The Acle branch was a Little Chef restaurant located on the A47 near Acle, Norfolk.
Address and Onsite Facilities[]
ADDRESS: A47 New Road, Acle, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, NR13 3BE
ONSITE FACILITIES: BP, M&S Simply Food (forecourt) Wild Bean Cafe (forecourt), Starbucks, Travelodge (Book Room)
For more information, visit Motorway Services Online
History[]
Original Acle - 1973 - 1988[]
Originally built on a single carriageway section of the A47 on the outskirts of Acle, Little Chef first made its presence in the area in 1973. The restaurant was built next to a filling station and was the most easterly Little Chef restaurant on the A47 Birmingham to Lowestoft route. Given that there were a lack of existing alternatives in the area, this was the perfect site for a Little Chef.
In the 1980s, the A47 which once weaved through the village of Acle was bypassed by a new high quality dual carriageway. Given that traffic was now taken away from the Little Chef and filling station, Forte reacted by constructing a new restaurant at a new service station on the new bypass. Therefore, as a result, the original Little Chef had closed in 1988 and the filling station was demolished due to its relocation to the new services. In addition to the restaurant and garage, a Travelodge hotel was built at the services as well in order to cater for the tired traveller. Today, the old filling station is now a wooded area behind the hotel and the original Little Chef lives on as Acle Fish and Chips.
New Acle - 1988 - 2017[]
Like most restaurants of the 80s, the Little Chef was housed inside of a building with the pitched roof, double front design. As for the interior, it was something a little different to the usual Little Chef as eagle eye spotters would've noticed that almost the entire inside of the restaurant had a green colour scheme with green partitions, green counters and green lampshades. It was unknown what the green colour scheme was for but it was one of only two restaurants to have had this look, the other being Long Sutton on the A17.
In its Little Chef guise, Acle was a popular restaurant. Due to its location near holiday destinations such as Caister on Sea and Great Yarmouth, coupled with its proximity to the village of Acle, it was a restaurant popular with holidaymakers and locals as well as travellers on the A47. In the latter years of its trading, 2015 to be specific, there was speculation that the Little Chef was to receive a refurbishment with the addition of a Burger King restaurant in the process, proving its popularity. However, these plans never materialised.
Following the takeover of Little Chef by Euro Garages in early 2017, the group announced that all Little Chef restaurants would cease trading by the beginning of 2018 in favour of other brands such as Burger King, Starbucks, Subway and Greggs. The Little Chef at Acle was one of the earliest casualties of the chain in March 2017. It later re-opened as a Starbucks in May 2017.
Little Chef Remains[]
- A Little Chef trading lampost on entrance and exit to and from the service station.
- A Little Chef totem by the service station entrance, with the old sign greyed out, and with the Travelodge logo almost completely faded on one side.
