The A52 is a major road in the East Midlands, England. It runs east from a junction with the A53 at Newcastle-under-Lyme near Stoke-on-Trent via Ashbourne, Derby, Stapleford, Nottingham, West Bridgford, Bingham, Grantham, Boston and Skegness to the east Lincolnshire coast at Mablethorpe. It is approximately long.
Route length According to the AA, Newcastle-under-Lyme to Derby takes 56 minutes, Derby to Boston takes 1 hour and 40 minutes (100 minutes), and Boston to Mablethorpe takes 1 hour and 2 minutes (62 minutes), taking 3 hours and 38 minutes (218 minutes) to travel the whole distance.
History Brian Clough Way The mainly dual-carriageway stretch between The Pentagon Island in Derby and the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham was named Brian Clough Way in 2005 to honour the late Derby County and Nottingham Forest football manager Brian Clough.The Brian Clough Way/Derby Road double-naming continues along the A6200 between the Queen's Medical Centre and into the centre of Nottingham, as far as the junction with Maid Marian Way at the Nottingham Playhouse.
Nantwich, Cheshire Historically the A52 used to start at Nantwich in Cheshire, but was renumbered to become the A500, the A531, and the B5500—the A500 sections later becoming unclassified.
Route
Newcastle-under-Lyme – Derby The road starts as Ryecroft from the roundabout with the A34 and B5367. It is dual carriageway until the next roundabout, forming part of the Newcastle ring road, with the A527 and A53. It passes the leisure centre on the right, then veers right at a junction with the B5045 (which continues on the main road), where it enters the City of Stoke-on-Trent. As Hartshill Road, it passes the Royal Stoke University Hospital and enters the town of Stoke-upon-Trent. It takes two possible routes around the town centre, meeting the A500 D Road. It goes under the West Coast Main Line near Stoke-on-Trent railway station and becomes Leek Road, passing one campus (Leek Road) of Staffordshire University. It meets the A50 at a roundabout at Joiner's Square near Hanley. It meets the A5008 and A5009 (for Leek) at crossroads, where it turns right. There is a junction with the A5272 (for Berry Hill). As Werrington Road in Bucknall it passes the former Mitchell High School and enters Staffordshire and the borough of the Staffordshire Moorlands. It passes through Ash Bank and Staffordshire, then meets the A520 (for Leek) at crossroads, then overlaps the A522 (for Cheadle). It passes through the villages of Kingsley and then Froghall where it crosses over the Churnet Valley Railway and Cauldon Canal, before meeting the A521 and B5053 (for Ipstones). It passes through Whiston and meets the B5417 (for Oakamoor). It meets the A523 (for Leek) and passes through Swinscoe, then briefly enters East Staffordshire.
The road enters Derbyshire and the Derbyshire Dales district where it crosses the River Dove over the Hanging Bridge near the junction with the B5032 at Mayfield close to the Queens Arms Hotel. The £3 million Ashbourne Relief Road opened in October 1994. There is a roundabout for the exit to Ashbourne and one with the A515. The road climbs up the side of the Dove Valley, and there is a central overtaking/crawler lane. The roundabout with the eastern exit to Ashbourne is near an old airfield which is now an industrial estate. The area around the next section of road to Derby has links with Bonnie Prince Charlie. It passes through Brailsford and the Rose and Crown and at Kirk Langley, there is a junction with the B5020 for Mickleover.
It passes Mackworth, the Munday Arms and Mackworth Hotel, with part of the Mackworth Estate to the south and Markeaton Park. Entering Derby as Ashbourne Road, it meets the busy A38 at a roundabout, and Esso Mackworth Service Station. It passes the Shell Friargate garage on the left which has now been closed down. From here to the dual-carriageway is a popular pub crawl, with many student residences close by for the University of Derby, such as St Christopher's Court. Close by to the north is the new Markeaton campus of the university. The road splits into east and west sections, passing St John the Evangelist church on the left, with the easterly section being Agard Street and the westerly section being Friargate. From the traffic lights at the eastern end of both, the road becomes Ford Street, passing the Friargate Studios.
Derby – Nottingham
It overlaps the £3.5 million (£ as of ), A601 Derby Inner Ring Road, which is called St Alkmunds Way and was opened on 30 July 1972. It is used by 70,000 motorists daily as they pass under the 2007 footbridge towards Pentagon Island. From the Radio Derby building (to the west of the city centre) to Nottingham, it is dual-carriageway. It crosses the River Derwent, the A601 leaves to the south, and it passes under the Midland Main Line as Eastgate. There is the Pentagon Island Grade Separated Junction (GSJ) with the A61 near Chaddesden. The westbound-direction is not grade-separated and meets the roundabout, thus causing many severe queues at rush-hour. Near Spondon, there is a large GSJ with the A5111 Derby outer ring road. The £4.6 million (£ as of ), Borrowash Bypass Extension opened on 29 May 1980 as well the £6 million (£ as of ), Nottingham Road Diversion, from the Pentagon Island to Raynesway. Both sections totalled . before Borrowash, it enters the Borough of Erewash.
Further east, it is the main east–west route from Derby to Nottingham, connecting the two cities via the busy junction 25 of the M1 at Sandiacre. The £250,000 Borrowash Bypass opened in 1957, although the bridge at Ockbrook opened in 1969, from a roundabout with the A6005 to Hopwell Firs. The former route is partly the A6005.
