Post road A customary route was long established, even prior to the appointment of
Brian Tuke as
Master of the King's Posts in 1512, and in
William Harrison's Description of England in ''
Holinshed's Chronicles'' in 1577 this is described as a route from London, through
Chard,
Honiton,
Exeter,
Crockernwell,
Okehampton,
Launceston,
Bodmin, and on through
Truro. In 1574,
Elizabeth I's Master of Posts
Thomas Randolph was given an
Order of Council to establish permanent posts on the route between the
royal court and Exeter "for the speedy conveyance of all such packets as shall be sent from the Earl of Bedford out of the West Country", with then Earl of Bedford being
Francis Russell, later
Lord Lieutenant of Devon, based at
Tavistock. Whilst court postmaster Robert Gascoigne was tasked the following week, the permanent posts were not in operation until 28 July 1579, when twelve Royal postmasters were in place, at the rate of 20
pence per day, formalising the route as a Royal
post road. as "The Road from London to The Land's End in Cornwall", where which he described that "The Post-Office making this one of their Principal Roads", and opined that the section through Surrey and Hampshire was "in general a very good Road with suitable Entertainment". The route described by Ogilby started at
Hyde Park Corner, and closely mirrored the modern route as far as
Exeter, except for three sections from
Knightsbridge to
Bedfont,
Basingstoke to
Salisbury via
Andover and
Exeter to
Penzance via
Ashburton,
Plymouth, and following the Cornish south coast via
St Austell. The road was known to attract significant postal and coach traffic along its length by 1686. The route is described as the "Great Road to Land's End" in the
Magna Britannia, published in the early 19th century. As the coaching road to Land's End was a major route, it was a popular place for
highwaymen. William Davies, also known as the Golden Farmer, robbed several coaches travelling across
Bagshot Heath. He was hanged in 1689 at a gallows at the local gibbet hill between
Bagshot and
Camberley. The
Jolly Farmer pub was built near the site of the gallows (gibbet), a junction.
19th century . The road was built by the Chard Turnpike Trust in the mid 19th century to compete with the New Direct Road, later the
A303. At the turn of the 19th century, William Hanning created the "New Direct Road", a fast coaching route between London and Exeter. The road deviated from Ogilby's route running via
Amesbury and
Ilminster, rejoining the older road at Honiton. It became popular with postal services such as
The Subscription. In 1831, a race was held between London and Exeter via the New Direct Road, which resulted in a dead heat. were covered in 13 hours, compared to a typical early 18th century time of four days. In response to the competition of routes, a new turnpike road was built west of Chard, avoiding the historic route to Honiton via
Stockland, with several steep hills. This road met the New Direct Road near
Upottery. This 'New Direct Road' is the basis of what is now the
A303. Historically, the route between London and Land's End was also called the "Great South-West Road". In the 21st century, the name only refers to a small section of the road near Heathrow.
Redruth to Penzance In 1825 an
Act of Parliament established the
Hayle Bridge Causeway and Turnpike Trust which was required to construct a bridge, causeway and
turnpike over the
Hayle River from Griggs Quay () in the west to
Phillack in the east. The turnpike was needed to ease the transport of
copper ore to the port at
Hayle for export. A second Act was passed in 1837 to establish the
Griggs Quay to Penzance Turnpike and in 1839 an Act formed a third trust, the
Hayle and Redruth Turnpike to complete the turnpike to
Redruth. The running of the Causeway turnpike was overseen by the winner of a public auction and for the year 1880, the winning bid was £591 10s. In 1885 the management of the causeway by the turnpike came to an end, and the White house (
tollhouse) on the eastern end of the Hayle causeway, along with the garden and three granite posts was put up for auction on 30 October 1885. A second tollhouse at
Long Rock was also for auction as well as a number of posts and gates.
