Hi there,

I can tell you where 162 Eynsham was - I just about remember it! It was, as said replaced with 300 & 301 in the 80's. There was a plan to dual the A40 approx when these were built - but it would have taken a different alignment.

162 was here

The two bungalows were built on its site. It was set back from the road, on the "Old Witney Road" alignment, before that exit on to the A40 was removed

Cheers Alex406 and x10rich. That's two more I can cross off the list now. I would never have found either of those so well done. Now I look at it, you can see what must have been the car park at Eynsham too.

The hunt continues!

Little chef on the A580 at Astley just outside Manchester is now Zest

http://www.zest-astley.co.uk/findus.asp

From today's newspapers it could be Travelodges that start to disappear next. They are reporting that 49 could close shortly, mainly out of town sites on A roads.

The problem here is not that the business is fundamentally unviable, but that the company has an unsustainable amount of debt. The budget hotel sector is booming and I would expect these sites to be taken on by other operators.

See here.

"Despite its debt woes, the chain grew profits 20pc last year to £55m while revenues were also up 16pc to £370m."

It's guesswork as we don't know which sites they are thinking of closing but they have quite a lot of older sites which might be the ones. I can't see the other big companies wanting them except as a site to build on but some are of limited size. I might use them if I can get one of their budget prices but would not pay a similar price to Premier Inn for a poorer quality room. Also I probably would not consider them if operated by a local company that I had never heard of, whatever the price.

The present westbound on-slip was part of the pre-dualling A55. I think I may have used that LC. Could it be this?

I'm trying to remember where 82 Bodelwyddan was, without much success.

Thanks Wrinkly,

Lloc has me a bit stumped in that there are two possible sites. I'm wondering if the Little Chef may have been on the north east side of the junction where McDonalds is now. Either that or, like you say it's the Cafe on the south west side.

I think I've found 82 Bodelwyddan too. I've since got another old map from 1972 that calls it Kinmel Park. If you go to LL18 5SR on streetview and go to the entrance of Kinmel Park golf club on St Asaph Road(just to the north of the current eastbound Kinmel Park services on the A55) there's a bungalow-type building called "Spice of India". Just on the roadside, at the west side of building is the skeleton of a totem sign (with a Spice of India insert) which looks suspiciously like an old Little Chef one. I think this must be where it was.

I asked my Mum a couple of weeks back, and she also said the same! Dunno why it's marked where the Yorkway Motel is on the map though... I guess they must have got the two junctions mixed up... Mind you, it also says the Naferton LC was on the A116, not the A166...

Alan I've just picked up your findings on LC's and ask if you know of one that was situated on the A6 between Hazel Grove and High Lane on the right side as you go towards Buxton.
I know there is a closed one on the same road bewteen Disley and New Mills, Newtown which is now an Indian restaurant.
Before that was built I feel sure I visited this earlier one, possibly closed as the new bigger one was built? The building is still there and became a garage then care sales and now an office and car park for the dairy that it was next to.
Maybe I am dreaming - I am getting old!

I cannot remember an LC between High Lane & Whaley Bridge apart from the closed one near Newtown.

I can't only remember the one in that area that's now an Indian Restaurant.

I recall visiting a Little Chef in or near Banbury in about 1990, where exactly was this?

I say this because there were old photos of the Banbury Cross on the walls of the cafe and I recall driving past the cross itself later. Might not have been an LC but...

There was one on the same site as the hellingly travelodge which closed at the beginning of this year.

Also there was one on the corner of the A5183 (watling street) and the B556 between Radlett and Frogmore. I'll always remember this place as my parents took me there as a child and someone had superglued a £1 coin to the step.

Here: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ll= ... 61,,0,7.77

The building was demolished either late 90's or very early 2000's and replaced with some offices.

Edit: Google earth historical imagery shows the current building there on the 1999 aerial photos but how accurate that is I don't know.

A few people seem to have been doing a stirling effort tracking down Little Chefs past and present, especially Alan.

Is there anyone who could set up a proper list somewhere that we can add pictures, locations and information to? I'd love to see a collective effort to track them all down.

Rob.

I recently contacted LC regarding archive material but, as seen below, it was all lost during the disruptive ownership changes.



Thank you for your email. I passed this to our Director of Communications; please see her response. I hope this is helpful to you…

‘We are just putting together our timeline online which has a lot more info and will be live in hopefully a couple of weeks. In the meantime tell the gentleman to go to the motorwayservicesonline website he will find info on there.

Unfortunately, we have the same difficulties in finding historic info. This is due to many changes of ownership over the years. We only have an archive of info and merchandise now dating back to when I started.


motorwayservicesonline does have a timeline. I hope LC aren't going to just copy it.

old-maps.co.uk shows no building on the NE corner of the junction except for the Singing Kettle, which was a bit further east. It's shown by name on the maps from 1964, 1965 and 1969, and as "PH" on the 1992 map. It was still open when the Holywell bypass and GSJ opened but may not have lasted much longer. I think it more likely that the Little Chef was on the opposite corner, and may have been in the building that still exists. I think I may have visited it once or twice.



You're probably right about that. I'm investigating and may post more later.

Rob, that is my hope with the list I'm making and I knew the Sabre guys would be the best ones to ask for help. So far I haven't been proved wrong! Sadly my computer knowledge is fairly primitive. My friend gave me the template for setting up a Wiki but I've not yet tried to get to grips with it yet.

I do have it in an excel format though so I'd happily share it with anyone who is interested, especially if it helps to fill in the blanks. Plus, if anyone can give me the necessary advice to get it into some sort of web based format where people can add photos that would be great! Each time an old map comes up on Ebay I try to get it to see if more blanks can be filled but it seems I have rivals and they seem to be going for meagbucks these days.

Steve A30 I still need to respond to your helpful comments from before as I have a couple of questions. I'll get them together asap! It was me that wrote the timeline on MSO and I told Little Chef they could use any bits they wanted so there may be a lot of similarities. However, most of it came from old maps, newspaper reports, hospitality websites etc so nothing is copyright. I just brought it all together! Plus it'd be nice if they had something they could actually put on their site about their history. However, if there are any bits you feel are inaccurate or missing do feel free to make suggestions. They've managed to get some good stuff on the walls at York LC too which is quite historical.

Mattsignmaker cheers.
- I've got Hellingly noted already. It was an old Happy Eater turned Little Chef in the 90s (site 696).
- Got Radlett too (site 169). It closed between 95 and 96 and opened some time between 72 and 76.


Big Nick. Yes, there was one in Banbury. I struggled to find this one but with the help of the 1996 AA Road Atlas it was found. The site was number 330 and it opened between 85 and 87 and closed between 97 and 99. For location, the postcode is OX16 9AG - on west side of road between Beadnell Close/ Craster Court.

Maison de la Lune. I can't find anything on the list at all for that location, although that's not to say there wasn't one. The records I have only go back as far as 1972 so it may have opened and closed prior to this. Was it on the corner of Norbury Hollow Road?

Keep up the good work folks. This is really helpful!

It has been for around 18 months - I mentioned it on this thread at the time it was converted Apparently its really nice, but I haven't yet tried it, even though I live 10 minutes away!

Thanks for your acknowledgement Alan - yes the LC I am trying to recall was on the corner of Norbury Hollow Road. The building is still there and I guess it would have been an LC before 1972. I have been living in the area since 1963 but memories fade! Would a photo in its current state help the cause?