The A56 is a road in England which extends between the city of Chester in Cheshire and the village of Broughton in North Yorkshire. The road contains a mixture of single and dual carriageway sections, and traverses environments as diverse as the dense urban sprawl of inner city Manchester and the lightly populated region of rural east Lancashire. The road includes a short section of trunk road between the end of the M66 motorway near Ramsbottom and the M65 motorway west of Burnley.

The road begins as Frodsham Street in the centre of Chester at its junction with Eastgate Street A51 and heads north-eastwards out of the city. Just outside the city, the A56 crosses Junction 12 of the M53 motorway, continuing in a north easterly direction. The road passes through the towns and villages of Mickle Trafford, Helsby and Frodsham whilst roughly paralleling the course of the south side of the M56 motorway. After leaving Frodsham, the A56 crosses the M56 at Junction 11 and passes the towns of Runcorn and Warrington, taking up a more easterly direction to again parallel the course of the north side of the motorway.

Edward Stobart (21 November 1954 – 31 March 2011) was a British haulage company owner who first became involved with his father's company aged 15 in 1969, and subsequently expanded it into one of the UK's most well known multimodal logistics companies, Stobart Group. Stobart died on 31 March 2011 in a Coventry hospital of what was termed 'heart problems'.

In the 1950s, Stobart's father "Steady" Eddie Stobart founded the haulage business that became Eddie Stobart Ltd, then the Stobart Group. Stobart's father controlled the organisation fully until 1973, when, at the age of 19, Stobart took the place of CEO, while Rodney Baker-Bates was made COO. In 1976, Stobart's father retired and Stobart took the place of chairman, while Baker-Bates was made CEO and Andrew Tinkler was made COO.

In 1987, Baker-Bates resigned and Stobart's brother William took the place of CEO. However, in 1992, William also resigned, and so Alan Martin took the place of CEO. However, Martin was fired in 1997 after leading a court case against Stobart in order to receive more payments. Baker-Bates then returned and took the place of CEO again.