B5195
| B5195 | ||||
| Location Map ( geo) | ||||
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| From: | Formby (SD301069) | |||
| To: | Aughton (SD396066) | |||
| Distance: | 7 miles (11.3 km) | |||
| Meets: | B5424, A565, A5147, A59 | |||
| Former Number(s): | A59 | |||
| Highway Authorities | ||||
| Traditional Counties | ||||
| Route outline (key) | ||||
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The B5195 is the most direct route from Formby to Ormskirk.
It starts on the B5424 (pre-bypass A565) to the east of the centre of Formby and heads east, crossing the A565 at traffic lights before going through an industrial area and then entering open country. The road goes through the scattered village of Great Altcar before zigzagging through a small wood and then crossing the old railway line from Aintree to Southport, now a footpath.
After a few more meanders the road reaches Downholland Cross and a T-junction with the A5147 (originally the B5196; then the A598; then the A567) by the Scarisbrick Arms restaurant (former PH). At one time the route continued straight ahead here, crossing the Leeds & Liverpool Canal by a narrow bridge. However, at some date between 1928 and 1955 a new and much broader bridge was built to carry the A-road over the waterway on a direct north-south alignment and by 1971 the old bridge had gone, so that B5195 traffic now uses the A5147 bridge.
The eastward route resumes at a right turn on the north side of the bridge, marked by a small cross (put there in 2000), which is not, however, the medieval wayside marker after which the locality of Downholland Cross is named: that was removed in about 1910 to the grounds of Our Lady's Catholic Church at Lydiate, about a mile further south.
The terrain is now a little less flat, although the gentle slopes that the road diverts south to avoid would hardly be remarked at all in other parts of the county! Eventually the road reaches a mini-roundabout at the south-western edge of Ormskirk. This was the original eastern end of the B5195. However, the A59 (which was the classification originally given to the main road met here) now runs on a much straighter alignment so that the B5195 now bears left and continues ahead along Turnpike Road to meet it at a T-junction on the modern dual-carriageway section (although the A59 is as easily, and perhaps preferably, accessible via the right turn, which leads to a roundabout junction on the main road).