Welcome to Gloucester Services, voted best in the country by Which? magazine, the consumer recommendations group that surveyed more than 100 stations across the UK. The family-run facility earned five-star ratings in numerous categories, including cleanliness, convenience, food and drink options and outside space.
Outside, the building looks different to most of its kind. There’s no matt steel framework nor dirty white edging. I can’t see a six-square signpost displaying brands famous for steak bakes, budget burgers or overcooked noodles. A brash colour scheme, dirty windows? No chance. Instead, it’s a curved structure constructed mostly out of timber and brick, with a grass roof. Adjacent is a series of small booths, the sort you find at a Christmas market. Chalkboards promote coffee roasted in nearby Bristol.
Gloucester Services was voted best in the country by Which?In the latter, I find tote bags perfect for wild swimming enthusiasts, a Spanish cookbook and crockery surely used as props in any number of Richard Curtis pictures. There are “locally made ice lollies” made using “seasonal British fruits” and pasta sauce from the Cotswolds (£7.75 for Dolmio-sized jars). Elsewhere, fresh pasta, award-winning charcuterie, a Gloucestershire butcher’s, a West Country cheesemonger and handmade chocolates from a Scottish chocolatier.
Two arancini (right) from the cold deli section of the service station cost Josh Barrie £11.50; the sandwich cost £6.15 and the sausage roll £5.50
I skip the cafe proper and head to the “quick kitchen”. Rather than fried wings and soggy fish and chips are chicken and leek pies, pastry golden beneath nigella seeds and – as the menu proudly attests – made using regenerative flour. There are salad boxes and freshly squeezed juices, baguettes filled with hummus and harissa roasted vegetables, and bottles of fizzing kombucha.
Here, shadowed by birch trees, Gloucester service station paints a near-bucolic idyll. At the very least it’s pleasant. There might be the unavoidable and persistent hum of the M5 but the roof folds into the countryside surrounding it and the only views are greenery and the small but happy band of waterfowl. There is no doubt whatsoever that this is preferable to slot machines and plastic paneling.
Although it’s situated on the M5, the service station has a peaceful, countryside feelThe group now serves more than 10 million visitors a year, employs 1,300 people and sells a range of products from 250 local producers, all within 30 miles of their respective sites.
In 2021, the original site at Tebay – this year listed at number two on Which? magazine’s ranking – was the subject of a Channel 4 documentary. In it, Dunning explains the need for farmers to “diversify” in a changing world, using the landscape they are afforded for more than growing or rearing food and incorporating sustainable practices into whatever businesses come about.
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The group has its supporters, from suppliers to food critics to celebrities. Among them is comedian Frank Skinner: “If there is a road to heaven, Tebay would be the service station,” he once said. More than once have I heard top chefs praise a partnership with Rockfish, the Devon-based group of seafood restaurants which launched an online fishmonger in 2021. There are now digital ordering screens so travellers may have fresh fish waiting for them at their holiday rental (or at home).
No wonder there are more to come. In March, Westmorland announced news that the Government had green lit a fourth site. Tatton services in Cheshire is expected to open next year, with the project overseen by Dunning’s daughter Sarah, chair of Westmorland Limited.
Gloucester Services is part of the Westmorland Group, which serves more than 10 million visitors a yearAs I get back on the road and head east to London, I surmise that I’ve long held a fascination with service stations. I find their mundanity romantic and oddly powerful. They’re charming in their transitory nature, perfect for people watching, much the same as airports (though, inexplicably, not train stations).
And while nothing there is cheap – I’m still quite upset about my £11.50 arancini – there is value in traversing the country and stopping off at a farm shop along the way. People apparently want to feel more connected and, clearly, they’ll pay for the privilege. If nothing else, there’s a lake with ducks, and that’s hard to beat next to a motorway.
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Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( I drove 112 miles to visit a service station where two pastries cost £11.50 )
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