A61: Derby - Thirsk

Section 1: Derby - Sheffield
The A61 threads its way through some of England's most industrial landscape on its way from the East Midlands to North Yorkshire; there is, on the other hand, some delightful scenery at both top and bottom ends. As a long-distance through-route much of the A61 has been largely superseded by the M1, but the gradual increase in traffic volumes since the motorway was built has ensured that the A61 is still a heavily-used road, in spite of the Highways Agency's recent decision to axe its trunk road status.

The road still starts in Derby, originally at a junction with the A52 by St. Mary's Bridge near the city centre. Derby was merely a town in those days, although a strategic one that owes its name to the Vikings, who changed its old name of Northworthy to their own Norse name meaning "deer enclosure". One of the administrative Five Boroughs of the Danelaw, it was a natural candidate for Derbyshire's county town. It became a city relatively recently, and older direction signs can still be seen which have "Town Centre" overpatched with "City Centre". With the construction of Derby's inner ring road the "source" of the A61 moved half a mile eastwards, and it now begins at a large grade-separated roundabout on the new A52. Immediately a primary route, it hugs the eastern bank of the River Derwent (one of a number of streams bearing this pre-Saxon name denoting "oak tree river"), quickly passing the Roman fort of Little Chester, where several important Roman roads met. Indeed, the A61 shadows the route of Ryknild Street virtually the whole way to Chesterfield, although it does not actually come onto the line of the Roman road itself until beyond Alfreton. After a couple of roundabouts, from one of which the A608 leaves for Heanor, the A61 meets the Derby northern bypass, the A38 from Bristol and Birmingham, and for the next 11 miles or so multiplexes with the latter, which has taken over the trunk route up to the M1. The original route of the A61 still exists, of course, and is now the B6179 through the twisting villages of Little Eaton, Coxbench and Kilburn, where road, stream and railway keep close company. Just after the delightfully named Denby Bottles Ryknild Street is crossed at Smithy Houses, and the old A61 enters Ripley, an old colliery town now noted for its preserved steam railway and the HQ of the Derbyshire Constabulary (no connection intended!). North of the town the B6179/ex-A61 passes under an impressive high level bridge carrying the Ambergate-Nottingham road (A610), after which, a mile beyond Swanwick, the A38 is reached once again, and the A61 proper resumes.

From here the A61 is the signed primary route to Chesterfield, even though it almost immediately passes through the centre of Alfreton, another settlement in the Derbyshire coalfield, midway between Matlock and Mansfield. Once through the town our road enters some attractive countryside, and gradually ascends to the top of an impressive escarpment to encounter the aptly-named hamlet of Higham. A sharp turn to the right finally brings the A61 onto the line of Ryknild Street, which the Romans had cunningly laid out on the top of the ridge to give a commanding view of surrounding hostile territory. For several miles the road is pretty well dead straight, through Stretton (a typical name for a village on a Roman "street") and Clay Cross, whose Labour councillors were famously rebellious in 1973 when they refused implement the Conservative government's Housing Finance Act and increase council rents. Further on the A61 becomes less rural on the approaches to Chesterfield, which it reaches at a distance of 25 miles north of Derby.

An important manufacturing town - George Stephenson, of "Rocket" fame, was born here - and Derbyshire's second largest urban area, Chesterfield is of course especially famous for its parish church's twisted spire, a local landmark and even more remarkable when viewed at close quarters. In days of yore the A61 passed hard by the church along St Mary's Gate, but nowadays it avoids the town centre which it bypasses to the east by way of a significant stretch of dual carriageway that now runs practically the whole way to Sheffield. Bottlenecks can still occur at this southern end where traffic from two important primary routes, the A617 and A619, merges at overcrowded roundabouts; once on the relief road, however, it is usually a fast run for the next 8 or so miles. As the A61 sweeps northward from Chesterfield it makes quite an impressive sight, now through clean-looking cuttings, now overlooking Dronfield and with views westward towards the Peak District. It is rather a shame when it all comes to an end at a roundabout with the A6102 on the southern outskirts of Sheffield, for from here on the route is uncompromisingly urban along London Road towards the city centre. The A61 used to go right up The Moor, the main shopping street, and latterly past Sheffield Midland station, but it has relatively recently been diverted round the inner ring road to the west. These days, for the city centre and all stops to Meadowhall, take the supertram!

