A5086

The A5086 is a medium-length A-road to the west of the Lake District. It came into being in the mid-1920s when the B5293 was upgraded to Class I status, and is shown on the 1926 Michelin map, albeit erroneously marked as the B5086.

The road starts at a roundabout on the A595 just to the north of Egremont. It heads north and quickly passes under the old railway bridge before picking up the River Ehen as it climbs through Cleator and Cleator Moor. With most of these villages off to the left, it seems like an awfully long stretch of ribbon development along the road: old terraced houses ranked along, often just on the left, for a couple of miles or so before the townscape gives way to fields once more. Not for long however, as soon the road passes through the more compact village of Frizington, where the B5294 joins from the left, and heads west to the B5295 which we had passed in Cleator Moor.

Junction near Pardshaw

Beyond Frizington, the road twists and turns as it rises and falls, heading north east across the undulating landscape of this part of Cumberland. There are several villages with speed limits, and many scattered farms and hamlets without, but for much of the way the road is as fast as the car in front will go. All too soon, however, the A66 is reached at a roundabout on the edge of Cockermouth. Beyond, the road continues into the town centre, where it meets the B5292. This was the original terminus point, and as it turns left onto Crown Street it picks up the original route of the A594, which was seriously foreshortened when the A66 was extended across Cumberland.

The new terminus of the A5086 therefore is a roundabout junction where the A595 and A594 have always met, the two originally multiplexing along the modern A5086 over the River Derwent and into the town centre.