A6/Hazel Grove - Manchester

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The A6 through Hazel Grove

Hazel Grove

The section of A6 through Hazel Grove and Stockport is considered by many to be heavily congested, most of the route is S4, however for much of the day parked cars and right turners can easily cause the road to be come a single lane in each direction. The road ploughs straight through the Stockport suburbs of Great Moor and Heavily before entering the town centre itself.

The longest distance shown on a sign in Britain on the edge of Stockport

Stockport

Stockport sees the A6 cross the River Mersey with very little fanfare (much of the river at this point has been diverted into a culvert under the Merseyway shopping centre), closely followed by a bridge over the M60. There is no junction with the motorway here, however there is access half a mile in each direction.

Levenshulme and Longsight

Ascending out of Stockport the nature of the route changes, for much of the route from here into Manchester, it is a wide (by urban standards) S4 road, however in most sections the inside line is a bus lane. The route passes through the Heaton Chapel before narrowing to a single lane each way though Levenshulme and Longsight.

London Road tidal flow in 1990

Manchester

At a roundabout (the first since Chapel-en-le-Frith), we begin a multiplex with the A57 for about a mile until it reaches Mancunian Way, the A57 heading off as a short urban motorway, the A6 heading into the city centre via London Road and Piccadily, where it loses its number and vanishes.

It would have gone straight down Piccadily and Market Street to meet Deansgate, and then across the River Irwell into Salford, and up Chapel Street, where the number reappears. Market Street has been pedestrianised for years, so the A6 has long ceased to be a through route.

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