Simon {A6(M)}

Section 2: Sheffield - Tankersley (M1 J36)

The A61, on its descent from Meadowhead, Runs down the hill, until it arrives at the Heely Tidal flow system.

Its showing its age a little bit now, and only controls four lanes. When it arrives at the Sheffield Inner Ring Road (it met the outer ring road once, at Meadowhead) it actually turns into the whole Inner ring road. Well almost.

Its also been noted that Sheffield City Council is to introduce junction numbers for the ring road. If we take the A61 clockwise here, we head up past the University. The road remains D2/D3 and is roundabouted enough to not be able to pick up speed.

At the Glossop Road Crossroads, it is joined by Sheffield Supertram, which becomes a central reservation. At the Brook Hill Roundabout, where the A57 pierces the A61 ring for the first time, the Supertram goes unjder the roandabout,k whilst traffic queues in all directions.

From here, the A61 goes downhill, again, a taboggan track of the Supertram down the middle, to eventually meet the A61 again.

Meanwhile, back at the bottom of Granville Road, The A61 also carries on anti-clockwise. It goes past the Leadmill, and over the RIver Porter, which is a mere trickle at this point as it makes its way along concrete conduits to join the River Sheaf somewhere under Platform 2 of Sheffield's Midland Station.

The part in from of the Station is being redesigned at the moment, but the A61 still manages to squeeze through, and eventually joins the Park Square Roundabout.

Again, here, the A61 Splits. The is a spur which multiplexes with the A57 Sheffield Parkway, before turning off in front of the canal Basin, and joining The Wicker.

From here, the council are building a further link road, to extend the ring road with a dual carriageway.

Howsever, the main line of the A61, follows the line of the River Sheaf to its point where it meets The River Don. It carries on, past Sheffields Crown Court, leaves the A57 again, at West Bar, and eventually meets itself again, near the Old Royal Infirmary, which is now a supermarket.

From here, it follows an alignment similar to the River Don, out to Hillsborough. It used to be a S2 road, however they built it up, made it a little wider. They had probems with pigeon fanciers, and as such, were'nt allowed to build a cutting into the hillside, so as to protect the pens. Recent investigations showed that this was to be the alignment of an Urban Motorway in Sheffield with the route number A57(M)/A61(M).

At Hillsbrough, the River Don goes shoots off round the back of Sheffield Wednesday Football Ground, whilst we skirt the back of The hillsborough Kop (currently sponsored by Hallam FM) The A61 is quite grand at this point and has flag poles down the central reservation.

By the Fletchers Bread Factory, we go up the hill, and head off towards Grenoside. We pass a few GATSOs, and coming in the oppoiste direction, you get the first real glimpse of Sheffield at this point, and its 7 hills - just like Rome.

As we go through Grenoside, we head through Grenowood, and eventually to the roundabout with the A616. if you want fun, turn left here, and head along the Stocksbridge Bypass. Marvel at the SPECs, and the poor road design. Then think that it could have once been the M67.

From here, we head up to Tankersley roundabout, which, when we arrive at, we just have to marvel the wrongness of the road sign for the M1 northbound. Its worth a couple drives round to check.

Nic_A47

Section 3: Tankersley Park(M1) - Leeds (A6120)
At the other side of the M1, we find ourselves on a very short bit of D2, before we arrive at a roundabout where the A6195 Dearne Valley Parkway begins on its way to Doncaster through the former coal-mining heartlands of South Yorkshire. At the roundabout, we turn left and head on through the village of Birdwell, through a 30MPH zone with terraced housing on both sides of the rather narrow street. The road opens out after that, gains NSL signage and plunges downhill through some cracking sweeping bends. The original road is to our right at this point, the M1 is to our left and at this point all three roads are going swiftly downhill.

