What is the greatest service station?
- Thread starter BigMoaner
- Start date
JimW
支那暗杀团
Can you mention my name at the checkout? I get a commission.I suddenly have the urge to check out Gloucester Services
StoneRoad
heckling from the back!
Gloucester - not that I've been very often, but I do like it.
Tebay is/was a regular stopping point, that I would patronise because it was an independent concern. It was exceedingly good value for money.
Unfortunately the recent coffee purchases were very disappointing. [far too strong, very bitter and with a very strange aftertaste].
UK motorway (& major/trunk road) service stations are, generally speaking, pretty appalling - with a poor reputation for value for money.
Run down being an understatement in most cases, with some exceptions ...
I do have some happy memories, though. Being taken into the waitress service Little Chef on the Bridge at Charnock Richard sounds odd, but the food was very good, as was the service. [this was well before the chain starting heading south for cheap n nasty when it was sold off, so it was many, many years ago]
Tebay is/was a regular stopping point, that I would patronise because it was an independent concern. It was exceedingly good value for money.
Unfortunately the recent coffee purchases were very disappointing. [far too strong, very bitter and with a very strange aftertaste].
UK motorway (& major/trunk road) service stations are, generally speaking, pretty appalling - with a poor reputation for value for money.
Run down being an understatement in most cases, with some exceptions ...
I do have some happy memories, though. Being taken into the waitress service Little Chef on the Bridge at Charnock Richard sounds odd, but the food was very good, as was the service. [this was well before the chain starting heading south for cheap n nasty when it was sold off, so it was many, many years ago]
Elpenor
a clown’s heart and a mandolin
Services: shit and a ginsters!
On trips from London up to North Wales as a kid we stopped at Frankley on the way up and Warwick on the way back to walk the dog briefly.
Cartgate Picnic area on the A303 is my recommendation though - near Martock - no petrol but a nice place to stop and have a packed lunch and theres a cafe too. “The highway to the sun” is my preferred route from London / Thames Valley down to Devon as it’s got more interesting than the motorway, and the idiot drivers tend to stay in the slow lane.
On trips from London up to North Wales as a kid we stopped at Frankley on the way up and Warwick on the way back to walk the dog briefly.
Cartgate Picnic area on the A303 is my recommendation though - near Martock - no petrol but a nice place to stop and have a packed lunch and theres a cafe too. “The highway to the sun” is my preferred route from London / Thames Valley down to Devon as it’s got more interesting than the motorway, and the idiot drivers tend to stay in the slow lane.
marty21
One on one? You're crazy.
I'm staying in Gloucestershire in September, seriously tempted to visit the services. Trying to sell it to Mrs21
I would say not to bother with the cooked breakfast at Gloucester fwiw - it's nothing special and there isn't enough of it. Pretty much everything else is solid though.
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
The Newcott Chef near Honiton was always a fav, is now a decent American diner called Route 303, worth a stop. Also in the area is the Greyhound pub near Escot Park, does a nice lunch...
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
None of them cos that means I’m on a coach or in a car.
neonwilderness
What would Badgers do?
That's also part of the Tebay chain I think, or at least they sell their stuff in the shop. But yeah, that's more of a petrol station
I quite like Lancaster's observation tower thing. I don't think I've ever stopped there though.
Plumdaff
joy in people
It is Gloucester although it's too close for me to use it very regularly. Membury is our halfway to London stop but it's merely average. The super middle class middle aged true answer is on very long trips I try to find a National Trust place near the motorway and stop there. We're members so it's no extra cost, and the food, loos and children's playground are always better. Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, just off the M1 is a particularly useful one.
chemn
shmemn
Has anyone been to Cornwall Services? If so, are you as non-plussed as I am about the excessive signage as you drive in? All I want to know is which way to go, but there are so many signs and advertisements that my eyes don't know what to do with themselves.
Gloucester is the best.
Cobham is alright but i remember it being really busy all the time.
Gloucester is the best.
Cobham is alright but i remember it being really busy all the time.
BigMoaner
What A Load of Old Bollocks
Some of them are like packman but with ginsters as the ball things
BigMoaner
What A Load of Old Bollocks
Why do you think I asked. On my way now.I suddenly have the urge to check out Gloucester Services
Cid
Proper break this time
I actually find Gloucester services profoundly disturbing. You get the impression that as the forests burn and the Northern Wall is finally breached by Fox's Iron battalion, there will still be people wandering around in salmon pink trousers buying up the last stocks of Stichelton.
marty21
One on one? You're crazy.
Setting off now
marty21
One on one? You're crazy.
How is it pronounced? And where is it ?
keybored
Well done. You remember cat good.
On the M5 between Bristol and Gloucester.
Should be pronounced Mikkulwood (same as in Michaelmas). Not Michael Wood, they didn't name it after the historian.
keybored
Well done. You remember cat good.
I find that one borderline-dangerous to drive into/out of. One of the roundabouts seems badly thought out.
It's got a Co-op though!
This is Forton services. They renamed it Lancaster a few years ago, but all true brutalists still call it Forton.That's also part of the Tebay chain I think, or at least they sell their stuff in the shop. But yeah, that's more of a petrol station
I quite like Lancaster's observation tower thing. I don't think I've ever stopped there though.
View attachment 265290
The tower is actually a restaurant, but it's been unused for years because of fire regs.
T & P
|-o-| (-o-) |-o-|
As a resident non-Brit I’ve always felt that you really have to have been born here to see service stations with any fondness whatsoever.
The first one on the motorway, in particular if just a couple of junctions in, tends to be a bit of a shithole. I guess the owners long ago figured out the only people wanting to stop at a services two miles into their motorway journey/ away from their destination are those desperate for a shit, so there’s little point in making an effort. The one at the beginning of the M1 is particularly soul destroying, or at least was the only time I stopped there a few years ago.
Having said that, some are a lot more pleasant than others. I myself will choose those that have a Pizza Express as they serve alcohol- something that until relatively recently was unheard of (perhaps even illegal) in this blessed country.
The first one on the motorway, in particular if just a couple of junctions in, tends to be a bit of a shithole. I guess the owners long ago figured out the only people wanting to stop at a services two miles into their motorway journey/ away from their destination are those desperate for a shit, so there’s little point in making an effort. The one at the beginning of the M1 is particularly soul destroying, or at least was the only time I stopped there a few years ago.
Having said that, some are a lot more pleasant than others. I myself will choose those that have a Pizza Express as they serve alcohol- something that until relatively recently was unheard of (perhaps even illegal) in this blessed country.
BigMoaner
What A Load of Old Bollocks
you clearly haven't ever been to clacket lane road chef.
Ted Striker
Foot's on the other hand
South Mimms and Pease Pottage were important players in the mid 00's fruit machine scene
Dogsauce
I’ve got Skol but I’m not a Scholar
Gordano, circa 1987, because it was about half a mile from where I grew up and a great place to fuck about after you’d necked half a bottle of Blackthorn in the adjacent cornfield. In those days it had a decent adventure playground, a small petting zoo, an aviary with parrots and one of those ponds with shit remote controlled boats that you could operate for 20p. Plus a large array of phone boxes for ringing up the operator to swear at then run away frantically as if they had some kind of special police team staking them out. These places were a family day out back then.
