe right-angled corner and joined the Ashburton Road after the Station bridge. However both involved the use of the Fore Street, a main shopping street.

The solution was a quarter mile road from the west side of Totnes Bridge opposite The Plains to join Station Road on the bend in the Parklands area to the east of the Railway Station. At the time it was from the Bacon Factory to the Drill Hall. Station Road continued to the station bridge to join Ashburton Road.

Tenders

Such was the pace that Tenders for construction were invited on 16 September 1935. A copy of the scheme documents could be obtained on deposit of a £5 Bank of England Note, which was to be refunded on provision of a bona-fide tender and provided that all documents were returned to the Engineer. The Corporation did not bind itself to accept the lowest or any tender.

A tender of £12,020 19s 6d was accepted in early February 1936. It is interesting to compare the cost to a tender of £17,778 for the construction of 58 houses, accepted at the same time.

Opening

Coronation Road looking to the Fore Street junction

The bypass was opened in April 1937 and the official ceremony took place on 12 May 1937 with the Mayor, Capt. F.J.C. Holdsworth officiating and naming the road “Coronation Road”. A procession paraded the new bypass and other streets and at night there was floodlighting of the East Gate, church tower, war memorial, Castle keep, Grammar School and other parts of the town.

The road opened as A384. It was later renumbered A385 following the re-routing of the main route to Plymouth. It was downgraded following the Brutus Bridge Road opening in 1982.

The Western Bypass

The Scheme

It had been envisaged in the 1935 plan that this section would be completed over 3 years with a cost of £45,000. This was to be spread: 1936-37 £5,000, 1937-38 £30,000 and 1938-39 £10,000.

The road was to connect the Northern Bypass at A384 Ashburton Road to A381 which included a bypass of the Kingsbridge Hill road. The original A385 Plymouth road was crossed in the middle. This would complete a bypass route for all main road routes coming into the town.

The plans were completed in March 1937 by Andrew Warren, County Surveyor. The Town Council requested an amendment to include a bridge over a proposed new road connection between Collapark (in an estate being built) to Malt Mill.

Tenders

Tenders were requested on 21 October 1938 so it was now over a year behind shedule. It was for the construction of a 1400 yard road (0.8 miles) from the Ashburton Road (A384 to the junction with the Kingsbridge Road (B3197), This would take it to the top of Kingsbridge Hill so there was one tender for the whole scheme.

The works were to include the demolition of property, excavation, drainage, formation of deep embankments (to the railway bridge), construction of carriageway in concrete and hardcore with waterbound macadam and final surfacing, construction of bridge over Estate Road, culverts, fencing and other incidental works. The deposit had gone up to £5 5s. The closing date was 31 December 1938.

There was a further tender request on 26 May 1939 for 1. Excavation and forming embankments (approximate quantity 65,000 cubic yards); 2. Supply of Rolled Steel Bars to British Standard Specification No. 785 (1938) for concrete reinforcement; 3 Supply of continuous flat-bar wrought iron fencing and gates. The deadline was 15 June 1939.

The 1939 to 1942 work

Work had started but there was an unfortunate accident when the driver delivering an excavator had the jib fall on him whilst it was being unloaded. The inquest in July 1939 gave a verdict of accidental death with no blame attached to anyone although it was commented that it was alarming that the jib was controlled by a foot brake and something should be done to prevent such an occurance happening again in the future.

Work continued despite the onset of the War. This prompted some disdain and a letter from “Fairplay” to the Western Morning News on 8 September 1939 said “Sir – Why are scores of strong hefty men being employed on the useless bypass at Totnes when young lads of twenty are drilling in the Army? The one and only street in Totnes is practically empty. The work done by these men at four pounds and more a week is not of national importance”.

This did not halt work and work was well in progress. In December 1939 the Minister of Transport agreed that the £65,000 scheme could continue along with other Devon road improvement schemes which were mainly widenings. However in February 1940 there was a suggestion from the Ministry that work should be suspended. The Council wrote back opposing this as they considered it would mean a waste of money.

This must have swayed the Ministry and work continued but it was only temporary. Work halted in 1942. £41,817 had been spent from an estimated scheme cost of £60,500.

The Military did use the part constructed and also built a "spur road" to Malt Mill to access the road south of the railway.

