B5398
B5398 | ||||||||||
Location Map ( geo) | ||||||||||
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From: | Broughall (SJ556412) | |||||||||
To: | Chemistry (SJ525413) | |||||||||
Via: | Whitchurch | |||||||||
Distance: | 2.2 miles (3.5 km) | |||||||||
Meets: | A525, B5395, A525, A41 | |||||||||
Former Number(s): | A525, B5364 | |||||||||
Primary Destinations | ||||||||||
Highway Authorities | ||||||||||
Traditional Counties | ||||||||||
Route outline (key) | ||||||||||
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The B5398 follows the pre-bypass route of the A525 through the Shropshire town of Whitchurch. It gained its number following construction of the bypass in the 1990s.
The road starts at the eastern end of the A525 Whitchurch southern bypass, to the west of Broughall, and heads west along the old road through Waymills. It's not long before it goes under the Crewe to Shrewsbury railway line. The next road on the right leads to the station, then we follow Station Road to traffic lights on the B5395 town centre relief road.
Originally the B5398 ended here, although some maps do show that, if the narrow Green End ahead is followed, the B5398 reappears by the clock and continues along the High Street, which is one-way in this direction. After passing the church the road becomes two-way and the B5395 is soon reached at a mini-roundabout.
The mainline of the B5398 bears left along the B5395, becoming the third partner in a multiplex (the B5476 is the other road). Bridgewater Street bears right at the next mini-roundabout and Dodington at the one afterwards. Either or both of these could be the B5398 but the road reappears properly when it TOTSOs west into Rosemary Lane. From this point on the road was briefly numbered B5364 after being downgraded when the bypass was built.
A few bends take us into Wrexham Road, after which we head west out of town through the unusually named suburb of Chemistry. There's a brief glimpse of open fields before we reach a roundabout on the A41 western bypass. The A525 reappears here to take on the road ahead.
History
Curiously, the DfT Card Index from c2002 gives a very different route for the B5398, as follows: 'Whitchurch (Dodington Watergate (part), High Street, Bargates.)'. This follows the original line of the A49 through the town centre, but is now largely unclassified. OS Mapping from the 1940s through until the bypass opened show this route as an un-numbered B road, but it is not clear whether any of the current route carried the B5398 number simultaneously with the original route.