A5/Telford - Chirk
| A5 | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| From: | Telford (SJ633105) | |||||||||
| To: | Chirk (SJ298398) | |||||||||
| Meets: | M54, A49, A5064, A458, A49, A5112, A488, A458, A483, A495, A5, A483 | |||||||||
| Former Number(s): | A4083, A483 | |||||||||
| Old route now: | B5061, B4380, A5064, A458, B5009, B5070 | |||||||||
| Highway Authorities | ||||||||||
| Counties | ||||||||||
| Route outline (key) | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
At Junction 7, the A5 re-asserts itself over the motorway, and we continue along the relatively new A5 expressway. Most drivers probably haven't noticed that we've left the motorway behind, as it is only just sub-motorway standard, with narrow hard shoulders. After about a mile, we reach the brow of a hill, and then clap our eyes on the Cambrian Mountains for the first time. At the only junction (a roundabout at the end), we swallow the A49, and then spit it out again a bit further around the Shrewsbury bypass. This is actually the second incarnation of the bypass: the earlier version now carries the number B4380.
At Montford Bridge we rejoin the original route, and strike north-west into border country. The once notorious bottleneck of Nesscliffe was bypassed in 2003: look out for the distinctive footbridge across the bypass. We pass the wonderfully named village of "Ruyton Of The Eleven Towns", and at Queen's Head we veer off from the original line of the road (now numbered B5009) to visit Oswestry. At the roundabout you have to decide between "SOUTH WALES" to the left on the A483, and "NORTH WALES" to the right on the A5—which we shall be taking, of course. This stretch of road was built in the last twenty years [more specific?] as part of a programme to improve the A483, an important North-South link in Wales.
We finally cross the Welsh border on a bridge over the Dee Valley on the Chirk bypass, and turn left to regain the original route. The area of road signs increases once we're in Wales because the signs have to be bilingual.
