A57: Liverpool - Lincoln

This was nearly a coast to coast route. It passes through three major city centres (Liverpool, Manchester, and Sheffield - with elevated sections in each) and several smaller ones, multiplexes with the A6 and the A1, follows the banks of two canals and negotiates the remotest part of the Peak District. In one city it part of it is a tram route, whilst in another its former route is also a tram route. After all these adventures, it sadly gives up just 40 miles short of the east coast, Lincoln apparently proving too big an obstacle. An obvious candidate for an eastward extension would have been the Wragby Road, continuing to Louth or Skegness. Is it coincidence that road was originally the A157?

The A57 starts on the waterfront in Liverpool as Water Street, runs over the elevated Churchill Way across the Scotland Road (A59) and heads out of town as the Prescot Road, crossing the M57 at junction 2 near Prescot (where the A58 also starts, and takes over the primary route status).

From Prescot the A57 continues as non-primary through Rainhill to meet the M62 at junction 7, and resumes primary status as far as Warrington (A49). A brief non-primary section to the M6 (junction 21), then primary to Cadishead, and alongside the Manchester Ship Canal bypassing Irlam (an extension of the bypass past Cadishead is planned) to meet the M60 (junc 11) and through Eccles and Salford, running next to the M602 on the Eccles New Road. Part of the Metrolink tram system’s recent Eccles extension runs along this road.

Finally crossing the Ship Canal at Regent Bridge, it enters its moment of motorway glory as the A57(M) Mancunian Way skirting the south of Manchester’s city centre and crossing the A56 and A34.

The A57(M) has been discussed on Richard Green's website before so I won't go into detail here. However, I cannot find, on any map or even Streetmap's aerial photos, any trace of the right-hand-lane slip road referred to there. Since the author says it leads to the A58 and A61 it’s either extremely long, or it's in Leeds, in which case the comment applies to the A64(M)!

Steven Jukes adds:

You're right. There is no right hand exit on the A57(M) at all. There is the half-completed exit that goes the wrong way up Brook Street (which is a one-way street!) though.

The original A57 route ran further north than the A57(M), through the city centre. At the end of Mancunian way, we reach a TOTSO, straight on being the A635 (for Saddleworth Moor, Barnsley and Doncaster) whilst the A57 turns south, briefly multiplexing with the A6, and then branching off for Denton. After recrossing the M60 at junction 24 the A57 is duplicated by the M67 through Hyde, and then another TOTSO (A628 straight on for Longendale, Barnsley, and Pontefract).

The A57, now non-primary again, heads through Glossop, and into the Peak District. Over the Snake Pass, which marks the watershed between the Irish Sea and the North Sea, and into the Ashop Valley, where the original route is lost under the Ladybower Reservoir. When the reservoir was first filled, the church spire could still be seen protruding from the water, but it was later demolished. Traces of other buildings can still be seen during droughts. The A57 crosses the main valley of the Derwent by a large viaduct, the scale of which is concealed by the deep waters of the reservoir.

The A57 leaves the Derwent Valley to enter Sheffield (although the original Glossop Road is now the B6069) crossing the centre to the Park Square roundabout, with its tram bridge. (The original route through the city centre along West Street is now occupied by a tram line). The A57 heads out of Sheffield again on the elevated Parkway, until after crossing the eastern ring (A6102) it reaches yet another TOTSO, where the A630 goes on to meet the M1 at junction 33 (and on to Doncaster). The signposted route to Worksop is by way of the A630 and M1 (juncs 33 to 31) to pick up the A57 again, but the A57 also continues in its own right through Woodhouse and Beighton to the M1. (In fact, even this is not the original route: that is the B6200 through Handsworth).

Beyond the M1, the A57 continues to Worksop (bypass, junc with A60), and then past Clumber Park to the Dukeries roundabout. From here to Markham Moor the A1 has adopted it as the southernmost part of its bypass of Retford, Bawtry and Doncaster. At Markham Moor, the A1 and A57 part company, the A1 rejoining its original route (coming in from Retford as the A638), whilst the A57 bypasses East Markham to meet the A6075 at Darlton. This little road could have been famous, as beyond Mansfield it becomes the A38. Had it been numbered as a logical extension of the A38 it would have been a 3-road in the 1-zone!

The A57 crosses Dunham Toll Bridge - the only crossing of the River Trent between Newark and Gainsborough - and into Lincolnshire. Over the years this section has been considerably straightened out - I suspect that until the bridge came there was no main route this way at all, and the road from Dunham Bridge to Drinsey Nook was just a collection of country lanes.

At Drinsey Nook the A57 gives way to the road that uses the bank of the Foss Dyke canal (not to be confused with the Fosse Way - the A46) most of the way from Torksey, on the River Trent, to Lincoln. This is the A156 coming in from Gainsborough, but beyond the junction continues as the A57 towards Lincoln. The canal was built by the Romans to provide a short cut between the Wash and the upper Trent, avoiding the treacherous waters of the Humber and lower Trent.

The view from the A57, or the parallel railway on the other bank of the canal, makes this the best way to approach Lincoln, with the cathedral and other landmarks on the hill seen to best advantage. After crossing the city bypass (A46) the A57 enters the western end of the city across the old racecourse. It used to terminate at a junction with the A15 (High Street) at the medieval Stonebow, but following pedestrianisation of the High Street the A57 now turns right at Newland, and follows the 1970s Wigford Way, past the Brayford Pool, to cross the High Street, and then past the railway station to finally meet the A15 on its present more easterly route at a grade separated junction. With the way ahead barred by Ruston & Hornsby's factory, and hemmed in between the railway and bus stations, thus ends the A57.

Tim