A52

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A52

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From:

Newcastle-under-Lyme (SJ845627)

To:

Mablethorpe (TF506851)

Via:

Ashbourne, Nottingham, Grantham, Boston

Length:

146 miles (235 km)

Meets:

A34, A50, A520, A523, A515, A38, A5111, M1, A606, A6011, A46, A1, A607, A15, A17, A16, A158, A1104

Primary Destinations

Ashbourne • Boston • Derby • Grantham • Newcastle-under-Lyme • Nottingham • Skegness • Stoke-on-Trent •

Highways Authorities

Highways Agency • Derby • Lincolnshire • Stoke-on-Trent

Traditional Counties

Derbyshire • Leicestershire • Lincolnshire • Nottinghamshire • Staffordshire

Route outline (key)

A52	Nantwich-Newcastle-under-Lyme
A52	Newcastle-under-Lyme - Stoke-on-Trent
A52	Stoke-on-Trent - Derby
A52	Through Derby
A52	Derby - Skegness
A52	Skegness - Mablethorpe

Route

Section 1: Newcastle-under-Lyme - Ashbourne

At one time, the A52 began in Nantwich but with the extension of the A500 into Cheshire, the western terminus of the A52 is on the A34 in Newcastle-under-Lyme. On leaving the town centre, a short one-way system forces outbound traffic onto the A53 whereas inbound traffic remains on the A52. The road then runs the couple of miles to Stoke, along Brunswick Street and (unsurprisingly) Stoke Road. Although the one-way system in Stoke town centre is definitely still the A52 - and even primary, all signposts direct through traffic away from the area. Indeed, westbound traffic is directed to avoid the A52 almost completely - by following the A500 and B5045 and only rejoining the A52 on the edge of Newcastle.

The A52 used to TOTSO in the centre of Stoke, before passing under a very low rail bridge (formerly a level crossing). To make the road passable to most vehicles, the road was diverted along a short section of A5007 under the railway line before turning abruptly north to rejoin its original route. It bypasses Hanley, which lies to the north-west, and crosses the non-primary A50 in the process. At a crossroads with a short length of dual carriageway it totsos right where it meets the A5008 and A5009, and we are at last on an easterly alignment towards Ashbourne.

This section of the A52 is a relatively uninproved single carriageway route, and is likely to remain as such now the A50 is dualled all the way to Derby and the M1. We pass through a number of villages without a bypass to be seen: firstly Bucknall on the ouskirts of Stoke, and then Werrington and Cellarhead where the A520 Stone-Leek road crosses. Shortly afterwards, there is a short multiplex with the A522 that comes in from Wetley Rocks and eventually leaves for Cheadle to the south east, where the A52 TOTSOs. Beyond Kingsley we descend to cross the River Churnet and associated steam railwaty at Froghall soon after the A521 joins from the right: to the left a fine scenic route, the B5053, strikes off across the Staffordshire Moorlands swathe of the Peak National Park, and the Caldon Canal also starts hereabouts. A52 traffic then hits the zigzag of Whiston Bank, a 1 in 6 ascent that must have deterred the original planners from making this stretch a trunk road. Now it's a hilly road with fine moorland views, but don't expect to travel too quickly. After a while the B5417 bears right for Alton Towers, and suddenly our road can be beset with manic holidaymakers bent on revisiting their breakfasts. On towards Ashbourne the route gradually begins to level out, and just before Swinscoe there's an important junction with the A523 which comes in from Manchester. (Travelling west, one must totso left to stay on the A52). Now the A52 is part of the original trunk road system and is somewhat better engineered as we maintain a gradual descent towards Ashbourne. On the other side of Mayfield we meet the B5032 from Uttoxeter (good for horses and limericks) and at the Hanging Bridge, we cross the River Dove which forms the Staffordshire-Derbyshire boundary and inspired Isaac Walton to pen The Compleat Angler. Then at a roundabout, the former A52 (now unclassified) bears left for Ashbourne town centre, whereas the current A52 now passes to the south of the town, crossing the A515 and picking up its old line a mile and a half further on.

