The Buckland branch was a former Little Chef restaurant located on the A420 near Faringdon, Oxfordshire.
Address and Onsite Facilities[]
ADDRESS: A420, Buckland, Faringdon, Oxfordshire, SN7 8PY
ONSITE FACILITIES: BP, M&S Simply Food (forecourt), Wild Bean Cafe (forecourt), Mollie's Motel and Diner
For more information, visit Motorway Services Online
History[]
Having had multiple plans for a service station rejected since 1978, the Buckland service station finally opened following the construction of the new A420 bypass, as a result of the council finally approving plans due to the new road requiring a service station. The land for the site was originally chased up by the same family who owned Barton Stacey services on the A303, but was then sold to Forte, who built a Little Chef on site around 1991/92. Prior to this, Forte had plans to convert the Plough Inn on the A420 near Little Coxwell into a Little Chef, but later settled on the newly built site at Buckland.
In the early 90s, there was plans for the Little Chef to receive a Coffee Stop; however, this never materialised. Furthermore, despite there being enough land for a Travelodge hotel, repeated efforts to build a hotel on site was blocked.
In 2012, Little Chef's owners R Capital announced a massive cull of what it deemed to be 67 loss-making sites and Buckland was one of them, closing in February 2012. It reopened as Awesome Diner which later became Chariots and Cherry Pie in 2014; however, this closed the following November. In 2018, after sitting empty for a couple of years, the former Little Chef building was demolished. The site is now used by Soho House Group as 'Mollie's Motel & Diner', with a newly-built diner at the front of the site, a large car park, and a motel towards the rear of the site. The new diner and motel have proved increasingly popular, attracting the media and celebrities. The site also has a drive-thru.