Barnstaple driving test centre
Unit 1A, Benning Court (off Riverside Road), Pottington Industrial Estate, Barnstaple, EX31 1AB
Drive the 5 routes around Barnstaple before test day →
Key facts
- Barnstaple's pass rate was 51.4% in 2025/26 from 5,562 tests, in line with the national average of 50.0%.
- That puts it 11 of 21 centres in South West (South West average 51.7%), a mid-table pass rates in the region.
- Since 2021/22 the pass rate has fallen by 3.9 points, from 55.3% to 51.4%.
- On waiting times, learners who took a test in August 2026 had waited a median of 8 weeks since booking (shorter than the national median of 11.9 weeks); the first week with 10% or more of slots still free was 11 weeks ahead.
- A year earlier (August 2025) the median wait was 5.3 weeks, so waits have grown by about 2.7 weeks.
Barnstaple's centre is a unit on the Pottington Industrial Estate, off Riverside Road, and three of the five practice loops on this page run out onto the Barnstaple Western Bypass. That road makes the test. Nearly a fifth of the loop distance is at 50 mph, a limit that sits awkwardly between town driving and open road, and the bypass is one of only two loop roads carrying roundabouts. The rest of the drive is Braunton Road, Bickington Road and the streets behind them, where the limit drops to 30 and stays there for most of the remaining distance. The pass rate here is close to the national average and has been drifting downwards for several years, which is worth knowing before you read much into a single year's figure.
Drive the Barnstaple test routes before test day
5 loops from the centre, 59 km in all, with 14 roundabouts and 94 marked turns. Generated from the road network within 2.5 km of Barnstaple; not DVSA’s own routes, but the same roads.
Drive it before test day
Drive all 5 loops around Barnstaple from your phone before you ever sit in the car: every roundabout, every junction, in the order you will meet them.
- 5 routes · 59 km · 94 marked turns
- Examiner-style marking on signalling and observation
- Street View tour of each route
- Every roundabout and junction, in the order you'll meet them
- The four test manoeuvres and eight roundabout scenarios, included
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- Route 1 · via Braunton Road11.7 km loop with 2 roundabouts, 11 right turns, 7 left turns and a stretch of Barnstaple Western Bypass.11.7 km · 20 turns · 2 roundabouts
- Route 2 · via Barnstaple Western Bypass11.3 km loop with 4 roundabouts, 8 right turns, 10 left turns and a stretch of Bickington Road.11.3 km · 22 turns · 4 roundabouts
- Route 3 · via Barnstaple Western Bypass11.2 km loop with 4 roundabouts, 5 right turns, 8 left turns and a stretch of Upcott Hill.11.2 km · 17 turns · 4 roundabouts
- Route 4 · via Braunton Road12.9 km loop with 2 roundabouts, 7 right turns, 12 left turns and a stretch of Barnstaple Western Bypass.12.9 km · 21 turns · 2 roundabouts
- Route 5 · via Braunton Road12.1 km loop with 2 roundabouts, 6 right turns, 6 left turns and a stretch of Barnstaple Western Bypass.12.1 km · 14 turns · 2 roundabouts
The same access also opens the four test manoeuvres and eight roundabout scenarios: the two things a route drive cannot teach you.
The Barnstaple Western Bypass is the road to practise. It appears on three of the five practice loops on this page, and it supplies almost all of the 50 mph driving in the test. Fifty is the awkward limit: fast enough that a hesitant join causes a problem behind you, slow enough that candidates coming off a 30 tend to sit at 40 without noticing. Get up to the limit, hold it, and read the signs on the way back down.
Roundabouts are not the theme here. Only the bypass and Bickington Road carry them on the loops, and the busiest single loop has four. Two mini-roundabouts are scattered across the routes, and those are the ones that catch people out, because a mini asks for the same observation as a full roundabout in about a third of the space.
Most of the driving, roughly seven-tenths of it, is at 30 mph. Braunton Road, Bickington Road, Chaddiford Lane and Pilland Way are the loop roads you will see most of, with the B3230 and B3232 carrying the through traffic. Across the loops there are seven sets of traffic signals, three signalled crossings and four traffic-calming features, so there is remarkably little telling you what to do — the town half is read rather than directed.
Barnstaple has some proper hills. Upcott Hill gives one of the loops its name, and a hill start on this ground is a real prospect rather than a formality.
Manoeuvres go on the quieter residential roads, away from the estate and the bypass, where the kerbs run straight and there is room to reverse without an audience.
Pass rate at Barnstaple, 2007/08 to 2025/26
Share of car tests passed each April-to-March year. Dashed line: Great Britain average for 2025/26.
