A5145

Route

The A5145 is a cross-suburban route, linking a number of suburbs in South Manchester with the towns of Stretford and Stockport. It runs parallel to the M60 motorway for most of its length.

Stretford - Stockport

The road starts at traffic lights on the A5181 in Stretford town centre. It heads east along the D2 Kingsway to cross the A56 (at traffic lights), Bridgewater Canal and Metrolink in quick succession before the central reservation disappears. We continue along the residential Edge Lane and cross the Manchester city limit to reach a set of traffic lights. We bear right whilst the road to the left is the A6010, which takes our primary status.

The road continues, becoming slightly more leafy, and soon reaches traffic lights where it TOTSOs right (left is the B5217) onto the main street of Chorlton cum Hardy. We pass from Chorlton into Hardy and gradually bear to the left to meet the D2 Mauldeth Road (which may have become the A6144) and pass a cemetery before crossing the A5103 at traffic lights. That road's central reservation is unusually wide here, suggesting something bigger was planned.

We continue east along Barlow Moor Road through West Didsbury and presently reach traffic lights where we TOTSO right onto the original line of the A34 (this is now numbered B5095 to the left). We run along Wilmslow Road, the main street in Didsbury, and soon bear round to the left around a campus of Manchester Metropolitan University before going under the railway line from Manchester to the airport.

On the far side of the bridge are traffic lights. The road ahead is the old A34 (now a spur of the A5145) which provides access to the present A34 in the southbound direction and also the B5095. The mainline of the A5145 turns left to cross the A34 one block further north (where all movements are permitted). On the far side we pass East Didsbury metrolink station, which was built on the old Midland Railway line from London to Manchester - we still go over the old railway bridge.

Didsbury Road, Stockport: once part of the B5423, today the A5145

We soon enter Stockport Metropolitan Borough and continue east along Didsbury Road. After running along the main street of Heaton Mersey we become residential. The B5169 is soon met at traffic lights, after which we continue through Heaton Norris before a short dual section past a retail park takes us to M60 J1. Bearing left at the roundabout takes us on the D2 Travis Brow under the motorway to reach a roundabout on the A560 in the shadow of Stockport railway viaduct where the A5145 terminates.

History

The A5145 was cobbled together out of a number of pre-existing roads. In 1922 the section from Stretford to Chorlton cum Hardy was the B5215, then the B5217 took the road into Didsbury to meet the A526 (renumbered A34 in 1935). The B5169 then took the road to Heaton Mersey and the remaining section to Stockport was unclassified but became the B5423 in 1935.

The A5145 came into being in the 1960s when the section of road west of the A34 was upgraded to Class I status. The road presumably took over the A34 and was then extended into Stockport when the A34 itself was given its current route.