A530

Railway bridge over Croxton Lane near Middlewich

Just to the west of Burleydam on the A525, four miles east of Whitchurch, the A530 begins its journey northwards at a triangular junction, complete with farm buildings in the middle. The right hand side of the triangle is numbered A5015, making that one of the shortest A-roads in Britain. The junction also marks the end of the driveway through Combermere Park, leading to Combermere Abbey.

The road starts in a very rural area and gradually makes its way into the more developed centre of the county. It runs northwards as a non-primary single-carriageway road through flat fertile farmland, the farms being interrupted by occasional hamlets like Aston, Sound and Broomhall. We cross the Shropshire Union Canal by Baddington Bank Farm, and continue northeastwards to Nantwich. There are a couple of interesting places to visit nearby: one is the microbrewery by Wrenbury station, the other is the "Secret Nuclear Bunker" at Hack Green, indicated by brown tourist signs!

We enter Nantwich by taking a sharp right after crossing the River Weaver. We are on Shrewbridge Road: we pass between a lake and a nice housing estate and turn right to meet the A529. The A530 used to bear left across a level crossing into the town centre and along Pillory Street, multiplexing along the A51 in the town centre. Now, however, it is diverted along the southern bypass, which used to be the A5301 to meet the A51 and multiplexes with this road around the eastern bypass. It becomes primary on leaving the A51 behind.

We then run north-east past the Alvaston Hall Hotel, reaching the edge of Crewe soon after at a roundabout where the A532 runs into Crewe. At first it seems odd that the A530 (now primary) only skirts the edge of Crewe on its way to Middlewich, until you remember that the road was here long before Crewe was. To get into Crewe you have to turn into the A532 at Marshfield Bank. Soon after the junction there are a couple of large edifices on the right: the first is the Rolls Royce works and the other is Leighton Hospital (with prominent incinerator chimney), which serves the whole of south Cheshire. Just before the hospital is Mile House bend, which used to be 90 degrees and is now a smooth curve.

We now pass the B5076 Flowers Lane, the hamlet of Bradfield Green, and mile after mile of Friesians. We run north, crossing at a skew the line of an old Roman Road to pass through Walley's Green. We then cross the West Coast Main Line and head north once again. Soon after we bear right, the straight-ahead route being a minor road. We cross over the River Wheelock and then under the Shropshire Union Canal on a single-lane section controlled by traffic lights to enter Middlewich, surely one of the most boring towns in England to reach a gyratory on the A54, which was the original end of the A530.

There is a very brief multiplex with the A54 and A533 (the smallest number is dominant) before we turn right along the final non-primary section of the A530. We cross the River Dane and the Trent and Mersey Canal then bear right to pass under a railway. we reach a T junction with the B5309, where we TOTSO left to join a Roman alignment (King Street, used by the Romans to get between these important salt towns). The southern section of King Street is the B5309, so northbound A530 traffic has to give way to the B road.

The A530 becomes dual carriageway at a roundabout built to serve the mighty Morrisons distribution centre. Trucks from here are often encountered on King Street to the south heading to or from the M6. At the next roundabout we cross the A556 Northwich bypass and pass through the suburb of Rudheath along Griffiths Road. The centre of Northwich is accessed by the B5082 (which was split in two by the building of the bypass). The final section between the A556 and the A559 passes some chemical works where there is a road sign which says something like "Warning - Escaping Steam".

The A530 ends on the A559 (ex-A556) between Northwich and Lostock Gralam, two miles east of Northwich town centre.