Road Numbering
ROAD NUMBERS.
We have a numbering system to classify and identify all our roads, with a single letter and a number of up to four digits. Originally intended to make the allocation of Government funding easier, the numbers were soon added to maps, and signs, to help with navigation.
In 1909 the Road Board was set up to administer Vehicle Excise Duty (first introduced in 1888). As motor vehicles became more popular it was necessary to allocate this tax and to work out which were the main routes and where to spend the duty raised.
A definite list of major roads was published on 1st April 1923.
The scheme divided Great Britain into 9 zones, 6 radiating from London, and 3 from Edinburgh.
The English zones start with 1 being the East and based on The Great North Road, then clockwise with Zone 2 being (roughly) Kent, Zone 3 (us) from London down to Land’s End, Zone 4 the West Midlands and most of Wales, and so on. Generally the main single digit road (the traditional main road) was the boundary of the zone starting clockwise. So zone 3 starts at the A3, and finishes just before the A4 (going clockwise).
Other A roads were numbered from the main road going clockwise – A31, A32, round to us at A36 and onwards. Radial and cross linking roads follow the same principle.
The A303 was numbered in 1933. Along with other three digit A roads, its number is taken from the local A road where it starts, so generally (but not always) numbering followed the general principle.
There are, of course, anomalies and odd roads!
B roads are numbered distributor roads with lower traffic densities than A roads. They follow the same numbering system but generally have 3 or 4 digits.
C and unclassified roads are generally numbered but for the use of the local authorities and often don’t appear on road signs.
Researched and written by Nicky Street (with thanks to National Highways, sabre-roads.org, Wikipedia and so on).
What about our road? The B3083 – the numbers don’t quite fit! An interesting story, and another article.
B3083
The B3083 runs from the A36 at Stapleford to the A360 at Shrewton.
Above I attempted to explain the road numbering system.
But our road – the B3083 - doesn’t entirely fit.
This is because at the introduction of the Road Numbering in 1923, it was the A360 – the main road to Devizes.
Originally the A360 started at the junction with the A36 at Stapleford (this makes the numbering sensible!). It then followed the route of the current B3083 through Stapleford, Berwick St James, Winterbourne Stoke and over the hill to Shrewton, joining the A344, and then on to Devizes as the A360.
In 1935 there was a revision of the road numbers and the former B3086 between Salisbury and Airman’s Corner became the A360. The A344 and A360 ran on the same road to and through Shrewton, but the A360 number became dominant, and continued to Devizes. The A344 between Shrewton and Warminster was later renumbered B390.
Our road from Stapleford to Shrewton became the B3083. The number B3083 was actually originally a short road in Blandford. In the 1935 renumberings this road was renumbered to be part of the B3082, and so the number was available to be used elsewhere!
Why wasn’t the Devizes road an A road in the 1923 list? The current A360 was a turnpike (toll road) from 1761 to 1870. Our road was described in 1841 as the “only Public Carriage road between Salisbury and Devizes…for some years past used as the Mail Coach Road “. In 1923 it was probably thought that most traffic travelled from village to village, rather than cross country town to town. However, it only took a few years (1923 to 1935) for the authorities to realize that the main road was, in fact, the Devizes road, and it was renumbered the A360.
Written and researched by Nicky Street