Month by month, 2025/26
By year and gender
| Year | Tests | Pass rate | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025/26 | 5,562 | 51.4% | 50.5% | 52.6% |
| 2024/25 | 3,583 | 54.7% | 55.7% | 53.6% |
| 2023/24 | 3,842 | 54.9% | 57.8% | 51.7% |
| 2022/23 | 3,221 | 54.3% | 57.9% | 50.9% |
| 2021/22 | 3,044 | 55.3% | 58.4% | 52.3% |
| 2020/21 | 851 | 59.9% | 62.8% | 57.3% |
| 2019/20 | 2,930 | 54.3% | 58.7% | 50.3% |
| 2018/19 | 2,686 | 53.9% | 59.6% | 49.8% |
South West average 51.7% · GB 50%
Waiting time for a test at Barnstaple
Median weeks between booking and taking the test, for tests taken each month. Dashed line: GB median for August 2026.
| Month | Median wait | Weeks to free slots | Slots offered | Still free |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2026 | 8 | 11 | 42 | 7.1% |
| Jul 2026 | 8 | 11.8 | 46 | 7.9% |
| Jun 2026 | 8 | 11 | 47 | 10% |
| May 2026 | 7 | 12 | 51 | 15.1% |
| Apr 2026 | 9.1 | 14.3 | 45 | 19.9% |
| Mar 2026 | 4.6 | 19 | 58 | 13.5% |
Tell me when the wait at Barnstaple drops
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Test day at Barnstaple
Finding the place is the first job. The address is Unit 1A, Benning Court, off Riverside Road on the Pottington Industrial Estate, and industrial estates do not signpost themselves well. Benning Court is the name to look for, not the DVSA logo. Give yourself five minutes more than the satnav says.
DVSA publishes that you can access this centre if you use a wheelchair. Nothing is published about candidate parking, which is normal for a unit like this one. Estate roads usually leave enough kerb space to park nearby even when the bays outside are full, and that is the assumption to work on rather than a guarantee.
Barnstaple station is about a mile away, so coming by train and walking in is possible, though most candidates arrive with an instructor.
The centre runs car tests and motorcycle module 2, the on-road module. It does not run module 1 or ADI tests. Booking, moving and cancelling all go through GOV.UK.
Roughly two in five of the slots in the booking window here were still unbooked in the most recent month of data, so if your date does not suit, a change is more realistic at Barnstaple than at most centres.
What DVSA publishes about Barnstaple
Taken from the GOV.UK test centre finder, checked 3 September 2026. Where DVSA says nothing, this site says nothing.
- Tests conducted here
- carmotorcycle module 2 (on-road)
- Wheelchair access
- DVSA states you can access this centre in a wheelchair.
Other tests at Barnstaple
This centre is not car only. DVSA publishes results for these categories separately, and they are taken by different candidates on different vehicles, so the rates are not comparable with the car figure above.
Learner reports from Barnstaple
No reports yet for this centre. If you tested here, the first one is yours to write.
What examiners mark most often
DVSA does not publish faults by centre, but it does publish them nationally. These collected the most marks across every car test in Great Britain in 2025/26, and they are the same ones you will be marked on at Barnstaple.
- 1Junctions - observation
- 2Mirrors - change direction
- 3Junctions - turning right
- 4Response to signs - traffic lights
- 5Control - steering
- 6Move off - safely
Getting there
Unit 1A, Benning Court (off Riverside Road), Pottington Industrial EstateBarnstaple EX31 1AB
Questions learners ask about Barnstaple
- Is Barnstaple an easy test centre?
- It is close to the national average: 51.4% of tests were passed in 2025/26 against 50.0% across Great Britain.
- How long is the wait for a driving test at Barnstaple?
- In August 2026 the median gap between booking and sitting a test at Barnstaple was 8 weeks, and you had to look about 11 weeks ahead to find a week with at least 10% of slots free. DVSA publishes this monthly; the figure above updates when they do.
- Where is Barnstaple driving test centre?
- Barnstaple test centre is at Unit 1A, Benning Court (off Riverside Road), Pottington Industrial Estate, Barnstaple, EX31 1AB. Arrive at least 10 minutes early with your provisional licence; parking rules vary by centre, so check the learner reports below.
- How many driving tests does Barnstaple do a year?
- 5,562 car tests were conducted at Barnstaple in 2025/26, of which 2,859 were passed.
Source: DVSA tables DRT122A (pass rates by centre and month) and DRT122F (waiting times and availability), Open Government Licence v3.0. PassRank adds the comparisons and rankings.
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