A5209

The A5209 is a semi-rural A-road in south Lancashire. The road was originally part of the B5239 but gained its current number after 1975.

The road starts at traffic lights on the A49 in Standish. It heads west out of town along Almond Brook Road before bypassing the village of Shevington Moor. Things now start to get a little confusing as we meet a future-proofed junction for a road that was never built, although the bridge crossing it was.

The Bridge to Nowhere, Shevington Moor

The A511 was planned in the 1960s to leave the M6 at J27 and then head east, bypassing Standish to reach the A49 in Wigan. However, all that was built was the first section east of the motorway together with the west-facing sliproads of its first GSJ. The present A5209, therefore, uses these slip roads (westbound traffic turns off at a mini-roundabout whilst eastbound traffic TOTSOs at a give-way line) to continue west. The B5206 continues on from here.

We head west along the would-be A511, which is dual-carriageway, and soon meet the M6. The road becomes S2 once more on the far side. It crosses a causeway between two lakes to reach the ominously named village of Dangerous Corner. A view then opens out to the left and we start to descend into Parbold. We skirt the edge of the village and go over the Wigan to Southport railway line and then the Leeds & Liverpool Canal at a narrow bridge with flow controlled by traffic lights. On the far side of the village we cross the River Douglas and then continue west along the same line as the canal.

The road goes through the villages of Newburgh and Ring o' Bells before reaching Burscough. We skirt the southern edge of town along Square Lane and cross the Preston to Ormskirk railway line before ending at a T-junction on the A59.