A524 (Ashbourne - Newcastle-under-Lyme)

This article is about the 1990s incarnation of the A524: an aborted renumbering of the A52 west of Ashbourne.
For the original A524 in the Peak District, now the B5056, see A524 (Fenny Bentley - Rowsley).

The A524 was a planned renumbering of the western end of the A52 in the 1990s.

Presumably to persuade traffic to use the A50 rather than A52 west of Derby, the A52 was rerouted west of its current TOTSO at Calton Moor House, to take over the entire length of A523 and end in Hazel Grove. The vacated section of road became the A524.

The renumbering was aborted, although maps and roadsigns of the period do show the A524 number and suggest that the number did actually exist for a short period. Indeed, in Newcastle-under-Lyme town centre, as of early 2020 there are several signs that still refer to the A524 at the junction with A34.

Andy (Coasterjunkie) writes:

My 1994 AA map shows the A52 running from Hazel Grove to Ashbourne [along the current course of the A523], whlst the A52 from near Ashbourne to Stoke via Froghall is numbered the A524. On both routes the old (and of course existing!) numbers are shown in red in brackets, plus I seem to recall from driving on the A52 from Stoke-on-Trent to Ashbourne a couple of years ago that the "A52" on a lot of the signs looked new, like it had been plastered over another number, presumably the A524. Indeed, on several it looked like they had just covered over out the "4" from "A524". So it may be that a renumbering was mooted, and perhaps implemented, but subsequently reversed.

The above numbering appeared on Streetmap, with the two relevant sections of road marked as "A524 (A52)" and "A52 (A523)". By 2006 Streetmap had been updated and the above reference to A524 is no longer shown.

Adrian Bailey writes:

Just so no-one thinks they were imagining things, I too remember seeing maps that showed the A523 as the A52. When I went back to live in Macclesfield in 2002 I was surprised to find that this change had been reversed (and that the A52/A523 route was being detrunked - this must be connected with the completion of the A50).