20th century . The A30 was one of the first roads to be classified by the
Ministry of Transport for funding in 1921. It followed Ogilby's route up to Exeter, then the basic route of the modern A30 through Okehampton, Launceston and Bodmin to the Greenmarket in Penzance, where it ended. It was extended to Land's End in 1925. The Great South West Road section of the A30 around Heathrow had been planned as the western end of the Great West Road project, one of the first bypasses built for motor traffic. Construction began in 1914 but was quickly halted because of
World War I. It resumed construction in 1919. The full route from
Chiswick to
Ashford was opened by
King George V on 30 May 1925. Following the construction of a bypass around Basingstoke, the route of the A30 was changed on 1 April 1933 to run by
Sutton Scotney and
Stockbridge, rejoining the original route at Lopcombe Corner east of Salisbury. An alternative route, the
A303 was created out of existing roads at the same time between
Micheldever Station and the
Blackdown Hills, that followed the basic course of Hanning's New Direct Road. By the mid-20th century, large sections of the A30 were struggling to cope with the increasing demands of road traffic. In the mid-1960s, numerous councils complained that the
Secretary of State for Transport,
Barbara Castle, decided that improvements to the
A38 from Exeter to Plymouth were of higher priority for funding than any work on the A30. Cornwall County Council complained that the A30 through the county was narrow and twisted, and known as the "stage coach trail". Following World War II, the Ministry of Transport planned a large-scale upgrade of the A30 across south-west England, with the eventual intention that most of the route would be at least dual-carriageway. The
M3 motorway was planned as a replacement for the A30 between London and
Popham. Following a public enquiry in 1966, the line was fixed the following year. The work was completed as far as
Bagshot in 1971, then to
Sunbury-on-Thames in 1974. In 1971, the
Secretary of State for the Environment,
Peter Walker announced many upgrades of the A30 across Devon and Cornwall, identifying the section from Okehampton to Bodmin as a key area of improvement. The Honiton dual-carriageway bypass opened in early December 1966 at a cost of £984,000. The
Hayle bypass was first proposed in the late 1970s. It was controversial, and
Dora Russell protested against its construction. It was completed in 1985. The Okehampton bypass, which opened on 19 July 1988, goes to the south of the town, cutting through the northern edge of
Dartmoor National Park in Devon. In the 1980s, the route of the bypass was the subject of a prolonged campaign from conservationists, including
Sylvia Sayer, who preferred a route to the north of the town through agricultural land. The section between Honiton and Exeter in East Devon was upgraded in 1999 to dual carriageway, giving quicker access to
Exeter International Airport. This road was built under the Design Build Finance Operate (DBFO)
Private Finance Initiative scheme by the private consortium Connect A30, who receive a
shadow toll from the Government for each vehicle travelling along the road. Archaeological investigations during the work found a
Roman cavalry garrison and later settlement at
Pomeroy Wood. There were several protests by
environmentalists during construction and the particular nature of the DBFO scheme, with a long-lasting occupation of sites on the planned route, focused around
Fairmile.
Swampy received press attention for his part in this protest. In 2016, President of
The Automobile Association,
Edmund King, claimed that the action had led to a slowdown in road construction throughout Britain.
21st century which crash landed between the runway and the A30. During 2006 one of the main bottlenecks on the road was removed when the Merrymeet roundabout between Okehampton and Exeter near Whiddon Down was replaced with a grade-separated junction and dual carriageway. Since the
Bodmin to
Indian Queens project was completed in late 2007, the new dual carriageway runs to the north of
Goss Moor. The previous road has been converted to a cycle lane. In December 2012 it was announced that from
Temple to Higher Carblake would be upgraded to a dual carriageway. Building started in early 2015, and was completed in summer 2017. This work made the A30 continuous dual carriageway between the M5 at Exeter and
Carland Cross in Cornwall. On 17 January 2008,
British Airways Flight 38 crash-landed near the Great South West Road southeast of
Heathrow Airport. Shortly before the crash landing, the captain of the Boeing 777 involved was able to clear the A30 by raising the flaps, saving the lives of motorists on the ground. In December 2014, the stretch of the A30 in Devon and Cornwall was identified as a key route for improvement in the government's Road Investment Strategy. This includes further dual carriageway improvements east of Honiton towards the
Blackdown Hills, and between
Chiverton Cross and
Carland Cross. In 2022, the casket of Queen Elizabeth II was driven partially on this road en route to
Windsor Castle, her final resting place.
Carland Cross to Chiverton Cross Dualling of the stretch between Carland Cross and Chiverton Cross established a continuous dual carriageway from Exeter right through to Camborne. Although this was shelved in 2006 as it was not considered a regional priority, it was included within the government's Road Investment Strategy in 2014. The preferred route was announced in July 2017, and on 6 February 2020, the
Secretary of State for Transport approved
Highways England's application for a Development Consent Order for the scheme to be constructed. Work began in March 2020 with an estimated cost of £330 million, a total of £20 million being provided by the
European Regional Development Fund. The scheme is included as a case study in the
Department for Transport's document Road Investment Strategy 2: 2020–2025. The route of the road passes near a
World Heritage Site, a
Registered Park and Gardens and a number of
Sites of Special Scientific Interest. The scheme included a 20-metre-wide 'green bridge' over the new road to promote connectivity and biodiversity. The road opened in 2024, 49 years after the nearby Camborne-Redruth bypass section, which had opened in 1975. ==Cultural references==