A536
A536 | ||||
Location Map ( geo) | ||||
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From: | Congleton (SJ827628) | |||
To: | Macclesfield (SJ919730) | |||
Distance: | 16.2 km (10 miles) | |||
Meets: | A34, B5088, A538, A523 | |||
Primary Destinations | ||||
Highway Authorities | ||||
Traditional Counties | ||||
Route outline (key) | ||||
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Route
In effect the A536 is a continuation of the A534. It's primary because of its role in linking Macclesfield to the M6 and on to Crewe.
Congleton Bypass
In 2021, the Congleton bypass opened, and as a result the A536 was routed along this, with the old road being numbered A5365. Prior to this, the road started at a simple fork in the road at the Grove Inn, Lower Heath (cf. the "Waggon and Horses" junction of the A34/A54). Sometime around 1970 this became the large gyratory island we see today.
Congleton – Macclesfield
After leaving the bypass, the road picks up the old road towards Eaton, with the speed limit dropping to 40 mph through the village.
The mile after Eaton is the narrowest section, and there's quite a bad left-hand bend just before the turn to North Rode. The 3-mile section between Rodeheath and Warren was improved in the 1970s, four bends being smoothed out. Hiding in two of the oxbow bends are the Chain and Gate and Harrington Arms pubs (and a finger post opposite the latter still claims the road to be the A536). Through Warren the speed limit is 50 mph. Turn right at the crossroads and you'll come to Gawsworth village, one of the most beautiful spots in England.
Until a couple of hundred years ago the road stopped at Warren and the only way to Macclesfield was to go left along Gawsworth Lane to the Chester Road at Broken Cross. Its relatively late addition explains why the final section of the A536 is so straight. The 40 mph zone starts 100 yards before the Rising Sun Inn and continues to the Macclesfield town boundary. At a light-controlled crossroads the A536 goes to the right down Park Lane towards the town centre. (The road straight ahead at the lights is the B5088 Oxford Road which connects to the A537.) After half a mile there is a roundabout junction with Churchill Way, a 1980s relief road which forms the southern end of the A538.
At one time the A536 ended at the crossroads at Park Green at the bottom of the hill, but since the building of the new A523 (The Silk Road) it turns right and includes a couple of hundred yards of London Road as far as the new road.
Original Author(s): Adrian Bailey
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