The Richie G Website

Some quotes have been edited for length or for clarity. In the case of some abbreviations, links have been provided for non-Sabristi to know what I’m on about!

Introduction

A recently revived thread on SABRE discussing the Cullompton Bypass recently turned into a discussion on the post-M5 but pre-A373 Dual Carraigeway layout of Junction 27 on the M5.

I’ve had a good look through a number of maps and suchlike, and while at this stage (14-04-08) I cannot give a definate answer (all being well I’ll be popping to the Barnstaple and Exeter Record Offices at some point this week!), I’m putting the information I’ve found here in an attempt to summarise the information in the thread and also as a fair bit of what I’ve to say and what I’ve found isn’t necessarily to do with the thread itself.

Late 1920s – Early 1930s

An undated road atlas I have – of which I assume to be dated around 1927-1930 shows the area like the map on the left. About this map, on the thread, I wrote:

I assumed that the M5 was completed before the D2 link to Tiverton, but I couldn’t say for certain. I am now interested to know what the arrangements were to get from the M5 to the then A373 at that point as no matter what the layout would’ve been, the M5 definately would have dissected the A373. One would assume that what I suggested earlier would have been the case – that the current junction was put in place ready for the D2 to open – as they must have known that a better link would have been put in place from the ‘new motorway’ to Tiverton and beyond, but I doubt that somehow! Does anybody have any maps dating pre D2 but post M5? Incidentally, the map I’ve just posted doesn’t show the Sampford Peverall station so I guess that closed sometime in the 20s at the latest!

Well, as it happens, I do have some maps dated pre D2 but post M5 of which I will come to in a moment. However, this later quote from David Brown in accompniment to a book I borrowed from the Library on Saturday last will put the matter straight on the second part of what I wrote:

From the Bristol thread, here’s the M5 J27 area in 1947. Here, it appears that the old Stampford Peverell station was open, and there was a bridge AND a level crossing – the bridge carrying the A373. Interesting that both roads appeared to be open at the same time for some point – might be interesting to see an even older map in this detail to see if that’s always been the case.

Well the book I got out does tell people (well, those who read the book at least!) that:

SAMPFORD PEVERELL Opened: 9th July 1928 (on the Taunton – Exeter line originally opened through this site in 1844).
Closed: 5th October 1964 [The site is now used for Tiverton Parkway station, opened in 1986].

As it happens, I know where I can get a map of this area from when the station was open – the book though is currently out on loan from the library so I cannot get it at this stage – hopefully my visits to the record office will sort that out. Perhaps.

In the meantime, I overlaied the current OS map with the old map, just to give people an idea of where current roads are in relation to the old roads and suchlike. There’re two of them – one with the OS on top, one with the
OS on the bottom:

1972
The 1972 road atlas is pre-M5, but shows the Cullompton Bypass. The bypass starts just north of Cullompton, where there is currently a very high bridge over the motorway (photographs to follow). Oddly enough, where the A373 crosses the bypass, and is where M5 J28 currently is, there is no junction there. The bypass ends further south, after the A38 (now B3181) crosses the railway and the motorway. There is still evidence at this here at the location – see Here, (photos to follow). The map shows that the A373 still has two routes from Halberton to the A38 (something which remained until the Dual Carraigeway opened), and also it appears that both the old road through Cullompton (now the B3181) and the bypass (now the M5) were numbered A38.

1976

Let’s go back to the thread…

M5Lenzar wrote:
Last night in chat the question came up as to before J26-J27 was built (but after J27-J30 WAS built), was the temporary terminus J27, or the northern roundabout of the Cullompton Bypass?

SteveA30 wrote:
interesting point. The Motorway Archive states J27-30 as Oct 75 and, J26-27
as Oct 76. The implication is that J27 became the terminus for 1 year.

I’m not to sure about this myself. A 1976 AA Motorway Atlas shows that J26 was indeed the southern terminus of the M5 when the atlas was printed. The map also implies to me that when this atlas was printed, that J27 itself was under construction, making J28 the temporary northern terminus in this area, more likely the northern junction of the Cullompton Bypass. That is my reading of what this map tells me.

1977

Here, we see the M5 completed through this area. One of the isseus with M5 J27 is also its proximity to the Great Western Main Line. I mention that here, because between Tiverton Junction station and Aysford, the railway seems to have disappeared. It hasn’t, but it is just quite close to the M5. I also see that the Hemyock branch is still open – a quick look at the book I mentioned earlier tells me that while publicly, the station closed in 1965 (for passengers it was two years earlier in 63), it was still open for milk traffic until 1975. Then it’s still on the map for some reason.

But I digress.

This map shows the A38 terminating at J27, which it does now, and between there and Willand, (where the two branches of the A373 make their way towards Halberton) it is unnumbered on the map; this either remained as the A38, or became the A373. The A38 also somehow appears where the southern terminus of the Cullompton Bypass was. It seems to merge off the M5, but I don’t think that this is the case and that this was where the B road that was the A38 (now the B3181) becomes the A38 again. (I hope you’re following all this!)

Between the A373 at Willand and this point where the A38 comes from, we see that the road is a B road. But not the B3181 like it is now, but the B3176. The B3176 currently runs the short distance from Sidmouth sea front to Bowd, one of the outlying villages of the town. But before, this map suggests that it went much further than that, even if broken up slightly.

This particular map shows that the B3181 did exist – from where it currently ends in Pinhoe at the then A38 to terminate at the then A377 at Topsham station. (The A377 no longer takes this route, instead terminating at the A30 after the A30 leaves the M5 at J31.)

This information currently is not really much use, but I am hoping to put a bit more information here as I get it…