Cheshire’s beloved Old Brickworks climb into the Peak is probably best avoided for the foreseeable future if you value joy in your cycling.
Since part of the adjacent B5470 Macclesfield Road collapsed in January after serious rainfall, the Brickworks (Bakestonedale Road) has been an unofficial diversion route for most of the drivers using that much busier road.
The Brickworks, narrow enough to not have a centre line for most of its length, was simply not built for this. What is usually a leisurely climb out of Pott Shrigley by bike, only really a bit unforgiving at rush hours, is now a constant stream of noisy traffic for most of the day.
A temporary speed limit of 30 mph has now been placed on the whole road (normally only the part around the small industrial estate is 30), though probably more to save motorists from themselves rather than any thought towards its popularity for cycling. The road had been closed over two months before it was applied and seeing the road during a recent walk over Bakestonedale Moor, I wasn’t inspired it was making much difference.
The official diversion is all the way around the A6 to the north, so I don’t blame drivers between Whaley Bridge and Macclesfield for continuing to cut over the top when they’re allowed to. It’s an awkward situation the council notorious for its badly maintained roads has found itself in. We could definitely ask how Cheshire East let it get to the stage that a major road is completely out of action without a repair plan.
Unfortunately, Cheshire East are still at the investigation phase of determining what went wrong and what needs to be done to fix the B5470. They’re saying this will be followed by a design phase and only then construction of the repair, hoped to begin by this summer. (There was a council page to track updates, but this seems to have disappeared at time of writing.)
So Beginners’ Brickworks is off the menu for me. If attempting Cat & Fiddle Climbs, I’d consider the more traditional Blaze Hill route to Pym Chair instead. (I’m guessing Blaze Hill is fine, maybe even quieter than normal.) Even Wood Lanes Off Middlewood will be impacted by more traffic around Springbank Lane. For a visit to Kickback Coffee, I’d use the bridleway up to Moorside Lane from Shrigley Road (a good sneaky route at any time). I wouldn’t plan any walk where I need to walk more than a few metres along the road, especially around rush hour (the Gritstone Trail uses 400 metres, eek).
What worries me about closures like this is that drivers ‘discover’ the diversion and stick with it. Maybe some of the drivers now using Bakestonedale Road won’t go back to the B5470. Maybe we should be asking for that 30 mph limit, or some other measures, to actually be made permanent (and enforced) — to reduce traffic and its impact over this sensitive National Park landscape.
Something was meant to happen when the Poynton Relief Road opened. The Peak District National Park Authority actually placed an objection on the bypass being built, citing likelihood to increase and induce traffic on this route. Cheshire East promised mitigation measures for Pott Shrigley and Adlington lanes, but then delayed them until after opening — and all this time later, that idea seems to have disappeared like the carriageway of the B5470. They deserve all the worst awards.
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