A61 road
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| A61 road | |
| Direction | South-North |
| Start | Derby |
| Primary destinations1 |
Chesterfield Sheffield Barnsley Wakefield Leeds Harrogate Ripon |
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| End | Thirsk |
| Roads joined |  A52 road A608 road A38 road A6175 road A617 road A619 road A6107 road A621 road A57 road A6101 road A6102 road A629 road A616 road M1 motorway A6195 road A6133 road A635 road A628 road A633 road A6186 road A638 road A642 road A650 road A654 road A639 road M1 motorway M621 motorway A653 road A64 road A58 road A6120 road A659 road A658 road A6040 road A59 road A6108 road A1 road A167 road A170 road A19 road |
Notes
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The A61 is a major trunk road in England. It runs from Derby to Thirsk in North Yorkshire. From Derby, it heads north via Alfreton, Clay Cross, Chesterfield, Sheffield, Barnsley, Wakefield, Leeds, Harrogate and Ripon. The road is closely paralleled by the M1 motorway as far as Leeds.
Heading south, the road begins as single carriageway which bypasses Ripon and onto Harrogate town centre. At Harrogate, the road divides into two major one way streets which enclose the town centre and run along The Stray, (a 200 acre stretch of grassland in Harrogate). The A61 continues through Harewood before approaching the north's metropolis, where a sudden urban fringe approaches. As the road enters Leeds, the road becomes a main dual carriageway (or Trunk Road) and artery for north Leeds. For a distance it stays the same before the arrival of the superbusway near Potternewton. Here, the A61 rises slightly, and a panoramic view of Leeds skyline is revealed. The descent into Leeds is quick and the road soon turns into a multi-lane road, as it approaches Sheepscar Interchange. Fast Flowing traffic is directed onto the A61, although some traffic is directed off the A61 to avoid Leeds City Centre as it routes around the back of Quarry House. The A61 meets it shortly after, as it shares the city centre loop for a short distance. After crossing the river, the road splits again before taking traffic out to the motorways. The road then continues out of Leeds towards Wakefield and Barnsley. South of Barnsley it crosses the M1 at Junction 36 then heads towards Sheffield.
The A61 travels into Sheffield through Grenoside and Hillsborough, passing next to the Sheffield Wednesday football stadium. At this point it forms a major artery into the City Centre from the north, before becoming the Sheffield Inner Ring Road (which as of 2007 is labelled as A61 all the way around), meeting the A57 at junction 1 (for Sheffield Parkway heading east to Worksop) and junction 6 (for the Snake Pass to Manchester) of the ring road, and then emerging on the south side past the Sheffield United football stadium through Heeley and climbing up to Norton and the Meadowhead roundabout. From there the road becomes dual carriageway, heading towards Chesterfield on the Dronfield by-pass. The road used to go through Chesterfield town centre, passing by the famous crooked spire, but this caused heavy congestion that was alleviated by a bypass built in the 1980s. The spire itself is clearly visible from the bypass. The road reverts to single carriageway south of Chesterfield, passing through Clay Cross on its way to Alfreton.
South of Alfreton, the A61 merges with the dual carriageway A38, but the old A61 continues as the B6179 through Swanwick and Denby, meeting the A38 again just north of the City. The A61 road continues towards the city centre along Sir Frank Whittle Road until it finally ends at the junction with the A52 near to the headquarters of Derbyshire County Cricket Club.
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