Kinson: looking southwest along Westdown Road

Image: © Chris Downer Taken: 18 Mar 2017

This ordinary looking road is marked on the map as a 'Byway open to all traffic' and is numbered E29 on Bournemouth Borough Council's definitive map of public rights of way. I don't know why this particular stretch of road should be labelled as such: maybe it was a historical route when this was heathland, and the modern road network incorporated it. This suggestion is perhaps supported by the historical 1:25,000 maps, which date from when Durdells Avenue (ahead) was the first built-up road as the construction of the estate started. On this map, Westdown Road was the only offshoot of Durdells Avenue, beyond which it was still fields. The definitive map seems to show the right of way as extending towards us only as far as roughly alongside where we are standing now - that's about two thirds of the length of the road. See Image for the view along the road from the far end.

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