Atherton driving test centre
DVSA name: Atherton (Manchester) · Gibfield Park Avenue, Atherton, Manchester, M46 0SU
Drive the 5 routes around Atherton before test day →
Key facts
- Atherton's pass rate was 44.3% in 2025/26 from 13,035 tests, 5.7 points below the national average of 50.0%.
- That puts it 26 of 31 centres in North West (North West average 49.0%), one of the lower pass rates in the region, 4.7 points below it.
- Since 2021/22 the pass rate has fallen by 5.6 points, from 49.9% to 44.3%.
- Male candidates passed at 45.7% and female candidates at 42.4%, a gap of 3.3 points.
- On waiting times, learners who took a test in August 2026 had waited a median of 15.3 weeks since booking (longer than the national median of 11.9 weeks); the first week with 10% or more of slots still free was 24 weeks ahead.
- A year earlier (August 2025) the median wait was 7 weeks, so waits have grown by about 8.3 weeks.
Atherton tests from Gibfield Park Avenue, on a business and retail park at the edge of town, and the roundabouts begin before you have left it. Gibfield Park Way, Bag Lane and the junctions onto Atherleigh Way and Leigh Road are all within a short drive of the door. The busiest of the practice loops on this page takes in eight roundabouts in under seven miles, and there are six mini-roundabouts spread across the five. The rest is ordinary town driving: Wigan Road, Leigh Road and the streets between them, mostly at 30 mph. What marks Atherton out is the direction of travel. The pass rate has dropped by more than five points since 2021 and now sits near the bottom of the North West table.
Drive the Atherton test routes before test day
5 loops from the centre, 55 km in all, with 32 roundabouts and 104 marked turns. Generated from the road network within 2.5 km of Atherton; not DVSA’s own routes, but the same roads.
Drive it before test day
Drive all 5 loops around Atherton from your phone before you ever sit in the car: every roundabout, every junction, in the order you will meet them.
- 5 routes · 55 km · 104 marked turns
- Examiner-style marking on signalling and observation
- Street View tour of each route
- Every roundabout and junction, in the order you'll meet them
- The four test manoeuvres and eight roundabout scenarios, included
One payment, no renewal. Or £9.99 a month with a 3-day free trial. Cancel any time.
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- Route 1 · via Schofield Lane10.9 km loop with 8 roundabouts, 9 right turns, 6 left turns and a stretch of Lower Leigh Road.10.9 km · 23 turns · 8 roundabouts
- Route 2 · via Schofield Lane10.7 km loop with 6 roundabouts, 7 right turns, 11 left turns and a stretch of Lower Leigh Road.10.7 km · 24 turns · 6 roundabouts
- Route 3 · via Wigan Road10.7 km loop with 8 roundabouts, 7 right turns, 8 left turns and a stretch of Schofield Lane.10.7 km · 23 turns · 8 roundabouts
- Route 4 · via Wigan Road11.6 km loop with 5 roundabouts, 8 right turns, 7 left turns and a stretch of Gloucester Street.11.6 km · 20 turns · 5 roundabouts
- Route 5 · via Wigan Road10.6 km loop with 5 roundabouts, 7 right turns, 2 left turns and a stretch of Bolton Road.10.6 km · 14 turns · 5 roundabouts
The same access also opens the four test manoeuvres and eight roundabout scenarios: the two things a route drive cannot teach you.
Roughly three fifths of the distance on the practice loops on this page is at 30 mph, with about a fifth at 40 and a fifth again inside 20 mph limits. The 40 mph sections are the ones to watch, because they come and go. The limit lifts on the faster link roads and drops again as soon as you turn back towards the town, and the sign is easy to miss when you are thinking about the junction after it.
Across 54 km the loops hold 17 sets of traffic lights, 12 signalled crossings and 21 give-way junctions. For routes of about seven miles each that is a steady stream of decisions, and almost none of them are difficult on their own. Atherton asks for accuracy repeated over and over rather than one hard piece of driving.
The roundabouts give the place its character. Six mini-roundabouts are spread over the five loops, and the named ones on Wigan Road, Leigh Road, Lower Leigh Road, Gloucester Street and Bag Lane arrive in quick succession on the busier routes. Mini-roundabouts catch people out in two ways. They get treated as painted advice rather than as islands, and the exit signal gets dropped because the junction felt too small to bother with.
Manoeuvres are usually asked for on the quieter residential roads rather than on Wigan Road or Leigh Road. Thirty-one schools sit in the area the loops cover, so an afternoon slot can put you on a 20 mph street with cars parked on both sides at exactly the wrong time of day.
Pass rate at Atherton, 2009/10 to 2025/26
Share of car tests passed each April-to-March year. Dashed line: Great Britain average for 2025/26.
