A8002

Bank Row in Wick, the former A8002

For a couple of years after 1935, the A882 extended across the A9 to Wick Harbour (replacing the original A896 (itself renumbered from the B874 in the early 1930s) in 1935), but by 1938 the section east of the A9 had been renumbered A8002. This appears to have been done to accommodate a tiny spur on the west side of the A9 leading to Wick Station Forecourt.

Starting on the A9 just south of the bridge over the Wick River the road headed east along Union Street and Bank Row to end at the harbour. It also extended west to the station. The road was quickly 'bypassed' by the B9159, and it is now unclassified throughout. Curiously, the 1938 OS 1:10,560 sheet labels the A8002 on Sinclair Terrace and Breadalbane Terrace (Crescent), immediately to the south of the generally accepted route. It is not clear whether this was a genuine earlier route, perhaps that followed by the short lived eastern extension of the A882, or if it was a mapping error. The spur to the station is never numbered on large scale maps.

The A8002 appears on the 1939, 1944 and the 1946 editions of the Ordnance Survey ten mile road map; whilst it does not appear on the 1936 or 1956 editions. However, the route of the A8002 east of the A9 is still shown on OS maps as being an A road into the late 1970s (OS Routemaster from 1979), and labelled A8002 on an OS 1:2,500 plan dating from 1972. The last indication of its existence found so far is the 1988 Readers Digest Atlas which shows an unnumbered A road on this route, although the 1993 edition no longer marks it. The spur to the station is no longer shown as an A road in later years, putting the A8002 out of zone.