A625
| A625 | ||||||||||
| Location Map ( geo) | ||||||||||
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| From: | Sheffield (SK347864) | |||||||||
| To: | Calver (SK238748) | |||||||||
| Distance: | 11.7 miles (18.8 km) | |||||||||
| Meets: | A61, A6187, A623 | |||||||||
| Former Number(s): | B6450, B6055, B6054, A622 | |||||||||
| Old route now: | A6187, B5470 | |||||||||
| Highway Authorities | ||||||||||
| Traditional Counties | ||||||||||
| Route outline (key) | ||||||||||
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Route
The A625 provides a low-level route between Sheffield and Manchester avoiding the Snake Pass on the A57. It has, however, had problems of its own.
Sheffield - Totley Moor
The A625 originally started at the junction of The Moor, Ecclesall Road, Cemetary Road and London Road. When Charter Road and Arundel Gate were built the route was moved to start at the Furnival Gate roundabout. Now that the City Centre numbering has been updated in 2007 with the construction of the new Northern side of the Ring the route starts at the Moore Street roundabout with the Inner Ring Road. It continues on as Ecclesall Road, past the old Ward's Brewery (now upmarket apartments) and losing its dual-carriageway status a little further on. From here the road is a broad tree-lined boulevard following the line of the Porter Brook valley for the 1.5 miles until Hunter's Bar, and lined for pretty much its entire southern side by a run of trendy shops. Hunter's Bar roundabout was the site of the first toll bar on the Sheffield - Stockport turnpike, which the A625 is the modern incarnation of, and the gate is still visible, preserved on the island.
Moving further on, the road starts its climb out of the valley and also changes tack to run south. It maintains a steady climb for a mile or so eventually topping out at Ecclesall then maintaining height until Whirlow, both of which are home to some of Sheffield's most prestigious mansions and their residents. After Whirlow the road opens out as a country road (although we remain within the limits of the City of Sheffield for some distance). The transition from the suburbs to open moorland is quite sudden and you often find yourself in fog patches up here even as the city part of the road remains clear.
Former route: Totley Moor - Whaley Bridge
The old road used to continue on past the Fox House Inn (a popular watering hole for ramblers), then through Hathersage to follow the valley upstream via Bamford and Hope to Castleton. There was then a route along the east slope of Mam Tor to avoid the older steeper narrow route through the Winnats Pass. After meeting the B6061 at the top, the road continued along Rushup Edge and on to meet the original route of the A624 at Chapel-en-le-Frith. It then continued after a short multiplex to meet the A6 to the south of Whaley Bridge. When the A6 was rerouted via Chapel, this western section of the A625 became the A6 (and is now the B5470 since the bypass has been built).
However, the Mam Tor section was built on loose shale which has been sliding for centuries or more and suffered many collapses until it was finally abandoned in 1979, leaving the A625 with two dead-end sections connected only by the unclassified (and heavily restricted) Winnats Pass road. The western end between Chapel en le Frith and Mam Tor was subsequently declassified in 2000, but the large number of tourist attractions in the Castleton area justified the eastern end maintaining A-class status as far as the fork for Winnats Pass. That stub was renumbered at the same time as the A6187, when the modern alignment of the A625 was adopted.
Current route: Totley Moor - Calver
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The modern route now forks left at a TOTSO before Fox House, TOTSOs twice more with the B6054 (its status north of here connecting back up with the A6187 at Fox House is dubious: various maps give the road the A625, A6187 or B6054 number), then falls away down the side of a cliff (not literally this time!) towards Froggatt. Past the Chequers Inn the road continues to descend, takes a sharp right after a narrow stone bridge over the River Derwent, and emerges, after yet another TOTSO, at Calver Crossroads, from where the A623 can be used to complete the route to Chapel-en-le-Frith.
As you can probably tell from all the TOTSOs, the rerouted road has had no effort put into changing priority at any of the junctions, but at least all the signage has been updated.
Original Author(s): Paul Berry & T1(M)
Links
Rural Roads - Winnat's Pass
Collapsed ex-A625 at Mam Tor
The side of the road seen from the upper bus turning circle. Many layers of asphalt have been laid here down the years to try to keep the road open.
Google Earth view of the abandoned part of the ex-A625
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