Dunkirk is a hamlet

Hamlet (place)

A hamlet is usually a rural settlement which is too small to be considered a village, though sometimes the word is used for a different sort of community. Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building a church, it was then classified as a village...

 in the rural north of South Gloucestershire

South Gloucestershire

South Gloucestershire is a unitary district in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, in South West England.-History:The district was created in 1996, when the county of Avon was abolished, by the merger of former area of the districts of Kingswood and Northavon...

, near the Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

 border, in the parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 of Hawkesbury

Hawkesbury, Gloucestershire

Hawkesbury is a hamlet consisting of a few cottages around a triangular green, it is also the name of a civil parish in the South Gloucestershire unitary authority in England in which Hawkesbury itself lies, it is located west of Hawkesbury Upton, off the A46 road.The civil parish includes...

. The hamlet is on an important T-junction where the A46

A46 road

The A46 is an A road in England. It starts east of Bath, Somerset and ends in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, but it does not form a continuous route. Large portions of the old road have been lost, bypassed, or replaced by motorway development...

 (which goes from Bath to Nailsworth

Nailsworth

Nailsworth is a town in Gloucestershire, England, lying in one of the Stroud Valleys in the Cotswolds. It has a population of around 6,600 people and lies on the A46 road....

 and Stroud

Stroud

Stroud a town and civil parish in the county of Gloucestershire, England.Stroud may also refer to:*Stroud, New South Wales, Australia*Stroud, Ontario, Canada*Stroud , Gloucestershire, UK*Stroud...

) meets the A433 (which goes towards Tetbury

Tetbury

Tetbury is a town and civil parish within the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. It lies on the site of an ancient hill fort, on which an Anglo-Saxon monastery was founded, probably by Ine of Wessex, in 681. The population of the parish was 5,250 in the 2001 census.In the Middle Ages,...

 and Cirencester

Cirencester

Cirencester is a market town in east Gloucestershire, England, 93 miles west northwest of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswold District. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural College, the oldest agricultural...

).

Dunkirk in Hawkesbury parish should not be confused with Dunkirk near Nailsworth, also on the A46 in Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

, and the site of Dunkirk Mill.

The hamlet of Petty France

Petty France

Petty France is a hamlet in the rural north of South Gloucestershire, near the Gloucestershire border, in Hawkesbury parish. It is on the A46, which runs from Bath, to Nailsworth and Stroud, just south of another, slightly smaller hamlet, Dunkirk....

is directly to the south. Previously, Petty France and Dunkirk were known as road accident hotspots, The proportion of fatal and serious accidents was 46%, and is significantly higher than the average for South Gloucestershire as a whole, which is 12%. 13 accidents occurred between 1 January 1998 and 31 December 2001, including 2 fatal accidents, four were serious and seven were slight. , as a result of this the speed through the two hamlets was reduced to 40 MPH.