The Bere Regis branch was a former Little Chef restaurant located on the A31 near Bere Regis, Dorset.
Address and Onsite Facilities[]
ADDRESS: Red Post Services, A31, Winterbourne Zelston, Bere Regis, Dorset, DT11 9EX
FACILITIES: BP (forecourt), Greggs (forecourt), Asda Express (forecourt)
For more information, visit Motorway Services Online
History[]
The services first opened in 1981 and was home to a filling station and a Happy Eater restaurant, which opened in 1985. The duo of facilities made up the Red Post service area which gained its name from a crossroad nearby which had a red fingerpost often used in navigation when prisoners were being transported from Dorchester Prison to Poole. The prison wardens would've been told to "turn right at the red post" when transporting prisoners.
Along with Happy Eater, Little Chef was also a roadside restaurant chain which was growing all over the UK. However, out of the two, then owners Forte saw that Little Chef was the more lucrative brand, thus between the early to late 90s, a majority of existing Happy Eater sites were converted into Little Chefs by Forte and by 1997, Bere Regis Happy Eater had joined the Little Chef portfolio.
In its Little Chef guise, Bere Regis seemed to be a decent Little Chef site. Although quite a rural site located miles away from the nearest town, the lack of alternatives nearby made Bere Regis an attractive Little Chef site, not only for regular commuters who use the A31 but also for holidaymakers, who would use this section of road to gain access to the west of England.
A BP filling station opened within the services by 2011, replacing the former Total which had operated for a number of years.
In March 2011, the restaurant was subjected to an armed robbery, where two members of staff were tied up, and one of their cars was used as a getaway vehicle. There are no reports to suggest there were ever any arrests or convictions.
In August 2014, the Little Chef was joined by a Subway outlet as part of then owners, Kout Food Group's plan to replace Little Chef Express.
In 2017, Euro Garages took over the Little Chef chain and throughout the year, a majority of the restaurants were converted into brands such as Starbucks and Greggs. By January 2018, only half of the Little Chef restaurants remaining were converted, leaving around 35 to 40 Little Chefs still trading. Due to Euro Garages being unable to use the Little Chef name after 31st January 2018, they had to think of an option to quickly convert the remaining restaurants. This was when EG Diner was born and Bere Regis was one of the first of these to open. However, at the end of Summer 2018, the EG Diner ceased trading, leaving the Subway to soldier on alone. Unexpectedly, the BP filling station later closed its doors in late 2018, followed by the closure of the Subway in March 2019. This left an abandoned eyesore on the side of the A31. In 2020, a small fast-food van named 'food to go' opened in the former BP forecourt. After just a few months of trading, the burger van disappeared from the forecourt leaving the services abandoned again.
In 2021, Euro Garages submitted plans to demolish the entire site. In their plans they stated that they will build a larger forecourt in place of the former one and Little Chef. They also stated that they would build a stand-alone coffee shop with a drive thru in the former car park area. Their plans were later approved by Dorset Council and work started on demolishing the former services in November 2021. The coffee shop was originally thought to be a Starbucks due to Euro Garages opening a lot of Starbucks coffee shops around this time. This rumour turned out to be false when a reporter from news website 'Dorset Live' noticed that a LEON Drive Thru had been built instead. The former Little Chef building was demolished, replaced with an 'Asda On The Move' convenience store, with concession stands for companies such as 'Greggs' and 'Wicked Vape'. This Asda On The Move Store is the first of its kind in Dorset. The BP filling station returned in December 2022 with the new forecourt, convenience store and LEON drive thru. The latter has sat unused since completion.
