B5309

Route

The northern end of the B5309

The B5309 is a short link road in central Cheshire, providing an eastern bypass to Middlewich.

The road starts at a roundabout on the A54 on the eastern edge of town, opposite the ubiquitous pub/hotel/petrol station combo, and heads northwest along Centurion Way. The B5081 takes the next right turn, then we continue to a roundabout where we turn right; the other directions serve residential areas. We continue along the bypass to traffic lights, where we turn right.

We cross the River Dane immediately, then continue north across the fields. This is King Street, a Roman road with perhaps more slight bends than could be expected. It's not long before the B5309 ends when the A530 comes in from the left and takes on the road ahead.

History

The B5309 dates to the early 1920s when a previously unclassified road was given Class II status. However, at this time the road was much longer.

The original southern end of the road was about half a mile west of its current start, just west of the A54 bridge over the railway line. From here it headed north along King Street to reach its present route. This section was declassified in the 1990s when the present eastern bypass was built.

The A530 ended in Middlewich for some years, so the B5309 originally continued north along the Roman road to cross the B5082 in Broken Cross and end on the A556 just west of Lostock Gralam. The northern mile or so became a temporary part of the Northwich bypass after the middle section of the bypass was opened in late May 1939, then the majority of the rest of the road was subsumed into an extension of the A530 in the 1950s. The A530 also took over the original northern end of the B5309 in 1960 when a further section of the A556 was built to bypass Rudheath and Lostock Gralam.

In Middlewich the road was diverted along Centurian Way (a King Street Bypass) in 1991. The 0.75 mile road was reported as opened by the 2 October 1996 Winsford Chronicle. Opening was assisted by Pierre Picton, Dick Van Dyke's double in the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It provided access to the Kinderton Manor housing development. Cost was £1 million.