Winchester services
M3 between J8 and J9
Signposted from the road? Yes (as Burger King/Costa/M&S)
SO21 1PP
map and directions
Two sites located between junctions, with no public connection between them..
A service area with a history of operators, with three different operators currently providing a small range of catering and shopping facilities.
Facilities
Catering: on both sides: Burger King, Costa Coffee, Costa Express, Krispy Kreme
plus northbound only: Greggs
and southbound only: West Cornwall Pasty Co.
Shops: M&S Simply Food, WHSmith
Amenities: Children's Play Area, Full Hou$e, Showers
: southbound only: Days Inn
Charging Points: GRIDSERVE Electric Highway 50kW CCS, 50kW CHAdeMO & 22kW Type 2
Forecourt: BP, Shop, Wild Bean Café, AdBlue Containers, Free Cash Machine
Parking Prices
First 2 hours free for all vehicles, after which cars must pay £15 and HGVs, caravans and motorhomes £28.50. HGVs can pay £30.50 to include a £10 food voucher.
Prices are paid using PayByPhone. The location code is 2477 (northbound) and 2478 (southbound).
The fees are strictly enforced by CP Plus.
This information is provided to us by third parties. You should always check with staff on site.
Contact Details
🏢 Address:
Moto Services
Shroner Wood
Winchester
Hampshire
SO21 1PP
Trivia and History
A fairly obvious example of the many rebranding efforts from the current owners.
Winchester's location has been slated because not only is it quite a way from the city of Winchester, but it's located between where a substantial amount of traffic leaves for the A303 at J8 and a substantial amount of traffic joins from the A34 at J9. Several service areas had previously been considered around J7, but these were ruled out as the junctions here are close together and busy, so Winchester was seen as a better site. Many of the service areas planned to the north of here pre-dated this part of the M3 being opened.
One odd curiosity is the repeated advance signs for the service area that are on the motorway, for no apparent reason. The northbound signs all have a covered-up hotel symbol, which was most likely a mistake.
Jeff Stelling revealed that he did most of his research for that day's Sports Saturday at the northbound service area, as that was where he could get some peace. This small piece of trivia has gone on to become Hampshire folklore.
Roadchef Development
The service area was built in a joint partnership between Extra and Roadchef by contractors P.J. Carey of Wembley. The original plan began in 1995 and was credited to Extra and Texaco; it was approved in 1999 and, after several delays, opened in 2001. Roadchef operated the main building while Swayfields ran the petrol stations.
Both sites opened with parking capacity for 150 cars, 14 HGVs, 10 coaches and a dedicated area for caravans. The northbound side included a 232-seat restaurant, a 36-seat Costa coffee shop, Wimpy fast food unit and a reStore shop whilst the southbound side, which was considerably larger, included a 333-seat restaurant, a 52-seat Costa coffee shop, Dr Beak's Chicken and Wimpy fast food units and Fone Bitz and reStore shops.
The restaurant was branded On Route. This was a new brand developed by Lucid and Coverpoint, and was a trial of a new concept that was expected to be rolled out nationwide. It was slightly different to the onRoute that was eventually used; it had orange colours. There was a focus on takeaway hot snacks, and creating a more spacious environment.
A 40 bed Travel Inn was also built on the southbound side. Both sides also included a Texaco filling station, operated by Swayfields under their Gold Star brand.
Unusually, the service area used to have one secret exit: in other words, authorised traffic could access the southbound site via Chillandham Lane, whereas northbound visitors had to use the M3. This has now been closed off.
Space was left for a hotel to be built on the northbound side, but this was never used. The southbound hotel opened with the service area.
Moto Era
On 19 November 2008 Roadchef sold their part to Moto for £9.5 million as they wanted to channel more money into their existing sites, and until now Moto didn't have a service station in this area. Keen spotters will identify much evidence of Roadchef corporate branding, especially in the car park.
The Travel Inn wasn't affected by the sale, however it was taken on by Welcome Break in 2010, who operate it as a Days Inn. The filling stations weren't affected by the sale, but have since been branded Shell and BP.
The West Cornwall Pasty Company outlet here is one of the two first internal West Cornwall Pasty Company outlets at a Moto site.
The northbound restaurant was replaced with an M&S Simply Food store, with southbound later following.
In 2019, the northbound Costa store was relocated to a kiosk in the seating area to make way for the Greggs store. In 2020, the southbound side followed by relocated to the seating area too however the former unit is currently unused.
Alternatives
| Previous: | Next: | |
| Fleet (23 miles) | Services on the M3 | none on M3 Rownhams (M27 west, 13 miles) Farlington (A27, 33 miles) |
| none nearby | Moto services | none |
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