B5132

Route

The B5132 in northwest Cheshire is a somewhat odd B-road in being made up of three separate sections, interrupted by the A56 and A5117.

Stamford Bridge – Morley Bridge

Great Barrow

From the south, the route starts in the small hamlet of Stamford Bridge (also the name of the local pub) on the A51 near Tarvin, passing what was once an early alignment of that road. After leaving the A51, it quickly deteriorates in quality and slowly winds its way northwards through the fairly pleasant villages of Great Barrow and Little Barrow. Along this section nothing borders the B5132 outside these villages but open fields and grazing land. Tractors, or at least the muddy tracks they leave behind, are commonly encountered anywhere along here. The road surface is largely worn and lumpy throughout the first section of this road which has, to my knowledge, seen little in the way of maintenance for many years. It is more suited to the status of an old country lane than that of a B-road. This first section ends abruptly at a T-junction with the A56 some 350 m northeast of Morley Bridge. This section is 5.3 km long.

To trace the second section of the B5132 from here you must turn left and head west along the A56 for about a mile and over quite a tightly curved humpback bridge crossing a railway line. The B5132 will then be found signposted right (north) as you enter the village of Bridge Trafford.

Bridge Trafford – Elton Green

Thornton Green

The second section of the B5132 is for the most part as rural as the first, but has seen a little more maintenance in terms of minor resurfacing and widening in certain places and at certain junctions for the sake of the large vehicles which occasionally use this route from Stanlow Refinery. This section continues where the first left off, winding its way northwards past numerous farm buildings and open fields. Only the village of Wimbolds Trafford breaks it up. After the village, the B5132 crosses over the M56 at the Chester Services sign (eastbound carriageway), becomes a little straighter and ends at a very large crossroads junction with the A5117 outside one of the main entrances to Stanlow Refinery (known simply as "Shell" to locals). Once again the B5132 suddenly vanishes without trace. This section is 3.8 km long.

To follow the third and final section of the route from here you must turn left at the traffic lights and head west along the very straight A5117 which runs alongside Stanlow Refinery - beware of the smell! Continue along the A5117 under the M53 at Junction 10 to the first roundabout, which is situated almost immediately off the junction. The B5132 is now the second exit off the roundabout (right/north).

Little Stanney – Eastham

The third and final section of the B5132 is very different from the previous two. It is essentially made up of three arterial routes in the heart of Ellesmere Port and one more short rural section. After leaving the roundabout, the B5132 becomes a very short and often very busy D2 leading to the original entrance to Cheshire Oaks. The B5132 continues from here as a busy and short D2 around the side of Cheshire Oaks to a second roundabout - the second entrance to the newer side of Cheshire Oaks, known as the Coliseum. Both sections of D2 here were built in the early nineties. From here, the B5132 becomes Stanney Lane, a simple but straight, urban S2 though the Ellesmere Port suburbs of Wolverham and Little Stanney. Stanney Lane ends on a busy traffic-light-controlled crossroads at Ellesmere Port Police Station on Whitby Road (A5032).

Alongside the M53

From here, it continues straight on, now along Sutton Way, passing more housing. It crosses over one mini-roundabout (constructed in the early nineties) to a larger roundabout. Maps (but not road signs) state that a spur of the B5132 continues ahead to the A41 in Great Sutton but the mainline of the B5132 from here turns right and heads up Overpool Road, past Overpool Railway Station and along an odd, short D2 past some local shops to a notorious mini-roundabout known locally as "Cemetery Roundabout" with the B5463. The B5132 continues straight ahead, now on Netherpool Road for a short distance, before coming to a TOTSO with Rivacre Road. Straight ahead is a spur of the B5132 leading to M53 junction 7 but the mainline of the B5132 turns left along Rivacre Road where it quickly becomes rural and, for a short while, very narrow indeed as it dips down into Rivacre Valley Country Park. It rises and then follows the northbound carriageway of the M53, running alongside Vauxhall Motors before crossing the motorway at Junction 6 (although our road doesn't actually access the junction) and continuing on straight into the village of Eastham. There's a T-junction opposite the church and the B5132 turns in both directions and finally disappears for good on reaching the A41! This section is 9.7 km long.

History

Ellesmere Port in 1923 showing the original route of the B5132

Originally the route of the B5132 was far more orthodox. It started on the A56 at Mickle Trafford before heading north through Stoak to reach Little Stanney and the road's current route through Ellesmere Port. In the 1950s the original section south of Little Stanney was declassified and the road was diverted to its current route - a formerly unclassified route south of Elton Green - to reach the A56; it was extended to the A51 at the same time.

During the construction of Cheshire Oaks, part of Stanney Lane in Little Stanney was bypassed by a new D2 to serve the traffic for Cheshire Oaks. This new build did become the B5132 but the old road still very much survives if you know where to find it. It's sandwiched away between the A5117 just west of the current B5132 roundabout and the D2 (Kinsey Road) as described as it runs along the side of Cheshire Oaks (there's no eastbound access to the old alignment).

The road has also been rerouted in the Whitby area of Ellesmere Port (Pool Town Road is part of the original B5132).

At the northern end, the B5132 originally ended at a T-junction on the then-A51 in Eastham. This village was bypassed early on and the B5132 extended in both directions to meet the bypass. This took place so early that it predated the 1935 renumberings: as such the road through Eastham has never been the A41.