A22 Hailsham Bypass at Boship Roundabout
(also accessible to traffic on the A267 and the A271)
Signposted from the road.
BN27 4DP
map and directions
Single site located at a junction.
The former site of three different Little Chefs, at the northern end of the Hailsham Bypass.
Facilities
Catering: Greggs, Starbucks Amenities: Travelodge Outdoor Space: Small grass areas around site Forecourt: Shell, Budgens at Shell Select, Deli by Shell, Costa Express, Car Wash, Jet Wash, Free Cash Machine
Parking Prices
Short stay customer parking is available for cars. No HGV parking is available.
Parking and use of the forecourt is limited to 20 minutes maximum stay for all vehicles and is strictly enforced by Euro Car Parks.
This information is provided to us by third parties. You should always check with staff on site.
Contact Details
🏢 Address:
Lower Dicker
Hailsham
East Sussex
BN27 4DP
Trivia and History
The roundabout was built in the 1950s. At the position of the service area was an RAC service centre, possibly taking advantage of a short stub of road which had been provided in case New North Street would ever become a dual carriageway.
In 1974, Little Chef opened their Lower Dicker branch a little further up the A22, on the corner of Coldharbour Road. Their rivals Happy Eater acquired The Country Fox/The Old Orchard restaurant, slightly further up at Golden Cross, in the 1980s.
By 1987, Forte owned both brands and they and Action 2000 started looking at building a new service area at the Boship Roundabout. The original plan included a 120-seater restaurant with a children's play area, filling station and 20-bed hotel along with a picnic area.
Opening
The site opened in late 1990 as a large Happy Eater restaurant and Travelodge hotel, next to a petrol station. At the same time, Little Chef moved into the old Happy Eater at Golden Cross (known as the Hailsham branch), and the old Little Chef at Lower Dicker closed and later became a bathroom showroom. A tourist information centre was ladded to the site in July 1990, with the Chairman of the South East Tourist Board Michael Ann officially opening the facility. This was the first example of a tourist information centre opening next to a Happy Eater and Travelodge, and paved the way for other sites throughout the 1990s.
All Happy Eaters became Little Chefs in 1996, so the one at Boship became the Hellingly branch. Its large building gained a Burger King and the two Little Chef branches competed until 2000 when the oldest one closed, becoming a car centre.
The tourist information centre closed in the mid-2000s and went onto become a contact centre for a builders firm.
Throughout the 2000s the filling station was branded Total. Total rebuilt the forecourt in 2008, providing a much larger 'Bonjour' sales building along with new pumps, canopy and car and jet washes.
Refurbishment
The Little Chef was deemed to be underperforming by R Capital, and it closed in January 2012. It was then converted by Euro Garages to a Starbucks store, reopening on 13 April 2013.
Also in late 2012, the forecourt was acquired and rebranded to Shell following Total's nationwide shutdown. The site gained Shell's own-branded Select store.
Euro Garages added a Greggs store next to the Starbucks café in 2018 in a new extension to the existing building. The filling station store was rebranded from Shell's own Select to Budgens in the same year.
Alternatives
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| Maresfield (12 miles) | Services on the A22 | Polegate (4 miles) |