Membury services is a

motorway service station Motorway service areas in the United Kingdom and Ireland, also known as services or service stations, are rest areas where drivers can leave a motorway to refuel/recharge, rest, eat and drink, shop or stay in an on-site overnight hotel. The vas ...

on the

M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is a motorway in the United Kingdom running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh element was largely ...

, located on the original site of

RAF Membury Royal Air Force Membury or more simply RAF Membury is a former Royal Air Force station built in the civil parish of Lambourn in Berkshire, England. The airfield is located approximately north-northwest of Hungerford, at the Membury services ...

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 ...

Lambourn Lambourn is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. It lies just north of the M4 Motorway between Swindon and Newbury, and borders Wiltshire to the west and Oxfordshire to the north. After Newmarket it is the largest centre of ra ...

in the English county of

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Ber ...

, on the edge of the border with

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, west of Junction 14. It is owned by

Welcome Break Welcome Break is a British motorway service station operator that operates 35 motorway service stations in the UK. It is the second-largest motorway service area operator behind Moto. It also operates hotels and motels. It is a subsidiary of ...

and is situated adjacent to the Membury Radio Mast.

History

The service area was built by

Ross Group The Ross Group was a British food company founded in Grimsby, England in 1920. The Ross brand remains prominent in the retail frozen fish market. David Ross, the co-founder and significant shareholder in mobile telephone retailer The Carphon ...

, after

Leicester Forest East Leicester Forest East (LFE) is a large suburban village in Leicestershire, England, west of Leicester, straddling the M1 motorway. It is part of the Blaby district. Leicester Forest East is a popular location among commuters and young familie ...

, with

Hartshead Moor services Hartshead Moor services is a motorway service station on the M62 near Brighouse, West Yorkshire. It is the highest service station in the United Kingdom. History Construction The service area was built by Ross Group, after Leicester Forest ...

Construction

The services were built by Monk. Planning consent had been given in July 1970.

Food

It was designed by Howard V Lobb, to have three restaurants * truckers, 80 seats * general self-service cafeteria area, 180 seats * grill room, with waitress service, 120 seats

Opening

It opened for petrol and toilets in February 1972, the eastbound side only, but there were no meals until October 1972. The westbound side opened on Thursday 15 June 1972, with a snack bar, in a portakabin. By March 1973, it was announced that the full service area would open at the end of May 1973. On 22 December 1971, a fifty-mile stretch of the M4 was opened between Badbury, Wiltshire near Swindon, and the Holyport Interchange on the A423(M); the M4 section was opened at 11am by

Michael Heseltine Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, (; born 21 March 1933) is a British politician and businessman. Having begun his career as a property developer, he became one of the founders of the publishing house Haymarket. Heseltine served ...

, and his daughter Alexandria, at the Holyport Interchange. The M4 section was the longest stretch of motorway to be opened, in England, since the M1 in 1959. The service area is on the Theale to Shefford Woodlands section, being sixteen and a half miles long; the route was announced in December 1966, but altered in November 1967 after objections. The only services on the M4 in December 1971 were at

Heston Heston is a suburban area and part of the Hounslow district in the London Borough of Hounslow. The residential settlement covers a slightly smaller area than its predecessor farming village, 10.8 miles (17.4 km) west south-west of Charing ...

and

Aust Aust is a small village in South Gloucestershire, England, about north of Bristol and about south west of Gloucester. It is located on the eastern side of the Severn estuary, close to the eastern end of the Severn Bridge which carries the M ...

; Membury would open in February 1972; more service areas had been planned, but never built. The Winnersh Interchange would not be opened in December 1971, with the two-and-a-half mile A329(M), until early 1973.

Buildings

Shell would run the pumps.

Planned services on the M4

Other M4 service areas were planned at Warren Copse near Shurlock Row and

Waltham St Lawrence Waltham St Lawrence is a small village and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire. History The name 'Waltham' is believed to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon words ''Wealt'' and ''Ham'', meaning 'dilapidated homes'.Ford, David Nash (2 ...

(B3018), Furze Hill (B4009,

Hermitage, Berkshire Hermitage is a village and civil parish, near Newbury, in the English county of Berkshire. The civil parish is made up of a number of settlements: Hermitage village, Little Hungerford and Wellhouse. Location The village is focused residentiall ...

), and Ashes Copse near

Bradfield, Berkshire Bradfield is a village and civil parish in Berkshire, England. Aside from farms and a smaller amount of woodland its main settlements are Bradfield Southend, its medieval-founded nucleus and the hamlet of Tutts Clump. Bradfield village is the ho ...

; in June 1972,

Berkshire County Council The Council of the Royal County of Berkshire, also known as the Berkshire County Council, was the top-tier local government administrative body for Berkshire from 1889 to 1998. The local authority had responsibilities for education, social servi ...

looked at Upper Wood Farm on Cutbush Lane in Earley, owned by the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

Facilities

Membury is one of five services which have a

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 cou ...

drive-thru: the others are

Fleet Fleet may refer to: Vehicles *Fishing fleet *Naval fleet *Fleet vehicles, a pool of motor vehicles *Fleet Aircraft, the aircraft manufacturing company Places Canada * Fleet, Alberta, Canada, a hamlet England * The Fleet Lagoon, at Chesil Beach ...

(Northbound only) M3,

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined wit ...

(Southbound only) M40,

Hartshead Moor Hartshead Moor Top is a hamlet in the county of West Yorkshire, England, halfway between Brighouse and Cleckheaton on the A643. It is close to the Hartshead Moor services on the M62 motorway. In 1974 the service station was near the scene of a ...

(Eastbound only) M62 and Gordano M5. The service station is one of fourteen for which large murals were commissioned from artist David Fisher in the 1990s, designed to reflect the local area and history. The services were constructed along with this section of the M4 between 1969 and 1971 by Arthur Monk and Co Ltd. The

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

hillfort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

, Membury Camp, lies to the immediate southwest of the old airfield and the services.

References

External links

Motorway Services Online - Membury
{{Motorway service stations in the United Kingdom Buildings and structures in Berkshire M4 motorway service stations Welcome Break motorway service stations Lambourn