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Your UK motorway service station count

So, anyone been to Poplar 2000/Lymm services recently? I think I last stopped there on the way home from Blackpool many years ago and it was awesome, used to be a favourite of mine when I was in the North West.

Designed as a 'truck stop', it had a free standing CrapDonald's drive through and a little outdoor shopping precinct that had some clean bogs, a couple of shops, a Greggs, a barbers, and a pub! Pub was awesome and served a good quality slap-up meal. But just seen some online that it's now just a pretty bog standard and boringly familiar Moto set-up, with a Costa and Cornish Pasty Co etc typical lineup.
 
I can't say i've ever kept count but my work involves a lot of travelling around the country so i'd imagine i've been to at least 50 and probably way more.

Fleet Services is a favourite in the south of the generic options, mostly because it has a Pizza Express and the fountains outside. Beaconsfield is decent just for the food options (Nandos is a nice change).

There are a few more unique ones in the north that seem a bit more farm based. Can't remember the name unfortunately but there's one with a big pond and seating out the back.

Sadly the majority are pretty grim. Gone are the days of a sit down breakfast at the Little Chef!
 
That would be Tebay.

I can remember the upstairs at Forton!
We have a lovely blown up photo of it taken by my deceased father in law.
And we ate on the bridge cafe on Charnock Richard...with the Its A Knockout Final at Arena North (to be Camelot) next door.
It was used as the stage set for the film International Velvet with Liz Taylor.
Sad sad thoosie minutae.

Edit...
Oh dear.
That famous line...
"Not as good as it used to be"...reserved usually for Viz.
Tebay has suffered with its popularity, and is now getting repeated low reviews.
Another one bites the dust.

Pleased to say we will be overnighting at the services near Heathrow next month.
Can't wait...
 
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Heston is my new addition, M4 westbound, above Heathrow,
Never share a motel room with two other thoosies.
Easy access to local kebabshops etc via footpath, nice pub a mile walk away.
All usual services next to travelodge.
New services always amuse me, and I have the need to explore.
Very good, loaded horse chestnut by the entrance.
I picked the low hanging fruit from the tree with a sleeve, much to the amusement of a nice american lady, who asked what I was up to.
I explained at length, all the strings and stuff, baking, holes, string, vinegar etc, and presented her with shelled and unshelled examples for her kids.
Clean and decent mixed facilities, with a greggs.
Bonus.
8/10
 
NuttySquirrel said:
I think we need the details of why you concluded this...
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Because two are possibly a little chunky, and may possibly snore, so spend the whole night kicking the other or poking them in the ribs from the next bed.
Two get woken every hour by the third drunken old thoosie going to the loo in the night.
I remember courtesy nightlights in other travelodges, instead we had three random switches near the door, and they seemed to move around in the night, and swapping themselves around.
The last poor thoosie didn't snore, but was kept awake by the other two all night.
Next time, single rooms please.
The conker tree was ace though Nutty.
 
Matt N said:
Time for an update to the slightly strange counting thread I completely forgot I once made... on my recent trip to East Anglia, I managed to visit a new services on the M6 east of Birmingham (a whole stretch of motorway I'd never driven along before!) in the form of Rugby services!
  1. Charnock Richard (M6, Welcome Break)
  2. Cobham (M25, Extra)
  3. Fleet (M3, Welcome Break)
  4. Frankley (M5, Moto)
  5. Keele (M6, Welcome Break)
  6. Leigh Delamere (M4, Moto)
  7. Magor (M4, Roadchef)
  8. Membury (M4, Welcome Break)
  9. Norton Canes (M6 Toll, Roadchef)
  10. Pont Abraham (M4, Roadchef)
  11. Reading (M4, Moto)
  12. Rugby (M6, Moto)
  13. Sarn Park (M4, Welcome Break)
  14. Sedgemoor (M5, Welcome Break)
  15. Stafford (M6, Moto/Roadchef)
  16. Strensham (M5, Roadchef)
  17. Tamworth (M42, Moto)
  18. Trowell (M1, Moto)
It was actually very, very nice as service stations go, and definitely one of the nicest I've been to, which was what spurred me to bump the thread! It was all very new, clean and shiny, and I had a very nice Sausage, Bean and Cheese Melt from the Greggs inside!

I also just remembered that I went to Strensham services not that long ago, but clearly it wasn’t remarkable enough for me to want to update this thread with it…
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I was reminded of this thread today on our drive up to Scotland, where one of our stops was the much-lauded Tebay service station on the M6 Northbound!

