The Boroughbridge branch was a former Little Chef restaurant located on the A1 near Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire.
History[]
Opened between 1965 and 1968, and located on the northbound side of the new Boroughbridge Bypass, the Little Chef at Boroughbridge was one of the earliest sites to have opened (one of the first 25 in fact). The restaurant was said to have taken over an independent known as the White Gables cafe, which was housed in a building with the design of a large roadside inn. During the 60s, 70s and 80s, Gardner Merchant (a division of Trusthouse), the owners of Little Chef in the 60s and Trusthouse Forte, the owners of Little Chef (after the merging of Trust Houses and Forte) up until the mid 90s, converted a lot of roadside houses and inns into Little Chef restaurants in order to expand the chain. The White Gables cafe was therefore converted into a Little Chef.
In 1984, the Little Chef was joined by its southbound partner, Boroughbridge South, therefore creating a dual sided Little Chef site to serve both sides of the A1.
Despite looking like a standard Little Chef from the outside, it was believed that paranormal activity occurred on the second floor of the building, which served as the base for the Northern regional office. For example, taps would mysteriously turn on by themselves even when nobody was on the second floor. This wasn't the only Little Chef to witness strange activity, as Longparish (A303) and Burford (A40) have also had spooky stories to tell.
In 1993/94, trouble occurred as the A1 was upgraded to a three laned motorway between Wetherby and Dishforth, which although improved traffic flow, it was also the inevitable demise of the Little Chef, which was compulsorily purchased and demolished. It closed by 1994 and sadly no traces of it can be seen today. As for the southbound restaurant, it wasn't demolished as the stretch that it sat on was not affected by the roadworks. The old stretch of the A1 that it was located on was renumbered the A168. However, due to a loss of traffic on this road, the Little Chef became unprofitable and it closed its doors in 1995.
However, all was not lost as a few miles up the A1, there was Rainton Services which was home to two Happy Eater restaurants at the time of the Boroughbridge branches closing. These Happy Eaters were soon converted into Little Chefs as Little Chef seemed to be the more superior brand, therefore Little Chef regained its presence in the area. This occurred with some other Happy Eater restaurants around the UK too. Although the Raintons are now sadly demolished, it just comes to show that Forte had come up with good solutions to the Boroughbridge restaurants closing and successfully kept Little Chef's presence in the area up until 2010.