Original Author(s): Simon {A6(M)

Section 2: Ashbourne - Nottingham

Ashbourne is a pretty town just outside the Peak District National Park, famous for spring water and a lunatic Shrove Tuesday football match played all over the town with no rules to speak of. In the past this seriously disrupted A52 traffic, which had to zigzag through the town via Mayfield Road, Compton Bridge and Derby Road, but now there is a single carriageway bypass (albeit quite a wide one) that relieves congestion for east-west traffic. At a roundabout just outside the town the bypass meets the original line, and now we are off to Derby on a straight stretch of road that bears traffic from Manchester and the north-west. This is still part of one of the two Derby-Manchester trunk roads, the other being the A6 through the Peak District; but both are due to be detrunked in the near future, if it hasn't happened already. This will result in there being no obvious direct trunk route between Derby and Manchester, and although the A50 has now been upgraded between Derby and Stoke, it takes you an awfully long way round. I suspect both A52 and A6 will continue to be as busy as ever.

Anyway, it's a pretty straight run to Derby, although not as fast as it used to be owing to numerous 50mph speed restrictions. We pass Osmaston Park on the right, and just before crossing the Brailsford Brook we take on the line of the old Derby-White Peak turnpike road - this comes in from the left, having passed through the "Hole in the Wall", a turnpike cottage that still bisects the road. Now we run on through Brailsford and Kirk Langley, and at Mackworth we briefly join the alignment of the Rocester-Little Chester Roman road (numbered 181 in Ivan Margary's classic book Roman Roads In Britain) which has itself come from Stoke via a more southerly route. Suburbia now starts to close in, and we soon meet the A38 Derby ring road and a plethora of traffic lights. Crossing this roundabout may take some time, since the A38 doubles as ring road and long-distance trunk road; this at-grade junction now needs an upgrade! Once into the city (for many years merely a town - you can still see "Town Centre" signs that have been altered) we lose primary status: if you want to go on to Nottingham by primary route, then there's either a long drag round (eventually) the A5111, or you follow signs to the A50 which takes you even more out of your way. It's certainly much shorter to go through the city centre, where we soon pick up the inner ring road, multiplex briefly with the A6 and then bear left towards Nottingham.

At a large graded junction with the A61 (which still actually begins in Derby) primary status is resumed, and we now experience the fast dual- carriageway that is the Derby-Nottingham trunk road. There's a rather annoying roundabout just before Spondon, but after this it's graded interchanges all the way to Stapleford. Pride Park, on the right, is the new home of Derby County FC - another of that growing number of clubs that build a spanking new stadium and then promptly get relegated out of the Premiership. We pass the turning for the A5111 Derby ring road, also signed to Loughborough (A6): the Alveston bypass is due to merge with the road system hereabouts. We cross the "old" A52 just before Spondon; the section leading SSE is now the A6005 into Borrowash, on the line of another Roman Road (Margery 182), that probably linked up with water traffic on the Trent at Sawley.

From Borrowash the former A52 is now the B5010, a number completely and crassly out of its zone. The newer road, however, bypasses everything, and presses onward to cross the M1 (J25) by means of a splendid three-tier bridge, complete with 45-degree concrete-clad columns that look very impressive from the motorway below. Once over the M1 we hit the Stapleford bypass, less expensively engineered with its at-grade roundabouts, which are rather a disappointment after one's half-a-dozen miles of relative freedom. We cross B6003, meet A6007, and are soon at a roundabout on the Nottingham Ring Road.

The A52 used to go straight on into the city when the ring road was numbered A614, but nowadays we turn right and head southwest, along what has for a long time been dual-carriageway but has recently been improved to give a fairly fast run round the southwest of the city. There are several graded interchanges, including one with the A453 from Kegworth and M1(south), until we are stopped once again in our tracks by a roundabout where the A60 crosses: a non-primary route that ought to be primary, if ever there was one. A mile further on and it's another roundabout, this time with the A606. The A52 bears north from here on one of its newest stretches, and becomes single-carriageway for a while until the suburb of Gamston. Soon yet another roundabout heaves into view, and it's either a right turn for the A52 to Grantham, or a left along the A6011 (the former A52) back into Nottingham.

