Wells is the Cathedral City for Somerset, and the smallest city in England. It also has one of the oldest complete planned medieval streets in Europe - the Vicars Close next to the Cathedral.
In 1922 Wells had 2 A class routes and 4 B class routes, albeit two of the latter measured in yards not miles. In the review of 1935 the B roads were all amalgamated under the number B3139, and the former A369 became part of an extended A39. From then until the mid 1990's, Wells' classified road network barely changed. The A39 and A371 crossed in the city centre with the B3139 multiplexing with the A371. The actual streets used did change, as increasing traffic meant that a one-way system had to be introduced and certain streets closed to through traffic. However, this was all solved when the Relief Road was finally built, with the roads all moving north and west away from the narrow streets of the city centre.