At the bottom, it’s back into a 30MPH zone as we enter Worsborough and we then begin to climb again. We encounter a couple of sets of lights, crest a hill and gently roll downhill. We gain D2 just before we meet the Barnsley Ring Road where we turn right at the roundabout, now at up to 40MPH. We find ourselves multiplexing with the A635 as we pass around the edge of town. At the bottom of Harborugh Hill, we negotiate our way around a large gyratory with a retail park built in the middle of it. We pass Asda and the “Golden Arches” and find ourselves back on 30MPH S2 gently climbing out and away from Barnsley.

We pass through a roundabout where the A633 starts, or ends, depending on your direction of travel and continue uphill. We speed up to 40MPH as we pass through Staincross, before we are allowed to travel at up to 50MPH on S2, passing by a nice golf course. The road continues for a couple of miles, before we need to slow down to 30 as we drop downhill to cross Newmillerdam. The road does a sharp 90-degree right and then a 90-degree left as it goes across the top of this large water feature, with its own popular country park.

The road continues at up to 40MPH for a mile or so as we approach the outskirts of Wakefield. We slow down to 30MPH at Milnthorpe, but gain a short stretch of D2, before a bit of S5 (2 + 3) as we cross the River Calder just outside Kirkgate Railway Station.

We then find ourselves on Kirkgate before arriving at a roundabout. If you were to take the first exit at this roundabout you would find yourself continuing on Kirkgate, which was the original route of the A61through the very centre of Wakefield. At the roundabout we head straight on, onto Marsh Way, the town centre bypass. It’s 40MPH D2, with another roundabout where the A642 crosses our path on its journey to Garforth. At the end, we turn towards the right onto Northgate to pick up the original A61 routing and find ourselves back on S2. A bit further on and we encounter a set of lights where we turn right and briefly multiplex with the A650 before yet another roundabout. At this point the A650 leaves us to head towards the M1 at East Ardsley. We continue straight on the A61 towards the north and pass through Outwood, back on 30MPH S2 by this point.

We cross the M62 without interchange just to the east of Lofthouse and are allowed to travel at up to 40MPH as we pass through Robin Hood and meet the A654 at a set of lights. After that it’s a straight bit of NSL road, before we bear to the left, pass through a roundabout at the Stourton Business Park before we arrive at Junction 7 of the M621, where once upon a time the M1 came to an end and merged into the rest of the road network. We have arrived at the boundary of the City of Leeds and the route of the A61 over the years though it has changed numerous times and indeed is still changing.

Historical Information
At this point, the A61 now officially disappears for about a mile, but historically, it carried straight on from the other side of the roundabout. It is still signed as such, but as recently been renumbered with the A639 number from this point on into Leeds. We used to coast gently downhill, passing the First Direct Bank HQ, before bearing left and continuing on the Hunslet Road for a mile or so.

These days in order to find the next official part of the A61, we need to join the M621 at this point, pass over junction 6, without access and also pass junction 5, before leaving at Junction 4, helpfully signed A61. We turn to the left before turning right to cross back over the motorway, before a set of lights. After these set of lights we find ourselves back on the A61, now a 30MPH D2 called the Hunslet Distributor. It lasts about 1/3 mile and arrives at a recently altered signalled junction where we meet the old A61 entering from the east.