Today’s drive notched my count up by a further 2, meaning that I’ve now hit 20 UK service stations! (New additions in bold)
  1. Charnock Richard (M6, Welcome Break)
  2. Cobham (M25, Extra)
  3. Fleet (M3, Welcome Break)
  4. Frankley (M5, Moto)
  5. Keele (M6, Welcome Break)
  6. Leigh Delamere (M4, Moto)
  7. Magor (M4, Roadchef)
  8. Membury (M4, Welcome Break)
  9. Norton Canes (M6 Toll, Roadchef)
  10. Pont Abraham (M4, Roadchef)
  11. Reading (M4, Moto)
  12. Rugby (M6, Moto)
  13. Sandbach (M6, Roadchef)
  14. Sarn Park (M4, Welcome Break)
  15. Sedgemoor (M5, Welcome Break)
  16. Stafford (M6, Moto/Roadchef)
  17. Strensham (M5, Roadchef)
  18. Tamworth (M42, Moto)
  19. Tebay (M6, Westmorland)
  20. Trowell (M1, Moto)
For all the praise it receives, I’m in two minds about Tebay. It was undeniably a nice place, and the food I had was nice (I had a sausage roll which was nice, albeit had a bit of a kick to it that I wasn’t expecting as someone with a low spice tolerance, and the salted caramel brownie I had was lovely!), but part of me thinks… is it really a UK service station if you can’t get your hands on a McDonald’s or a Gregg’s while you’re there?

I also visited Sandbach. I was previously uncertain on whether I’d been before, but having been today, I definitely hadn’t. It wasn’t overly remarkable other than being pretty small and having annoying pull-to-open toilet doors…
 
Matt N said:
is it really a UK service station if you can’t get your hands on a McDonald’s or a Gregg’s while you’re there?
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I’m old enough to remember when the only fast food you could get was the services own brand at daft prices. Burger King and Wimpy snuck in eventually, but the likes of Greggs, Nando’s, KFC and McDonalds are fairly modern additions. Service stations of old in general were absolutely awful, we’ve got it relatively good these days!
 
Rob said:
Oh I don't know, I kinda miss the self service counter style "restaurants" you used to get at service stations. A nice cheap tasty bangers and mash on the M6? What dreams were made of!
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Same.

Although I rarely used them, it was a good thing you could get something more resembling a proper meal, rather than just a variety of places offering something and fries or sandwiches.
 
I would like to visit Tebay as it is interesting, I'm just rarely ever that far up north. Maybe something for a future Scotland or Lake District trip?

It does look very nice indeed, and has a posh website. But then so does it's southern sequel; Teletubby Land/Gloucester services.

Which is nice and all, but sometimes you just want a wee, a Bacon Double Cheeseburger to go and a can of Monster to go. I actively avoid Gloucester and stay on until Streatham/Frankley northbound, or Michaelwood southbound.

Perhaps the feeling of pretentiousness Teletubby services has would not be present in the Tebay original?
 
Matt.GC said:
I would like to visit Tebay as it is interesting, I'm just rarely ever that far up north. Maybe something for a future Scotland or Lake District trip?

It does look very nice indeed, and has a posh website. But then so does it's southern sequel; Teletubby Land/Gloucester services.

Which is nice and all, but sometimes you just want a wee, a Bacon Double Cheeseburger to go and a can of Monster to go. I actively avoid Gloucester and stay on until Streatham/Frankley northbound, or Michaelwood southbound.

Perhaps the feeling of pretentiousness Teletubby services has would not be present in the Tebay original?
Click to expand...
As someone who’s admittedly never been to Gloucester services, but whose Mum has, I would say that Tebay is much the same as Gloucester but in a less interesting exterior. My mum said it “wasn’t as good” as Gloucester.

I kind of agree with you. Sometimes you do just want a bit of fast food!
 
One thing I’ll admit I found strange about Tebay is that we drove 4 hours North from the Forest of Dean before arriving there… yet when we got there, a lot of the meat, sausages and such came from the Forest of Dean!

The product in Gloucester services also does, apparently, but I find that less surprising given that the Forest is reasonably local to Gloucester. As a Forest resident myself, I found it both a fun coincidence and a little odd that they didn’t source their meat from a more local vendor in Tebay given the whole “local farm shop” type vibe they go for!
 
Next time you're at a services, Try this combo: break open Burger King chilli cheese bites, stuff KFC popcorn chicken inside them, squish it back together, and dunk in KFC gravy.

You're welcome.
 
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