Wigan Album

First late-night cafe, you used to get plenty of these skiffle groups coming in after doing a show and people off the telly with their fancy women.

Charnock Richard was not the first motorway service station to open, but I believe it was the first to have a designated restaurant area elevated over the carriageways of the M6 which was very unique for its time. One of my late family members worked for Alfred McAlpines who constructed this section of the M6. He once told me another service area was proposed at Newton-Le-Willows with slip roads and land cleared to facilitate the building work, but it never happened. I believe the site is on the southbound side of the M6 just after Haydock island and is now used by National Highways as their base for managing the motorway network around the North West.

It was the first one to open in the northwest, and seeing that the M6 was the first motorway to open I would think that the services would have been the first to open as well.

What happened to the commemorative stone ? The 8 mile stretch of dual carriageway known as the Preston Bypass opened in 1958. The M1 followed stretching over 300 miles over 5 counties, so Charnock Richard could lay claim to the Country's first Service Station.

Mick - Watford Gap services was the first to be opened in 1959.

Aye. Weren't any Services on Preston Bypass.

Dirty Dick's on A6, North of Preston was first you came across, travelling North in that neck o' the woods, until the section of M6 referred to here came about.

PS Burnt colliery ash/ red shale, from former Pearson's Colliery at Ince Moss went into the sub base of the Preston Bypass. It failed in use: trucks sank up to their axles!

Within weeks of opening, a lot of the construction had to be re-done!

I remember Dirty Dicks cafe and across the A6 road was Nasty Nellie’s,the Zodiac convertable similar to the one pictured was my first car in 1985.

There used to be loads of transport cafés on the old A roads before the advent of the motorways although unlike the motorway services , many weren’t open 24/7.

I remember there were three or four on the old A49 between Wigan and Bamber Bridge , Lil’s being the first one heading north .
There was another one just past the Bowling Green pub , another in the dip just before the R.O.F. and yet another just past Leyland .
I forget the names of these .

None of them survive today , although wagon drivers don’t appear to have the time to stop these days anyway , so it’s all academic .

The job used to be difficult and poorly paid but enjoyable .

Now it’s better paid , possibly harder in certain respects , but distinctly unenjoyable .

I wouldn’t go back to it if they paid me in gold ingots , even if I could .

I remember a Transport Cafe near Garstang the name"MAYFIELD" springs to mind?? Back in the late 50's when I would regularly go fishing with my dad and uncle. Sometimes if we were going to the River Gilpin or Lake Windermere. we would stop off there. No M6 in those days We left home at about 3.00am on a Sunday morning. I great adventure for a 11/12 year old

Whilst out near Rathmore Co Kerry a number of years ago , by coincidence I found myself in conversation with an Irish chap who asked me where I was from .

When I mentioned Wigan , his next question was , did I know of Lil’s café .

Turns out he was involved in the construction of the M6 motorway in the early 60s and he and his pals used the place on a regular basis back then apparently .

Small world or what ?

Yeah , the Mayfield was just a few hundred yards from Dirty Dick’s in Cabus Ron .

It became a hotel , but I understand from a mate in Barrow that the place was bulldozed quite recently to make room for a care home .

In fact if you go on Google earth you can see it . It’s called Meadow Croft .

Ron the Mayfield springs to mind as one of those with a nickname,albeit most drivers of a certain age will have called in the Jungle Cafe on the left (A6)before heading over Shap,it’s a caravan sales sales last time I passed whilst working out of Shap Quarry.

Coincidentally LiL’s was a favourite coffee bar early 60’s for us motorbike lads and then onto Charnock Richard motorway cafe as LiL’s closed around 10.30pm.

You’re right John , what was the Jungle café is now Kendal Caravans and has been for years .
It’s owned by David Molineux ( if I’ve spelled that right ) .

The café itself closed down within weeks of the opening of the M6 motorway over Shap fell.

That would have been around 1970 or thereabouts .

The next café heading north would most likely have been The Moss , a few miles north of Carlisle on the A74 .

My First car was 1965 not as I said 1985.