Original Author(s): Simon {A6(M)

Section 3: Nottingham - Mablethorpe

From its roundabout with the A6011 east of Nottingham we head pretty well due east towards Grantham. Although this section is now a trunk road it has only had this status since the late 'seventies (I think), when long-distance traffic from East Anglia to Nottingham was encouraged to use A1/A52 instead of A1/A606 through Melton and Oakham. As a result there is a series of village bypasses on the A52, but almost the entire length of the road is single carriageway from now on. We indeed begin with a stretch of dual carriageway dating from the 70s that bypasses the National Watersports Centre, but at Radcliffe on Trent this peters out and the bypass is beset with speed restrictions, having been built too near the village. A couple of miles further on we cross the Fosse Way, A46, at a roundabout, and then divert round the village of Bingham where the long-forgotten B687 once ended. In these parts the old ridge-and-furrow medieval field system is particularly well preserved, and can be easily seen from the road. We thread our way past Whatton, Elton and Bottesford on a reasonably quick section - all were served by the old course of the road. This rolling countryside is the Vale of Belvoir (pronounced beaver), and Belvoir Castle, where a version of Little Lord Fauntleroy was once filmed, lies a couple of miles south of Bottesford across the Trent. We, however, plough on past Sedgebrook and Barrowby to cross the A1 west of Grantham; this is the end of trunk road status, though we do remain primary. And behold, we enter Grantham, home of a certain former prime minister and once (or maybe several times?) dubbed the Most Boring Town In Britain.

Now this is where the A52 used to stop originally, joining the old A1 (now B1174) in the town centre. But we are these days still very much alive, and have taken over much of the A152 to the east. (We have also multiplexed briefly with the A607 from Leicester to Lincoln.) Once out of town, there's a short but interesting mix with the B6403, aka Ermine Street and rather oddly numbered considering that it's really a Zone 1 road...

Martyn writes:

The B6403 certainly used to start at the A1 to the S of Colsterworth, heading into the 6-zone, passing through the village along the line of the old Great North Road before slewing across the A1 into the 1-zone and (eventually) picking up the line of Ermine St (the route Dad likes to refer to as 'High Dyke').

Simon writes:

Technically speaking, the B6408 should be a 6-road since it does begin in Zone 6. I really meant it should be a 1-road because virtually all of it does a 1-road's job, to all intents and purposes. The reason why it is numbered as it is is because, when the A1 first bypassed Colsterworth, the old A1 through the village became a B road in what was now the 6-zone; but High Dyke was still an unclassified road. When it became classified (due to the building of airfields??) the numberers merely extended the number that was already in the vicinity, namely the B6403. Hence the apparent oddity of the number.

Anyway, we press on eastwards, fairly straight but not overly improved, and meet more and more villages ending in -by, a legacy of Lincolnshire's heavy Norse settlement. We cross another Roman road (an extension of King Street), and hardly pass through any sign of habitation this side of the roundabout with the A15 (Peterborough-Sleaford). Beyond, things become noticeably straighter as we approach the northern fenland; a third Roman road is crossed, and also Car Dyke, thought by some to be a Roman canal between Lincoln and the fens. Once over the South Forty Foot Drain we are soon approaching Donnington, where just beyond the railway line what is left of the A152 leaves to the right for Spalding (tulip festivals, etc). After bypassing Donnington and traversing Bicker, we meet the realigned A17 at the end of its Swineshed bypass. From here the A52 has been straightened out a little over time; this portion of road used to be numbered A1075, which joined the A154 just south of Kirton Holme. (The A1121 through Hubbert's Bridge parallel to and north of the railway line is of relatively recent construction.) There's a quickish mile or two until a sudden lurch to the left brings us to a level crossing and the A1121 in swift succession; and we must turn right at the junction to enter the port of Boston, famous for a number of things such as the Pilgrim Fathers, Boston Stump (the hugely tall church spire) and Boston United, who have just been promoted into the Football League (gasp). Needless to say, perhaps, it's all very flat hearabouts.

I've never travelled on the final section to Mablethorpe, so someone who has is welcome to improve on what follows: After a multiplex with the A16, the A52 branches off to the north east and follows the coast to Skegness. This used to be the A154 long, long ago. It was also a secondary route until comparatively recently. From Skegness to Mablethorpe things look awfully winding, and I'm pretty sure this was originally not the A52 either. These last additions do make the road exceedingly long, and the number does seem somewhat incongruous so far east and miles from any of its Zone 5 friends!

Original Author(s): Simon {A6(M)