A56

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A56

View gallery (22)

From:

Chester (SJ407668)

To:

Broughton (SD928505)

Length:

73 miles (117.5 km)

Meets:

A5268, A41, A5117, A557, A553, M56, A558, A5060, A49, A50, A6144, A556, A560, A6144, M60, A5181, A5145, A5014, A5081, A5063, A5067, A5014, A57, A57(M), A5067…

Primary Destinations

Altrincham • Bury • Chester • Colne • Manchester • Warrington •

Highways Authorities

Highways Agency • Bury • Cheshire East • Cheshire West & Chester • Halton • Lancashire • Manchester • Warrington

Traditional Counties

Cheshire • Lancashire • Yorkshire

Route outline (key)

A56	Chester – Hoole
A56	Hoole – Preston on the Hill
A56	Preston on the Hill – Grappenhall
A56	Grappenhall – M56 J7
A56	M56 J7 – Manchester
A56	Manchester City Centre
A56	Manchester – Bury
A56	Bury – Edenfield
A56	Edenfield – Hapton
A56	Nelson – Colne
A56	Colne – Broughton

Route

The A56 is still a fairly important regional road across northwest England, and the main road through the city of Manchester (the A6 being a mere side road). Once a trunk route from Chester to Burnley, primary from Burnley to Colne, but then secondary from Colne to the A59 near Skipton (which was always fairly puzzling as Skipton was the primary destination after Burnley, but you had to go onto a secondary route stretch to get there, the primary route following the A6068 to Keighley, despite Keighley never being an official "primary route destination" until 1999). This last stretch has now been "upgraded" to primary status (although the road is still as bad as it ever was). Only the dual carriageway bit between the M66 and M65 remains a trunk route these days, and the road has largely been superseded by the faster A51/A54/A556 (and later the M56), and the M66/M65.

Section 1: Chester – Manchester

The A56 leaves the city of Chester on the ring road near the main railway station, heading east to the M53/A55 junction, where the Warrington and Manchester traffic is signed onto the motorway, leaving the A56 (still primary) as a local road serving Frodsham. The A56 runs through quiet, low-lying dairy country, passing through the villages of Mickle Trafford and Dunham. It then has a TOTSO with the A5117, which was built in the 1930s as the "Chester By-Pass", allowing North Wales-bound traffic from industrial Lancashire to avoid Chester. It then runs through the village of Helsby, with the striking rock outcrops of Helsby Hill, and the pleasant small market town of Frodsham. It then crosses the Weaver Navigation Canal via a distinctive swing bridge, and passes through the village of Sutton Weaver. Crossing to the other side of the M56 motorway, it heads north towards Warrington, bypassing the village of Daresbury, birthplace of Lewis Carroll, by an impressive section of 1970s dual-carriageway. It diverges off to the south of Warrington, through the prosperous suburb of Stockton Heath towards Lymm, keeping to the south of the Mersey, and hence remaining in Cheshire.

The A556 (from Chester) meets at Bowdon, where there is an elaborate junction with the M56 – designed to accommodate a never-built motorway link to the M6. It heads north into well-heeled Altrincham, Sale, and onto the M60, crossing the now more slimline Mersey and into Lancashire.

Through Stretford, and past the two Old Traffords (football and cricket), onto a new section of dual carriageway past Salford Quays, and into Manchester. It meets the A57(M) Mancunian Way (Manchester's own inner-city motorway), and heads straight into the city centre as Deansgate, the main highway through the centre. At the top end towards Victoria is where the A6 would previously have crossed – on one side it is a one-way side street, on the other is Market Street which is pedestrianised.

Section 2: Manchester – Hapton

Past the two Strangeways (prison and former Boddingtons brewery), it heads north, officially into Salford, through Prestwich and again crosses the M60. Still primary, it heads northwards to Bury, with its funky 70s ring road, then north to Edenfield where the M66 ends, although there is no access to the motorway unless you are heading south on the A56.

Near Huncoat

The A56 meets the A680 at a roundabout over the motorway, and then drops down to pick up the reins along a trunk-route dual carriageway north to the M65 at Hapton between Blackburn and Burnley. Originally this just by-passed Edenfield, and the A56 carried on through Rawtenstall and north to Burnley and Nelson. Since the mid-80s, however, the A56 has diverted onto the Haslingden bypass, and via a new high-level bit east of Accrington, before dropping majestically onto the M65. The old A56 has been renumbered as A682 as far as Nelson. (See also the A680, A682)

As we approach Haslingden, it is the A682 that takes the main line of the dual, the A56 forking off to the left, and becoming almost single-carriageway with the sliproads splitting again for the A680. After passing under the roundabout, we pass to the west of Haslingden and have only the south-facing slips for the B6232 to disrupt our journey. However, that soon ends with the at-grade roundabout with the A680 at Rising Bridge providing a slight hold up. The Accrington Bypass is just as fast, with only a couple of minor at-grade side turnings to bother us before we reach the GSJ with the A679, and then a mile further on the M65. The onward route is the A6068, the A56 multiplexing with the M65 through to Nelson.

Section 3: Nelson – Broughton

Rather than just ending, the A56 multiplexes with the M65, and should resurface where the motorway ends at Colne. However, due to a numbering cock-up, the old stump of the A56 from Nelson was left as it was when the remainder changed to A682. So the A56 continues through Colne as it always did, and heads north on a heavily congested bit through Earby and Thornton in Craven before ending at a roundabout on the A59 west of Skipton. A bypass has long been planned on the old railway bed which runs parallel to the A56 from Colne to Thornton, but the postponing of this due to budget constraints seems to be an annual event.