Historical Information
The next very brief section is now and as always been the A61, but it lasts about 100 yards before the current route diverges from the previous one. Only until 12 months ago, the straight on route was the A61, now a mix of D2 and D2+3 which headed nearer to the city centre, but this as also been renumbered the A639. After ½ mile the road bears left towards Crown Point Retail Park, but a long time ago the road carried straight on. Tetley’s Brewery now occupies part of the old road. After bearing to the left, we need to keep to the right to turn off this road, towards the Crown Point Bridge. This bit of road was renumbered the A653 last year. As we pass by the far side of the brewery, we can see further remnants of the old Hunslet Road, which from this point continued into the city by crossing the River Aire at Bridge End, before going straight through the centre of town on Briggate. At the top of town, the A61 used to head down North Street towards Sheepscar. At the other side of the River Aire we meet the current routing of the A61.

After leaving the Hunslet Distributor and turning left, we turn immediately right onto South Accommodation Road, widened over the years to D2 and in the next couple of years will be bypassed itself. We cross a local road and then rise slightly to arrive at a large over-engineered signalled junction, awaiting the construction of the East Leeds Link, which would finish at this point. The road then bears left and sweeps down towards the Crown Point Bridge. We need to keep to the left, fight our way through more lights, and negotiate through the railway viaduct. At the other side of the viaduct we find ourselves on St Peter’s Street, passing alongside the bus station and opposite the BBC’s Leeds building.

We arrive at the Markets Roundabout at the bottom of Eastgate and carry straight on, passing under the Inner Ring Road and heading north along Regent Street. We come to a roundabout where we fork left and then continue straight on, on Sheepscar Street. We arrive at a set of lights and are forced to turn hard left and then hard right via a one-way system. At this point we rejoin the original routing of the A61 that has arrived via North Street from the city centre. You find yourself on a very wide bit of road which will soon split into two main roads another smaller one.

At this point, following signs for “Chapeltown” will take you on the original A61, through Chapeltown strangely enough. As we are following the current A61 route we therefore need to keep to the left and head onto Scott Hall Road. After the lights we begin to climb a hill and enter a 40MPH zone. From then on it’s all 40MPH D2, interrupted by roundabouts three times. At the fourth roundabout, we rejoin the original route of the A61, just in time to meet the A6120 Outer Ring Road at another roundabout.

Chris W

Section 4: Leeds - Dishforth
North of the Inner Ring Road, the A61 is a slow moving urban dual carriageway with several roundabouts as it heads due north. Just as it finally leaves the suburban sprawl, it reverts back to single carriageway. The road is quite busy and there's little space for overtaking, so it gets quite crowded at times. North of Harewood the road spins round to the left and heads downhill, before heading back round to the right at a junction with the A659 and entering North Yorkshire as it crosses the River Wharfe.

It's pretty unusual these days to have a primary route go straight through a town centre, but that's exactly what the A61 does when it gets to Harrogate. The traffic was nose to tail when I drove through it - hopefully that's not a typical journey! Having crawled through that, the A59 is crossed at a roundabout north of the town centre.

Past this, the A61 heads along round Ripley Castle at the far eastern side of the Yorkshire Dales, which you can see in the distance. The stretch to Ripon is quite twisty, though reasonably flat, and has caused many accidents in the past. As a result, there's a lot more double white lines, warning signs and some passing places for tractors.

The famous cathedral city (over 1300 years old) of Ripon is now bypassed with a new bridge over the River Ure - some of the old A61 through the city is now used as an extension of the A6108 which links up with the bypass to the north. A few miles beyond this, the mighty A1 (en route to Scotch Corner) is crossed with a simple diamond junction. Will this layout be revised when this part is upgraded to motorway I wonder?

Ritchie

Section 5: Dishforth - Thirsk
After the A1 junction a few miles north of Dishforth, the A61 briefly runs parallel with the A1 a few hundred yards to the east for a mile or two, before turning east through Skipton on Swale to Thirsk. It is difficult to know why the A61 ended here, rather than following the A170 to Scarborough, but the original end of the A61 was in the town centre. Following the construction of the A168/A19 bypass the A61 now "cannons" off the A170 in the town centre, turning north along the old A19 (did they just turn the signs upside down?) to North Kilvington, where the bypass ends and the A168 and A19 part company. However, this is the end of the road for the A61.

T1(M)