A5004

This article is about the current route with this number.
For the original route, see A5004 (Leicestershire).

Peak National Park Boundary Stone

The A5004 follows the original route of the A6 over the Long Hill between Buxton and Whaley Bridge. It gained its number following the construction of the A6 Chapel-en-le-Frith bypass, although that part of the road south of Whaley Bridge was the A5002 for several years as the A6 was rerouted via Chapel in the 1960s.

The road leaves the A53 at a triangular junction on the northern edge of Buxton town centre, where that road has to TOTSO (showing the road's history as the A6 mainline. It heads north along Manchester Road, also known as the Long Hill. This climbs at first steeply then more intermittently to open countryside and the summit at 1400 feet. A minor road to the Goyt Valley leaves at this point.

The road now starts to descend in a very winding fashion. The old right-of-way can clearly be seen going down the valley and up the other side but the road had already gained its current winding but flatter route before classification in 1922. Presently the road straightens out and goes through the hamlet of Fernilee before reaching the bottom of the Goyt Valley.

In Horwich End, a suburb of Whaley Bridge, the road crosses the B5470 at traffic lights, after which the road continues under the Buxton branch line and over the Goyt into Whaley town centre. After passing the station and the wharf at the southern end of the Peak Forest Canal the road runs between the railway line and the canal out of town. After passing a Tesco the road crosses the canal to end at a roundabout on the A6.