Month by month, 2025/26
By year and gender
| Year | Tests | Pass rate | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025/26 | 13,035 | 44.3% | 45.7% | 42.4% |
| 2024/25 | 7,690 | 44.4% | 44.8% | 43.9% |
| 2023/24 | 6,918 | 44.3% | 44.7% | 43.9% |
| 2022/23 | 7,030 | 47.2% | 48.6% | 45.7% |
| 2021/22 | 5,654 | 49.9% | 52.0% | 47.8% |
| 2020/21 | 1,520 | 51.5% | 55.2% | 48.7% |
| 2019/20 | 6,518 | 46.5% | 49.5% | 44.0% |
| 2018/19 | 6,730 | 50.1% | 54.0% | 46.8% |
North West average 49% · GB 50%
Waiting time for a test at Atherton
Median weeks between booking and taking the test, for tests taken each month. Dashed line: GB median for August 2026.
| Month | Median wait | Weeks to free slots | Slots offered | Still free |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2026 | 15.3 | 24 | 35 | 29.7% |
| Jul 2026 | 15.3 | 24 | 31 | 33.4% |
| Jun 2026 | 12.1 | 24 | 41 | 23% |
| May 2026 | 10.6 | 24 | 42 | 22.3% |
| Apr 2026 | 7.7 | 24 | 46 | 21.6% |
| Mar 2026 | 6.4 | 23.8 | 52 | 20.3% |
Tell me when the wait at Atherton drops
One email when DVSA’s monthly figure falls, or goes under the number of weeks you choose. No newsletter.
Test day at Atherton
The centre is on Gibfield Park Avenue, off the retail park at the Atherton end of Bag Lane. It is a multi-purpose site. DVSA runs car tests here alongside motorcycle module 1 off-road and module 2 on-road, lorry and bus tests and ADI parts 2 and 3, so the site and the roads around it can be busy with vehicles a good deal larger than yours. The centre is accessible if you use a wheelchair.
Parking for candidates is not published. A site that has to find room for an off-road motorcycle area usually leaves limited space for cars, so treat a bay by the door as a bonus rather than a plan and leave time to walk in. Toilets and a waiting room are typical of centres this size but are not published for Atherton either, so ring the centre if either matters to you on the day.
Booking, moving and cancelling is done only through GOV.UK. Waits here have grown sharply: the median wait for a July test was over fifteen weeks, against six and a half weeks a year earlier. Book early, and work the cancellations rather than taking a date that leaves you short of practice.
What DVSA publishes about Atherton
Taken from the GOV.UK test centre finder, checked 3 September 2026. Where DVSA says nothing, this site says nothing.
- Tests conducted here
- carmotorcycle module 1 (off-road)motorcycle module 2 (on-road)lorry and busADI part 2ADI part 3
- Wheelchair access
- DVSA states you can access this centre in a wheelchair.
Other tests at Atherton
This centre is not car only. DVSA publishes results for these categories separately, and they are taken by different candidates on different vehicles, so the rates are not comparable with the car figure above.
Learner reports from Atherton
No reports yet for this centre. If you tested here, the first one is yours to write.
What examiners mark most often
DVSA does not publish faults by centre, but it does publish them nationally. These collected the most marks across every car test in Great Britain in 2025/26, and they are the same ones you will be marked on at Atherton.
- 1Junctions - observation
- 2Mirrors - change direction
- 3Junctions - turning right
- 4Response to signs - traffic lights
- 5Control - steering
- 6Move off - safely
Getting there
Gibfield Park Avenue, AthertonManchester M46 0SU
Directions in Google Maps · Check centre notes on GOV.UK
Nearby centres
- Bolton (Manchester)Bolton · BL3 2AW · 6.7 km51.8%+1.8 vs GB16.2 wkswait
- WarringtonWA2 9EP · 14 km55.5%+5.5 vs GB10.6 wkswait
- ChorleyPR6 0BT · 16 km52.8%+2.8 vs GB12 wkswait
- Bury (Manchester)Bury · BL9 6HH · 16 km46.3%-3.7 vs GB7.6 wkswait
- St Helens (Liverpool)Liverpool · WA9 1NS · 16 km40.9%-9.1 vs GB6.6 wkswait
- Sale (Manchester)Sale · M33 7ER · 17 km51.4%+1.4 vs GB15.4 wkswait
Questions learners ask about Atherton
- Is Atherton an easy test centre?
- Its 44.3% pass rate in 2025/26 is below the 50.0% national average. Busy urban roads and complex junctions usually explain lower rates; knowing the local routes closes most of that gap.
- How long is the wait for a driving test at Atherton?
- In August 2026 the median gap between booking and sitting a test at Atherton was 15.3 weeks, and you had to look about 24 weeks ahead to find a week with at least 10% of slots free. DVSA publishes this monthly; the figure above updates when they do.
- Where is Atherton driving test centre?
- Atherton test centre is at Gibfield Park Avenue, Atherton, Manchester, M46 0SU. Arrive at least 10 minutes early with your provisional licence; parking rules vary by centre, so check the learner reports below.
- How many driving tests does Atherton do a year?
- 13,035 car tests were conducted at Atherton in 2025/26, of which 5,779 were passed.
Source: DVSA tables DRT122A (pass rates by centre and month) and DRT122F (waiting times and availability), Open Government Licence v3.0. PassRank adds the comparisons and rankings.
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