Rotherham services
M1 at J33
(also accessible to traffic on the A630)
Signposted from the road.
S60 4EQ
map and directions
Single site located at a junction.
Britain's newest motorway service area opened in January 2025, with an unusual layout where car and HGV facilities are separated on either side of the road, with a narrow path between the two which ensures you're not forever kept apart by the Catcliffe Roundabout.
Facilities
Catering: Burger King, Chopstix Noodle Bar, KFC, Pret A Manger, Starbucks, The Good Breakfast, Starbucks Drive Thru, Hershey's Freeze, Jolly Rancher Slush, Krispy Kreme, Reese's Freeze, Starbucks on the Go Shops: Little Waitrose & Partners, WHSmith Amenities: Changing Places, Children's Play Area, Game Zone, Showers Outdoor Space: Picnic Tables; Outdoor Exercise Area; grass verge around car park Charging Points: Applegreen Electric 350kW; Tesla Supercharger 250kW Forecourt: Welcome Break, The Phat Pasty Co., Rollover, Starbucks on the Go
Rotherham HGV Forecourt
Amenities: Fitness Suite, Game Zone, Wash.ME, Showers Outdoor Space: No grass space; public footpath connection to main building through underpass Forecourt: Welcome Break, Phat Pasty, Rollover, Starbucks on the Go
Parking Prices
First 2 hours free for all vehicles, after which cars must pay £15 for a further 24 hours and HGVs, caravans and coaches must pay £33 (or £35 to include a £12 meal voucher).
Prices can be paid in the shop or by using Evology Parking. The location code is 300265.
The fees are strictly enforced by ParkingEye.
This information is provided to us by third parties. You should always check with staff on site.
Contact Details
🏢 Address:
Welcome Break Motorway Services
Orchard Road
Whiston
Rotherham
South Yorkshire
S60 4EQ
Trivia and Design
The service area was devised by Applegreen, and this does show in the glass amenity building and extensive surfacing, especially when compared to the likes of Templepatrick. It was then scaled-up and wrapped in timber cladding to suit Welcome Break's styling. The forecourt was originally going to be attached to the main building, with parking all around that, but it was moved to the other side of the car park.
Welcome Break said the interior was "designed to look and feel just like a Yorkshire village". The back wall is labelled "Welcome Street", with the Game Zone and Pret A Manger units having painted muntins on the front windows and a fake pitched roof, putting them both in an enclosed space. Chopstix has fake upstairs windows, with Burger King next to it and KFC looking like an outdoor food counter, though the food units do still have digital shop signage. There's an escalator up to the mezzanine level which runs above these units, which has a 'Funhouse' branded play area and a remote working hub.
The row on the right, labelled "Retail Road", has the Waitrose and WHSmith stores, also with the upstairs windows and painted muntins. The theme continues with globe lights, a fake fountain in the middle and even the defibrillator is sheltered within the front of a reproduced classic red phone box; all in contrast to the tall and very industrial roof above the dining area. Only the Starbucks at the front has a more modern canopy hanging over it.
The separate HGV drivers' amenity building looks more like a forecourt shop, with front windows and an overhanging roof. Inside is a shop with its own hot food sections, as well as a game arcade and small fitness centre in the corners. It's extremely unusual to have separate amenity buildings like this; in this case it is dictated by the land available and the fact that the farm access already ran in a tunnel under the road, but Welcome Break may be about to operate more combined truckstop and service areas.
Outside are around 500 car parking spaces as well as around 20 for motorbikes, 70 for HGVs, 15 for coaches and 18 for caravans. A first for the motorway network is the outdoor exercise area made out of play equipment. Following a cost increase, £55million was spent on the project, with 300 jobs being created.
A new public bus service launched on the same day that the service area opened. This is necessary because the Catcliffe Roundabout has a ban on all pedestrians and cyclists; an unusual restriction which means that, even though Rotherham services isn't directly on the motorway, you are still banned from walking there.
Road Layout
The unusual road layout does allow the traffic flow to be split across two roads, operating anti-clockwise around the junction. This means there is no need to turn right directly across the busy A630. It also reduces the impact on the environment by nestling into a tighter space.
The down-side of this seemingly ingenious layout is that no matter whether you are heading north or south along the M1, at some point you do need to turn right around a large section of the busy roundabout, often by driving in a figure of eight. The exit position means you have to go through two large sets of traffic lights before you can even rejoin the roundabout, giving all motorway traffic five sets of traffic lights in total for each visit. This does suggest that the facilities, especially the drive thru coffee shop, will have more of an appeal with locals who already have to use the giant roundabout anyway.
The emergency entrance at the back of the building is also an original farm access. For any abnormal loads too large to use the underpass, an additional exit has been provided which feeds directly onto the A630. Signs and barriers in the lorry park have been designed so they can be removed if such a large vehicle needs help turning around.
Planning History

See also: M1 Planning Applications
When the M1 was built in the 1960s, there was provision for a full motorway service area north of J35, at Chapeltown. This was soon cancelled, leading to debate over whether it was needed. In more recent times, Roadchef and Extra worked on an unsuccessful project to build a service area at M1 J35 in the early 1990s. Extra then secured planning permission for their own project at Smithy Wood in March 2014.
Extra's proposal was deeply unpopular with residents, but Extra argued that it was the only suitable location, and that they were obliged to fill the 42 mile gap in facilities between Woolley Edge and Doncaster (North), even if this was not an especially logical route. That plan was put on hold when Applegreen announced their idea for this service area in March 2017, with them initially calling it Rotherham & Sheffield Gateway. This one was opposed by Extra and Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, but secured planning permission in November 2019, prompting Extra to abandon their rival proposal in January 2020. Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council were thought to have been won over by Applegreen's offer to widen part of the roundabout.
Applegreen's land had previously held planning permission for use as two hotels, a pub-restaurant and a petrol station. With more development opening up in the area, it seemed inevitable that the land would be converted to retail use at some point. This was one of many plans they made to try to break into the UK motorway service area market, with the unusual external layout showing how keen they were to exploit any available land.
Applegreen took control of Welcome Break in January 2019, and from this point it became clear that they would open it as a Welcome Break service area, rather than their own, with Welcome Break calling it 'Rotherham services'. This meant Welcome Break's nearby Woodall services had gone from being a rival to becoming a copy-cat.
Work started in summer 2023, with HML Construction being the contractor. The service area opened on 17 January 2025, but the motorway signs were installed in time for an earlier opening date, causing some confusion. Unleaded fuel cost 160.9p per litre. BBC Radio Sheffield presented an outside broadcast from the service area on 24 January, with a celebratory event held there the next day.
Alternatives
Previous: | Next: | |
Woodall (9 miles) Doncaster (North) (M18, 23 miles) Blyth (A1(M) south, 19 miles) | Services on the M1 | Woolley Edge (20 miles) |
Parkway (4 miles) | Services on the A630 | none |
Woodall (9 miles) | Welcome Break services | Hartshead Moor (M62 west, 40 miles) |
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