Popularly known as the spine of Purbeck the A351 runs from the A35/Bakers Arms just south of Lytchett Minster nearly 15 miles to Swanage.
   It divides into 3 sections, each roughly 5 miles long, and sensibly a half hour drive to Swanage. However, if you add some traffic to the road that time can be greatly increased.

   From the Bakers Arms to Wareham is almost perfectly straight and flat. It is a single carriage road that is slowed by it's features until you hit a bottleneck as you run through Sandford into Wareham or it's bypass.
   This section can sometimes take well over half-an-hour dependent on the times of day, the worst of course being the rush to and from work combined with the proverbial school runs centering on Sandford.
   If you add to that the seasonal holiday traffic the times can get a lot longer, which combined with hot weather and exhaust fumes trapped along the road can be a long and frustrating experience.
   Sandford, for good reason, has it's own speed camera. Taking the traffic away from Sandford altogether would be a major bonus for the local population, since it is subjected to noise and fumes 24 hours a day.

   At the Wareham end it was once normal to cross the railway by level-crossing which if the journey was an everyday chore, did little for the humour if you got there after a train was approaching. Of course if it was the first time as a visitor it did have a novelty value, usually only once though !
   The crossing was replaced by a bridge which on face value should eliminate the problem, but since the road is so slow it only helps. The Wareham bypass can take the south moving traffic quickly away from the problem, but, if travelling north the end of the bypass can be a queue of traffic back to the Worgret roundabout and further. When you get to Wareham the bypass needs to continue all the way to the Bakers Arms or thereabout as shown on the map.

The Wareham Bypass was opened in 2 sections, north from the Worgret roundabout to the North Wareham roundabout on 1 April 1980, and south from the Worgret roundabout to the Stoborough roundabout on 26 September 1988.

   Having traversed the bypass to the Stoborough roundabout it should be a clear easy going amble to Swanage. This proves to be far from the case, unless you are the only vehicle on the road, since the first section to Corfe is something of a drudge depending again on traffic conditions.
   During the holiday season a mixture of cars, the proverbial caravans, delivery lorries, and the occasional tractor can make for accidents waiting to happen.
   As you hit the Norden roundabout and run into Corfe which is very narrow complete with it's 5mph hairpin, the traffic can quite easily grind to a total halt. It only takes one vehicle trying to turn into The Square for this to happen. If it is an artic delivery lorry with a driver who has never experienced the delight of Corfe before the wait can be long.
   Corfe is not free from the school-run syndrome, and with the narrow road is again 'accident waiting to happen land'. Lack of parking restriction on the narrow road through Corfe can often narrow the traffic to a single lane in one direction at a time.

   Coming out of Corfe you start to meander and undulate past Afflington and Woody Hyde, through Harmans Cross with a 40mph speed limit which would sensibly be reduced to 30mph.
   In Harmans Cross is Foleys Garage, where vehicles turning in and out are travelling blind since it at the top of a rise, and where much traffic has forgotten about caution and speed limits.

   You run out of Harmans Cross down to St. Michaels Garage which is home to a very nasty bend in the road and speeds more than 30mph are asking for trouble.
   From there to Swanage should all be taken with caution, who knows what's coming over the next rise, or round the next bend, sometimes at the same time !

   It should not forgotten that as a generalisation this road was there for horses and carts, things have moved on but localised improvements only move a problem a few yards down the road.

   In recent years much has been talked about a development of some 1,500 properties at Holton Heath, if that development did actually proceed the consequences don't bear thinking about.

   Whilst the thought of a bypass strikes fear and horror into many because it will run through much nature and natural beauty we have to be realistic. Many such similar projects have in fact improved the lot for nature, and a short term setback could easily be made a long term improvement.

   There has been much made of using an improved B3075 as an alternative to a bypass, this is a long and dangerous undulating road and runs south to what is already, and will remain, a bottleneck at Woods Edge. It does of course add nearly 3 miles to the distance partly along what is already a narrow and dangerous section of the A35.
   Many local folk have to travel out of Purbeck to work, usually along this route rather than through Studland and across the ferry. That route during the holidays is a story all on it's own !

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Rev:20050101

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