B5038

The B5038 is a complicated road to the south of Stoke-on-Trent.

Route

The full length of the B5038 in 1932

Originally, the B5038 ran from the A5005 on the edge of Longton to the A53 near Butterton. However, the section between the A34 and the A5005 became the A5035 in the late 1960s and the section west of the A519 was renamed A5182 some years after. This led to the strange situation where the B5038 existed in two different places separated by two A-roads. As such, the total length of B5038 is only 1.6 miles despite the fact that the distance from end to end is almost three times that! However, for historical reasons, the two sections are certainly part of the same road rather than a duplicate.

The current situation has only existed since the building of the new A50 in the 1990s. Before then, the B5038 ran along Trentham Road and the A5035 along Belgrave Road and Meir Road. After the eastern end of the A5035 was blocked off, the B5038 and A5035 swapped numbers on the edge of Longton, to give the A5035 access to the A50.

Dresden section: Belgrave Road

The current start of the B5038 is at a roundabout on the A5005 next to Belgrave Primary School. The road proceeds with a few bends to a set of traffic lights with the A5035 on the edge of Dresden. Prior to the coming of the A5035 this road was part of the B5037.

Trentham section: Whitmore Road

The western section of the B5038 starts at a set of traffic lights on the A34. It crosses the River Trent - and leaves the City of Stoke-on-Trent - almost straight away. It climbs through the Stafford Borough section of Trentham before leaving the urban area next to Hargreaves Wood. Now on the edge of Northwood, the road drops into the valley of the Park Brook, before climbing once more to end at another set of traffic lights, where it meets the A519 and A5182 - and is only a short distance away from M6 J15.

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