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.

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. The road was quickly 'bypassed' by the B9159 and also extended west across the A9 and along Station Road to the entrance of the Station. It is now unclassified throughout.

Curiously, the 1938 OS 1:10,560 sheet labels the A8002 on Sinclair Street and Breadalbane Street, immediately to the south of the generally accepted route. It is not clear whether this was a genuine earlier route, or if it was a mapping error.

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 is still shown on OS maps as being an A road into the late 1970s (OS Routemaster from 1979). It was always out of zone, and has the distinction of being the second out-of-zone road chronologically (the first being the Watford bypass, A5088/A500).

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