The £2 million (£ as of ), Sandiacre Stapleford Bypass opened in December 1964, being built two years before junction 25 of the M1 had been opened although all the bridges and roundabout were part of the bypass. Construction was inaugurated on 1 March 1963 by John Cavendish, 5th Baron Chesham.Nottingham Evening Post Thursday 28 February 1963, page 5Nottingham Evening Post Friday 1 March 1963, page 1Newark Advertiser Wednesday 6 March 1963, page 5 It was the first major road project opened by the 1964 Labour government. The former route is the B5010. It crosses the Nottingham section of the Midland Main Line, and the River Erewash and Erewash Canal, entering Nottinghamshire and the Borough of Broxtowe.
Bardill's Island roundabout provides a junction with Toton Lane (B6003), which connects to both Stapleford and the Toton Lane Park & Ride site that is linked to central Nottingham by the Nottingham Express Transit (NET) tramway. The roundabout is also near the George Spencer Academy and the garden centre after which it is named. The A52 then passes through Bramcote at the roundabout with the A6007 next to Bramcote leisure centre and becomes a three-lane dual carriageway, however the left lane is a bus lane. There is a right-turn at traffic lights for Wollaton Road (B6006) for Beeston near the Nurseryman pub.
It enters the City of Nottingham at the A6464 Priory roundabout (Woodside Road leading to the A6005) in Lenton Abbey with the Shell Priory garage on the right, and the Wollaton Miller and Carter Steakhouse on the left on Wollaton Vale road. To the left is Wollaton Park and nearby to the south is the University of Nottingham. The junction at the Queen's Medical Centre with the A6514 Middleton Boulevard was originally a roundabout, but became a GSJ, costing £3.7 million in late 1983. It then turns right and follows Clifton Boulevard (Ring Road) (after just under 2 miles crossing Clifton Bridge over the River Trent) as far as the A60 roundabout, where it continues East towards the A1. The former route through Nottingham is now the A6200, then down Angel Row, Wheeler Gate, Lister Gate then through what is now the Broadmarsh Centre and past the railway station on Carrington Street, through The Meadows as Arkwright Street to a point near the A60/A6011 junction, over Trent Bridge and along the current A6520 Radcliffe Road. South of here it follows the former A614 as Clifton Boulevard. There is a junction for Abbey Street (A6005 – former A453) which was originally a much smaller temporary flyover, but was improved in June 1990 at a cost of £5.5 million, which is where the former A614 terminated. It crosses the Beeston Canal and Nottingham – Derby/Loughborough railway line and follows the Clifton Boulevard around the south of Nottingham. It overlaps the A453, then the A453 exits for the M1 and Clifton near the Texaco Silverdale Service Station and The Becket School.
One of the bridges over the Trent at Clifton Bridge includes a section of the former B680 (which followed the route into Nottingham now used by the A453). The 275 ft east bridge opened in 1958, being officially opened by Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy. The bridge was widened, with the west bridge, to dual-carriageway as the A614 as part of a £3.2 million section, opening in 1972. This was the completion of the dual-carriageway Nottingham ring-road. It enters the borough of Rushcliffe where it crosses the former Great Central Main Line and meets the A60 (for Ruddington and the Nottingham South Premier Inn), then the A606 at busy roundabouts. This section from the A606 roundabout, near the Wheatcroft Garden Centre, to the Dunkirk junction (current A6005, then the A453) – the Nottingham Ring Road – was opened in 1963 as mostly single carriageway. The section from Clifton Bridge to the A60 roundabout was dualled in December 1968. The £6 million section from Gamston to Lings Bar opened in September 1981 as Gamston Lings Bar Road. It passes close to Tollerton Airfield and a large Morrisons (former Safeway), and crosses the Grantham Canal meeting the former route (A6011) at a busy roundabout near the Bridge pub. The section from the QMC to the A606 Wheatcroft Island roundabout used to be the A614 until the Gamston section was opened. The former route of the A52 into Nottingham is now the A6200 and A6011.
Nottingham – Grantham
Heading east as Radcliffe Road with Bassingfield to the right, the £25,000 (£ as of ), dual-carriageway section from Holme House built in 1956 finishes at the start of the Radcliffe on Trent bypass as Grantham Road. There is the BP Pierrepont Filling Station just before the turn-off for Radcliffe on Trent. This stretch has SPECS cameras along it. Close by is the Holme Pierrepont National Watersports Centre. The road goes past Upper Saxondale, then meets the A46 at the large Saxondale roundabout, which has the Shell Saxondale garage. The road runs roughly parallel with the Nottingham-Grantham railway between Radcliffe on Trent and Grantham. From the A46, the road heads east past Bingham on the £2.6 million (£ as of ), Bingham bypass opened in December 1986. The road passes the Murco Kings Service Station on the left. There is a left turn for Scarrington, then it passes a HM Prison Whatton at Whatton-in-the Vale, near to where it crosses the River Smite.
It passes the Vale of Belvoir hotel, and after Elton where it passes the Manor Arms, it enters Leicestershire, the district of Melton, and the Vale of Belvoir at the start of the Bottesford bypass, which opened in February 1989 with an extremely wide concrete £3 million (£ as of ), two-way road.
It passes by Muston and enters Lincolnshire and South Kesteven at the crossing of Sewstern Lane (Viking Way) next to the popular Muston Gap, passing through Sedgebrook. Belvoir Castle can be seen in the distance. The road climbs the steep Mill Hill near Barrowby, crosses the A1 and becomes Barrowby Road. The section of road from Radcliffe on Trent to Grantham was planned to become a dual-carriageway in the 1990s, but there are no plans at present.