A5002 (Derbyshire)

This article is about the later A5002 in northern Derbyshire.
For the original A5002 in Northamptonshire, see A5002 (Northamptonshire).

The A5002 followed the long-way-round route between Macclesfield and Buxton. It is unlikely it was ever used as an alternative to the shorter but more winding A537 via the Cat & Fiddle.

The road started on the A537 by the central station in Macclesfield, at a junction which was destroyed when the current A523 Silk Road was built. It headed northeastwards through Hurdfield and across the Macclesfield Canal before climbing up into the hills. After winding through Rainow the road doubled back on itself to cross a small valley on the edge of Sponds Hill; this valley was then followed to the Todd Brook. After going through Kettleshulme the road crossed a spur to reach the Goyt Valley and the village of Horwich End, now part of Whaley Bridge. Just after crossing the Goyt the road reached the A6 and cannoned off that road to run southwards.

Bends on the Long Hill

The road continued upstream alongside the Goyt for a short distance then climbed out to the east on the Long Hill. Near the road's summit it made a significant detour to avoid crossing a valley, after which it descended the other side of the Long Hill. This continued into Buxton, where the A5002 entered town along Manchester Road. It ended on the A53 on the northern edge of the town centre.

History

As may be expected, the A5002 was cobbled together out of two pre-existing roads. On classification in 1922 the Macclesfield to Whaley Bridge road was numbered B5089 whilst the road from there into Buxton was the original line of the A6 (which explains the TOTSO which still exists on the A53 in Buxton).

In the 1960s the A6 was rerouted onto its present route north of Buxton, via Chapel-en-le-Frith, and the old road was renumbered A5002; that number was later extended west along what was the B5089 (mapping evidence suggests this was between 1969 and 1972). The Chapel bypass had not been built at that time and so the A6 and A5002 cannoned off each other in Whaley Bridge.

Following the construction of the Chapel bypass and the rerouting of the A6 onto that, its old route from Chapel to Whaley Bridge became the B5470 and the section north from there, as well as the part of the A5002 from Whaley Bridge to Buxton, became the A5004. Patching on road signs in the area suggest that the A5002 retained the Macclesfield to Whaley Bridge section for a few more years before that too lost its number and it became an extension of the B5470.