Denshaw Crossroads

Denshaw is a village in Saddleworth, Yorkshire. It is located high up in the Pennines and contains little more than a collection of houses and housing estates, a few pubs and a large church. The main pub on the junction is simply called The Junction - a reference back to the importance of the intersection in the pre-motorway era.

It also contains a huge complicated set of crossroads, with 3 separate A roads meeting in total; the A672, A640 and A6052. Whilst none of these A roads are primary, and instead now very much local affairs (particularly the A672 and A640 which would have been important busy Pennine crossings pre-M62) - the junction does have a rather unique layout, and during times where the M62 between J21-J24 is closed or has encountered an incident, this otherwise sleepy Pennine village usually bares the brunt of a huge amount of diverted traffic from the motorway and through the crossroads - which often leads to gridlock.

The A672, running from Oldham to Ripponden, takes full priority through the crossroads. The A640 (Rochdale-Huddersfield) on the west side of the junction meets the A672 as a simple T Junction, but the other side has its own unique arrangement with the A6052 (Denshaw-Dobcross) - which joins onto the A640 about 1 meter before the A640 reaches the A672! The resulting layout bares something of a crossroads/roundabout hybrid - in practice a roundabout would suit well here but it probably wouldn't be cost-worthy to install.

Additionally, for a junction which often sees way more traffic than it should, it is poorly signposted - there is no signage at all on the A672 westbound or the A6052. For the road signs that are there, a handful of them are modern 21st-century-looking, and half of them look as though they date back to the 1960s (and for this reason a few of them incorrectly still show A672 as being a primary route). The other signs present are snow warning signs, one of the many such examples around Oldham and Saddleworth - there's one for the A640 eastbound (towards Huddersfield) and one for the A672 north/eastbound (towards Halifax). Should this one be flashing there is no access from the crossroads to the M62 J22.

Rather more helpfully - the road signs for the M62 tell you where to go in regards to whether you want to travel Eastbound or Westbound. Eastbound signs point you to join the M62 at J22, a couple of miles to the North up the A672, whereas the Westbound signs tell you to join the M62 at J21, which is around 4 miles over the Westbound A640.

Routes

Route	To	Notes
A672	Halifax, Ripponden, Motorway M62
A672	Oldham
A640	Huddersfield
A640	Rochdale
A6052	Delph	7.5T weight limit