Winchester services
M3 between J8 and J9
Signposted from the road? 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: Burger King, Costa Coffee, Costa Express, Krispy Kreme, Greggs (northbound only), West Cornwall Pasty Co. (southbound only) Shops: M&S Simply Food, WHSmith Amenities: Children's Play Area, Template:Ecotricity, Full Hou$e, Showers, Meeting Room (southbound only) : Days Inn Forecourt: BP, BP Connect, Wild Bean Café, AdBlue Containers
Parking Prices
First two 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 - more details. The location code is 2477 (northbound) and 2478 (southbound).
The fees are strictly enforced by CP Plus.
Contact Details
🏢 Address:
Moto Services
Shroner Wood
Winchester
Hampshire
SO21 1PP
- 🌍 SU522355 (southbound)
Official Moto/Winchester Northbound Website - Official Moto/Winchester Southbound Website
- Foursquare Page
- 📞 Telephone number: 01962 791140
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 services 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 planned services north of here pre-dated this part of the M3.
Unusually, the services used to have one secret exit: in other words, authorised traffic could access the southbound services via Chillandham Lane, whereas northbound visitors had to use the M3. This has now been closed off.
Another odd curiosity is the repeated advance signs for the services that are on the motorway, for no apparent reason. The northbound signs all have a covered-up motel symbol, which may be an error or a clue to an unfulfilled plan.
Scenes from Gladiator were filmed near here before the services were built.
Here, the Days Inn is operated by Welcome Break and the BP filling stations, which are both owned by Extra, are leased out to 'BJ Swift' on the northbound side and 'Carver Fuels Limited' on the southbound side.
Jeff Stelling revealed that he did most of his research for that day's Sports Saturday at the northbound services, as that was where he could get some peace. This small piece of trivia has gone on to become Hampshire folklore.
Roadchef involvement
The services were built in a joint partnership between Extra and Roadchef. 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 would operate the main building while Extra ran the petrol station.
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.
Space was left for a motel to be built on the northbound side, but this was never used. The southbound motel opened with the services.
Recent Changes
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.
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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