A45 westbound at Wellingborough
Signposted from the road.
NN8 2DU
map and directions
Single site located between junctions on one side of the road.
A petrol station and motorhome store on the westbound A45.
Facilities
Outdoor Space: Grass verge only (extreme care needed) Forecourt: BP, Shop'N Drive, Costa Express, Free Cash Machine
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
🏢 Address:
BP Service Station
Higham Road
Little Irchester
Wellingborough
Northamptonshire
NN8 2DU
Trivia and History
Plans for a service area here date back to 1964 where a filling station and vehicle repairs garage was proposed. An auto-grill was also planned in 1965 but was refused. The filling station and garage were eventually built by a local company Hamblin Group towards the end of the 1960s and the site was known locally as 'Seamarks Garage'.
Hamblin Group were the first to be granted outline planning permission for a 'motorway type service station' to be built on the site in 1984. A year later, the site was put up for sale through Lawlor Land Co. who submitted plans for the redevelopment of the filling station as well as the introduction of a restaurant to the site to replace the garage.
Fina purchased the site in 1986 and refurbished the filling station, teaming up with Kelly's Kitchen to open their first restaurant in the UK next door. The £450,000 restaurant opened on 3 March 1987, with a special 'Kelly Brunch' held on 14 March with TV personality Henry Kelly. There were plans to add a 40-bed hotel in 1988.
The Kelly's Kitchen restaurant closed for the final time on 9 November 1990, reopening on 23 November as the Wellingborough branch of Little Chef following Kelly's Kitchen being bought out by Trusthouse Forte. Trusthouse Forte also renewed the planning permission for the hotel at this point. The planning permission for the hotel was renewed again in 1995 but expired in 2000 and was never built.
During the 1990s, the filling station was rebranded to Total and by the late 1990s, the filling station was operated by Snax 24 under BP branding.
The Little Chef closed in 2001 and became home to the White Arches Motorhomes in 2003.
Following the merger of Snax 24 with Rontec in 2015, the filling station shop gained Shop'N Drive branding.
Alternatives
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| Nene Valley (6 miles) | Services on the A45 | Rushden (eastbound, 2 miles) Raunds (7 miles) |