Guide to Carcroft services

Two takeaway units on an old and constrained part of the A1.

Facilities

Catering: Burger King, Greggs Amenities: Travelodge, Free Cash Machine, Revolution Laundry Outdoor Space: Grass area around hotel Forecourt: Esso, Costcutter, Calippo Slush, Costa Express, Rollover

Parking Prices

Short stay customer parking is available for cars. No HGV parking is available.

This information is provided to us by third parties. You should always check with staff on site.

Contact Details

Trivia and History

This service area started out as a café in the 1960s called The Haven. This was placed at the busy Skellow Cross Roads, an important junction which had another garage on the opposite side of the road.

The café was purchased by Happy Eater, becoming their 'Doncaster' branch, and the White Rose branch of Texaco was built next door. The main building looked like a large house, with a large extension at the back. A Travelodge was later built next door, and the complex became known as Doncaster services, though it was also known as 'Skellow'.

There was a proposal to replace this part of the A1 with a motorway, which was policy from 1989 until 1997. Had it gone ahead, it's likely that the service area would have had to close.

The Happy Eater was visited by then-Prime Minister John Major in February 1991. The press were disappointed that he left without leaving a tip. Major came to be closely associated with the Happy Eater brand.

The forecourt was severely damaged in a collision on 12 September 2002.

Little Chef Doncaster

The restaurant was converted to become the Doncaster branch of Little ChefHistory in 1996. It received investment including air conditioning and a blue colour scheme to try to attract evening diners. That concept was removed after a couple of years, and the building was instead painted white with red features.

The Little Chef featured a dedicated coffee shop, which became a Burger King and then Coffee Tempo!. The building was refurbished again in 2012, when it gained a Good to Go takeaway offer. The Burger King reopened in 2015.

The forecourt was acquired by Malthurst in 2010 who rebranded the forecourt from Texaco to Esso. At this point, the forecourt became known as White Rose. The site was later transferred to MRH who added their own-branded Hursts store in Autumn 2015. This later went onto become a Londis store in 2020 following the site transferring to MFG.

After Little Chef

Euro Garages' rights to the Little Chef name expired in January 2018, so the restaurant was quickly changed to become EG Diner. The EG Diner closed in July 2018, with Greggs opening in its place in September 2018. Under Euro Garages' ownership, the building has been painted black, and the trees at the front have been cut down. This inadvertently revealed the space where a 1960s building was.

The government again announced a policy to upgrade this part of the A1 in 2015. There has been no detail on how this will affect the service area.

MFG sold the forecourt to SGN Retail in May 2023, to placate the Competition and Markets Authority. SGN retained Esso's fuel offering but replaced the Londis store with Costcutter.

Alternatives

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