The road is shown on the 1946 OS New Popular Edition map with an X at the railway. It is unsure that there was a level crossing to allow use of the road.

The 1946 to 1948 work

The Western Bypass now shown, but was there a level crossing?

Representations were made in February 1944 to the Ministry of War Transport to sanction the completion of the bridge over the railway. This was to no avail.

The scheme was again discussed in October 1945 at a Devon County Council meeting and referred to the consequence of doing work by means of loans instead of out of revenue. The scheme completion cost was £48,000. National Funds would meet most of it but £19,000 would come from County resources. Since it was to take more than a year it would be financed from revenue. It was mentioned that the pre-war scheme was financed by loan and interest had been paid. The scheme was intended to be done in 18 months but if the programme was for the length of time taken it could have been paid out of revenue. Interest would have been saved.

The Ministry's grant approval was obtained in January 1946…. it now depended on the Great Western Railway Company's agreement to build the bridge. Such was the saga that the Western Times had taken to including a heading of “That By-pass” for each report. There was further delay awaiting a reply. In July 1946 there were high hopes that authorisation would be coming in a week or two. There was also a request that the part of the bypass already completed be put into use but the military use had left it unfit for ordinary traffic.

In August 1946 it was stated in the House of Commons that the bypass, which was to cost £48,510 would be completed in March 1947. Work on the road had started in the Summer of 1946 but the bridge details had still to be completed and this took until August 1947. The superstructure was to be a single reinforced concrete skew span of 62 feet over the main line railway. Parapet walls were to be of local stone. The substructure was to be mass concrete with local stone facings. The road carriageway was 30 feet with two 5 feet footpaths.

Then there was news from the Ministry that was described as “a bit of bad news” by the Chairman, Lieut.-Col. T. Gracey at a February 1948 meeting of the Devon Roads Committee. The work was ordered to cease. A strong protest was planned but it was thought it would do no good. The Government was making cutbacks to help finances.

The County Surveyor reported that the work on the road bridge had been practically completed. It was reported that a considerable amount of money had been spent on the scheme and it would be lying idle. Two-thirds of the bypass work had been completed at a cost of £55,000. This included the £13,000 cost of work since 1946 and the £48,510 cost to 1942.

The stoppage order was confirmed in March 1948. It was not considered vitally urgent in the interests of industry or public safety. The country could not afford the necessary expenditure on labour and materials. The May 1948 reply to the protest confirmed the same.

The Temporary Spur

The Town Council looked for another means of relieving the serious traffic congestion in the narrow streets of the town. In May 1948 they agreed to take immediate steps to arrange for the opening up of a “spur” road from Malt Mill to the bypass for two way traffic in order to open a loop road for traffic. This would use a couple of existing streets from Malt Mill to connect to Station Road and the Northern Bypass. The cost was just £369 and the spur did bring some relief to the town but there were a couple of dangerous corners to negotiate.

1957: Completion at last

Detail of the bypasses in 1960. The Western Bypass has not yet become A381

Protests were made in the early 1950s to try and get the railway bridge completed but the Ministry were still refusing to budge. In June 1950 the bridge cost was £35,000. The town council pointed out that it was strange that the Ministry should allow £14,000 to be spent on a cliff railway for pleasure puposes at Torquay and yet would not permit expenditure on an essential road.

It would take a few more years for permission to be granted. In June 1957 the Council Direct Labour team started widening works on the Kingsbridge Hill diversion, the spoil providing the necessary fill for the bridge embankments. The cost for the road works was £22,000.

There was an interim stage for several weeks following the bridge opening where there was single line traffic over the bridge due to the closing of the spur road in use, so as to allow the second half of the bypass to be completed. The bypass opened in the Autumn of 1957.

Later Schemes

Inner Relief Road and Brutus Bridge

Brutus Bridge over River Dart

The opening of Brutus Bridge enabled an eastwards extension of the Northern Bypass to bypass the old Totnes Bridge.

The 0.5 mile road from Station Road to Newton Road was opened on 13 September 1982 by George Creber, County Council Chairman. It included the 70m three span Brutus Bridge and an 8m embankment over the River Dart flood plain. Contractor was Costain, cost £1.8 million. It opened as an A385 / A381 multiplex.

The second bypass scheme

In 2019 a scheme for a new A385 bypass was abandoned in the planning stage due to cost and environmental reasons.