History of Colsterworth services
The former interior layout of the Colsterworth services amenity building.
The A1 Colsterworth Bypass had a small garage (attached to a property called Westholm) on the southbound side, immediately before the crosswords. This formed the start of the variety of service areas which are now available here.
At the time the northbound side was still a works depot.
First Development
A pair of Happy Eaters were built on either side of the A1, around the time that the Colsterworth Roundabout opened. The southbound side was joined by a Travelodge. The garage was refurbished and named Jubilee Garage, branded Esso. Access was available from the A1 southbound, and both an entry and exit were available from the A151 (which took you to the new Colsterworth Roundabout).
The northbound Happy Eater was joined by a petrol station branded Total. The entry and exit both connected to the A1 northbound only.
Granada Activity
Granada decided to go head-on with Forte's Happy Eater by building a large restaurant in the south-east corner of this roundabout. An entrance was provided on the main A1 southbound, in addition to the entry and exit on the A151. Road signs on both sides of the A1 gave drivers directions to both services.
The Granada services had a Country Kitchen Restaurant, shop, arcade, Granada Lodge and filling station. It utilised a former truckstop known as Compass Cafe.
The main building took an L-shape, as was common at the time, with the motel completing a C-shape. In the centre was a quad, originally looking smart with the light paving contrasting against the dark building, but it quickly faded.
A bay window, good for the restaurant but unusual for a service area, provided a view of the A1. A narrow corridor provided access to the HGV parking.
Granada Changes
Following a deal with AJ's, the Country Kitchen was replaced with one of their family restaurants. Following a deal with Burger King, this was added too.
Granada next acquired Fortes, which gave them access to Little ChefHistory, Happy Eater, Travelodge and Welcome Break. With this range of catering, Granada ended their deal with AJ's, and the Colsterworth restaurant closed.
In the early 1990s, Granada started advertising the site as "Grantham". In 1995 Granada acquired Grantham North, so the Colsterworth site came to be nicknamed "Grantham South", though officially Granada would usually call it "Grantham (Colsterworth)".
Northern Closure
As part of their acquisition, Granada now owned the two Happy Eaters to the north of the roundabout, and in 1997 they changed these to Little Chefs. Just a year later, both of these closed, as well as the motel.
The northbound Happy Eater became the China Moon Chinese restaurant with the southbound Happy Eater and motel now laying derelict.
The Jubilee Garage lost some trade to the new, larger service area.
Main Restaurant Reopens
With Granada closing the two northern restaurants, they opened a large Little Chef in the main, newer, Colsterworth building, next to the existing Burger King. The Granada Lodge would have become a Travelodge.
All of Granada's brands were merged with Compass in 2001, causing the company to be re-branded Moto. In practice, Moto treated this site as a Little Chef site, and Granada's branding was replaced by Little Chef's.
In 2002 Compass sold Little Chef and Travelodge, but at Colsterworth Moto kept control of the land. Moto also kept Grantham North.
In 2006, Coffee Tempo! was added to the services. This became Little Chef Express in 2012, which closed in 2018.
Recent Changes
The opening of the new Colsterworth Flyover in 2008 changed the access arrangement for some of the facilities. Travelling south, the main Granada service area was now marginally less visible, while the entrance to The Jubilee Garage was now clearly visible to northbound traffic using the flyover.
In 2014, the main forecourt was re-branded to BP. Under MRH ownership, a Hursts store was added.
The restaurants in the main amenity building were sold to Euro Garages in 2017 who had a year to re-brand the Little Chef following their purchase of the rights to the brand for one year only. At the last moment they changed it to EG Diner, which closed in October 2018. During autumn 2019, the main amenity building underwent major refurbishment works: the bay window facing the A1 was removed and a refurbished Burger King Drive Thru opened alongside a new addition of Greggs. The former Subway store in the forecourt also closed and relocated to the main amenity building as part of these works however, following the COVID-19 lockdown, the new Subway store in the main building also permanently closed.
Moto still owned the main southbound filling station for a while, however it is on a long term lease to ROC. They handed it to Euro Garages in late 2013, making Euro Garages the main operator here.
Jubilee Garage Changes
The Jubilee Garage was re-branded to Jet. However, in 2017 the Jubilee Garage was rebranded to BP. In 2018, plans to demolish the former Happy Eater and Travelodge situated behind the Jubilee Garage emerged. McDonald's demolished the two buildings and erected a single-storey building with drive-thru lane and children's play area in their place. This opened in October 2019.