Guide to Solstice services

Basically a retail park, Solstice Park is signposted as a service area on the westbound side of the A303. There are no signs eastbound, but access is still possible via the Bulford exit on the A303.

Facilities

Catering: Costa Drive Thru, Greggs Drive Thru, Amesbury Archer Harvester, KFC Drive Thru, McDonald's Drive Thru, Pizza Hut, Solstice Bar & Grill, Taco Bell Drive Thru, Toby Carvery Amenities: Holiday Inn Outdoor Space: Small lawn in front of hotel building; public footpath connections Charging Points: BP Pulse 50kW CCS, 50kW CHAdeMO & 43kW Type 2; GRIDSERVE Electric Highway HPC 350kW CCS & 100kW CHAdeMO; InstaVolt 120kW CCS & 50kW CHAdeMO; Tesla Supercharger 120kW & 250kW CCS Forecourt: ASDA Express, Costa Express, Rollover, Car Wash, Jet Wash, Free Cash Machine

Parking Prices

Short stay customer parking is available for cars at all facilities.

Short stay HGV, caravan and motorhome parking is available at the filling station.

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

Contact Details

Trivia and History

The Solstice Park development has six Charlotte Moreton sculptures, one of which, The Ancestor, is positioned where traffic leaves the A303 westbound.

When the service area opened, signs were placed on the A303 westbound advertising the site to passing motorists. When traffic is flowing well, the easy access to the A303 is a bonus, but for the restaurants a lot of the appeal of this location probably comes from the regular, severe queues that the A303 westbound suffers from. The lack of eastbound signage may be to avoid competing with nearby Countess services.

Planning

The Folly Bottom junction on the outskirts of Amesbury was put forward for development in 1999. The project was named Solstice Park, and included designated areas for employment, housing and leisure, positioned where the service area is today.

The rearranged junction with the A303 was completed in 2003, and from this point traffic leaving the A303 would now be able to rejoin the road. The owners of the development Amesbury Property Company put forward plans for a 120-bed hotel and filling station on the land designated for leisure development. These plans had the hotel and filling station situated in the middle of the site in one, large amenity building with space for two retail units and a restaurant inside and parking for all vehicles situated around the outside.

Their plans also featured a drive thru lane attached to the main building, a children's play area and a car wash. It was quite ambitious for a trunk road service area and were more like something you would see on the side of a motorway.

The final plan was eventually settled upon in 2004 when Amesbury Property Company proposed a 149-bed hotel, filling station, pub and restaurant.

The service area opened a year later with a Somerfield filling station, Holiday Inn hotel, Pizza Hut restaurant and the Amesbury Archer branch of Brewers Fayre all situated off the Solstice Roundabout, which was built on the main Solstice Park Avenue that runs through the new development. Despite the seemingly haphazard layout of these facilities, there are still a number of HGV bays provided by the filling station.

Developments and Additions

When entering the service area, traffic is immediately met by a mini roundabout. This was built as part of the original service area and was designed so that more leisure development could be built on neighbouring land, around what's now called Mid Summer Place.

Land to the north of the mini-roundabout was the first to be developed in around 2007 when a KFC Drive Thru was added. The KFC was later joined in 2012 by a Costa Drive Thru and McDonald's Drive Thru to the south-westerly side of the roundabout, as well as a Toby Carvery to the far west in 2015.

The Brewers Fayre was later converted to a Harvester in 2008, retaining the Amesbury Archer branch name.

Following the merger of Somerfield with The Co-operative Group, in 2010 the filling station was rebranded to Texaco with the shop becoming a Co-op Food store. This changed to Co-op Petrol in 2017.

16 Tesla Superchargers were installed within the Holiday Inn car park in 2020. InstaVolt charging points were also added to the Costa and McDonald's car parks in summer 2021.

The final parcel of land in the north-west corner was developed into two drive thru units in early 2022, with associated parking and the installation of a GRIDSERVE electric vehicle charging hub with eight high-powered chargers. Unit 1 became a Greggs Drive Thru, which opened in September 2022, and Unit 2 became a Taco Bell Drive Thru, which opened on 21 November 2022. The GRIDSERVE electric vehicle charging hub went live in January 2023.

The forecourt rebranded to Asda Express on 20 October 2023 as part of Asda's nationwide acquisition of Co-op petrol stations.

Alternatives

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