Ardleigh South services
A120 westbound between Colchester and Harwich
(Limited road signage.)
CO7 7SL
map and directions
Single site located at a junction.
The surviving petrol station of a pair which were originally provided on the road to Harwich.
Facilities
Amenities: Showers Outdoor Space: No grass space Forecourt: Shell, Refuel Market, Crust Bakery, Costa Express, Rollover, Skwishee Iced Drinks, Free Cash Machine
Parking Prices
Short stay customer parking is available for all vehicles.
Overnight HGV parking is available for SNAP account holders only and is charged at £36 per 24 hours.
Account holders can pay by using the SNAP account pay machine located in the drivers lounge. The location code is 19131.
This information is provided to us by third parties. You should always check with staff on site.
Contact Details
🏢 Address:
Ardleigh
Colchester
Essex
CM77 8GA
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Trivia and History
Plans for a dual-sided service area here started in 1989, with a pair of filling stations, hotels and restaurants being proposed to be built on fields that belonged to Slough Farm. These plans were later split into two separate plans, one for the filling stations and another for the hotels and restaurants.
Both filling stations opened in 1993 and were built by Texaco, with each sales building branded as their own-brand Star Market. Planning permission for Trusthouse Forte to build two Travelodges and Little Chefs on the adjacent land was later renewed in 1995, but they were never built, leaving a large area of unused land next to each forecourt.
The eastbound petrol station closed in 2004, and was purchased by R. T. Steward Transport who demolished the forecourt and sales building and transformed the site into a haulage depot and a Highways Agency-approved truckstop with a café and 36 overnight HGV spaces. The site also became home to a local coach company for a time. The truckstop and café later closed in 2014, with the site being taken over by Veolia and a waste transfer station being built on the former parking area.
The westbound site continues to trade to this day, owned by Tankerford, with the spare land being sold to the neighbouring farmer in 2012.
The westbound site underwent a major refurbishment in Summer 2023, with the existing pumps and canopy replaced, the sales building extended to introduce a new Wild Bean Cafe offering. Before this refurbishment had been put into place, the filling station was rebranded from Texaco to BP in January 2021, along with gaining a new SPAR Express store replacing the former Mace store.
Tankerford later rebranded the store to 'Refuel Market' in October 2024, with stock supplied by Nisa Local. Nisa Local became part of Co-op Wholesale in March 2025, meaning the store is now supplied by Co-op.
The Wild Bean Cafe offer was later withdrawn in Summer 2025, with Costa Express returning and a new Crust Bakery offer being added. The fuel supplier was also switched from BP to Shell in August 2025.
Tankerford also developed the field behind the filling station into a HGV parking area with 35 spaces and security fencing. A drivers lounge area has also been added to the sales building, along with a new toilet and shower block. Most of the work was funded by the Department for Transport's 'HGV Parking and Driver Welfare' scheme.
Two new electric vehicle charging points were also planned for the site, but power constraints haven't allowed for these to be installed just yet.
Future Access
If the Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community is developed, a new junction will be provided on the A120, meaning that the route into this service area will change. The new junction would be provided to the east, and traffic would then need to cross two roundabouts, following the link road into the service area. The exit on to the A120 would use a new slip road from one of those roundabouts. The forecourt area would then be increased.
A similar link road would be provided on the opposite side for access into the former service area. The new bridge at the junction would mean that, for the first time in over 20 years, eastbound traffic would be able to stop here for fuel. The new junction project is waiting on funding from the national highway authority.
Alternatives
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