The Way We Were
It’s the Easter getaway, mid-1960s-style, and most of the motoring population of Lancashire seems to have descended on an M6 service area for refreshments
1965, Charnock Richard
Services, Lancashire
Motorway services these days are hardly the most appetising of places, in more ways than one. But they were viewed as being rather glamorous locations back in the 1960s as the Tarmac tentacles of Britain’s new high-speed roads unfurled across the nation. With modernist architecture and fittings, elevated towers and restaurants that spanned the speed limit-free motorways they served, some were as much an actual destination as a convenient point to stop off for fuel and a nibble.
The weary motorist could be greeted by smart young ladies wearing air hostess-style uniforms while the M1’s Leicester Forest East had its bridge restaurant furnished by Terence Conran. Named The Captain’s Table, the serving staff here wore nautical costumes. All a far cry from standing in line for KFC, Burger King or Greggs.
Trust House Forte opened Charnock Richard Services on the M6 between Wigan and Preston in 1963 and had its upmarket culinary facilities on the bridge linking the two sides. It still does, albeit it’s now a fast-food rather than a sit-downand-be-pampered experience. Such is the pace of life these days.
All motoring life is here in this fascinating view, as the British masses try to escape for the 1965 Easter holiday (16-19 April). What it would be to browse these ranks, which range from a beat-up old sidevalve Morris Minor to a pristine Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, and everything in between. With a fair smattering of caravans and camper vans thrown in for good measure.
Our decrepit Minor is on the left of the shot. These original 1948-53 MM models always had a slightly melancholy appearance with their low-set headlamps, but the slightly caved-in and rusty front of this one makes it look even more morose.
Still, its 919cc 28bhp pre-war engine can hardly have been that content on the fast M6. Presumably slightly happier is the brand-new 1965 Zephyr towing a smart-looking caravan that looks as new as it is. Judging by the steps by the door, its owners may well have decided that the car park of Charnock Richard Services is a jolly agreeable place to spend their holiday. And who can blame them with such fine amenities on offer so close by?
A rather posh 1953-57 Daimler Conquest is being upstaged by the 1964 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III, which should make light work of the M6 with its 6230cc V8. Then we fall a little bit down the foodchain with a green Herald (it’s not a 12/50 – there’s no sunroof) and then another Fifties car seemingly clinging on for dear life – a 1953-56 Standard Vanguard. Rusty window surrounds and wheels, plus a quite ropey-looking sill suggest that this decade-old machine has led rather a hard life for something that was so robustly engineered.
There’s not enough space to talk about everything in the background without C’sCedWitor bestowing at least an extra two pages to do them justice. But note the Royal Automobile Club Austin/Morris LD strategically placed by the building entrance, either as a mobile control centre or to attract new members. It is accompanied by a Mini van, to be sent off to nearby breakdowns.
Amid all these vehicles, we can only make out three foreign ones – two Volkswagens in the form of a Beetle and a Type 2 panel van for sure, and perhaps a Mercedes-Benz W111 ‘Fintail’ in the second row from the building, parked next to the two-tone white and green Wolseley 1500.
Nowadays, just as the food inside is vastly different to what it was, so the national origins of the cars outside will be extremely dissimilar, too.
Such is (modern) life.