Markham Moor is a village which lies five miles south of the town of

Retford Retford (), also known as East Retford, is a market town in the Bassetlaw District in Nottinghamshire, England, and one of the oldest English market towns having been granted its first charter in 1105. It lies on the River Idle and the Chesterf ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

. The village is in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

West Drayton West Drayton is a suburban town in the London Borough of Hillingdon. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex and from 1929 was part of the Yiewsley and West Drayton Urban District, which became part of Greater London in 1965. Th ...

. Markham Moor lies on the junction between the A1, A638 and A57 roads. The village was on the route of the old Great North Road and was also traditionally part of the East Markham parish.

Markham Moor junction

Markham Moor has a junction in the middle of the village which links the A1 between London and

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

, the A638 to Retford and the A57 to

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

. Previously, this junction was a simple roundabout, but as part of junction improvements by the

Highways Agency National Highways, formerly the Highways Agency and later Highways England, is a State-owned enterprise, government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving Roads in England, motorways and major A roads in England. It al ...

between Blyth in Nottinghamshire and

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

, the junction changed to the current two level junction, with one roundabout at the north end for the A57 and A638, and another roundabout on the south side for the B1164 Great North Road to Tuxford. Both roundabouts are connected by a flyover. A public inquiry was launched into the improvements in 2006 after a number of objections, the majority from the nearby village of

Elkesley Elkesley is a village in Nottinghamshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 805, increasing to 822 at the 2011 Census. It is located 6 miles south of Retford. The parish church of St Giles was built c. 1300 in Decor ...

. The objectors were concerned with the timing of the improvements and increased traffic flow on the A1 which bypasses Elkesley. The upgraded junction was completed in October 2008.

Service area

Markham Moor junction has a number of companies providing

services Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a p ...

for travellers travelling along the major trunk roads which meet at the Markham Moor junction, including

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...

, a

Travelodge Travelodge (formerly TraveLodge) refers to several hotel chains around the world. Current operations include: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and several countries in Asia. However, ma ...

, a historic hotel on the route of the old Great North Road and a truck stop. The services also held a

Little Chef Little Chef was a chain of restaurants in the United Kingdom, founded in 1958 by entrepreneur Sam Alper, who was inspired by American diners. The chain was famous for the "Olympic Breakfast" – its version of a full English – as well as it ...

café, which was originally constructed as a petrol station and converted to a Little Chef in 1989 but disused from 2012 to 2019. Due to its unusual hyperbolic paraboloid shell roof, constructed in 1960–61 to designs by architect Hugh Segar (Sam) Scorer and structural engineer Dr Hajnal-Kónyi, there was a preservation campaign in 2004 to get the building listed to prevent it from being demolished as part of the Markham Moor junction improvement plans published by the Highways Agency. The plans were revised to save and improve access to the restaurant. The shell canopy was designated Grade II listed on 27 March 2012. It was purchased and redeveloped by Stockton-on-Tees based company, Cliff Court Developments Ltd, then re-opened as a Starbucks in December 2019.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Nottinghamshire A1 road (Great Britain) Bassetlaw District Road junctions in England