The Colsterworth branch was a former Little Chef restaurant located at Colsterworth Services at the junction of the A1 and A151 in Colsterworth near Grantham, Lincolnshire.
Address and Onsite Information[]
ADDRESS: Colsterworth Services, Colsterworth, Grantham, Lincolnshire, NG33 5JR
ONSITE FACILITIES: Esso, ASDA Express (forecourt), Starbucks on the Go (forecourt), Burger King, Greggs, Travelodge (Book Room)
LITTLE CHEF NOW: Burger King, Greggs
For more information, visit Motorway Services Online
History[]
Colsterworth Services first opened in 1989 on the Colsterworth Roundabout and was built by motorway services operator Granada as part of their plans to conquer the A-roads with scaled-down motorway-style sites. Others included Blyth (A1), Musselburgh (A1), Markfield (A50), Saltash (A38), Warminster (A36) and their older site at Monmouth (A40). Each site had a Granada Country Kitchen restaurant, shop, small arcade area, lodge (with the exception of Monmouth South) and fuel forecourt. In the early 1990s, Granada replaced the restaurant at all A-road sites, with the exception of Blyth, with AJ's Family Restaurants, who it had done a deal with. This gave them a direct rival to Forte's Little Chef brand for the first time. They then added Burger King to all sites.
In 1995, Granada gained control of Forte as part of a hostile takeover of the company and, in doing so, got their hands on Little Chef. It then set about severing all ties with AJ's and replaced them with Little Chef at all sites; however, Colsterworth Services proved an exception here. Just to the north of the Colsterworth out were two Happy Eater restaurants (a northbound and a southbound) which Granada had also acquired as part of the Forte deal. Granada decided to keep these and, in order to safeguard their trade, opted not to put a Little Chef into Colsterworth Services, leaving Burger King as the only restaurant option for a few years. The Happy Eaters were then converted to Little Chefs in 1997; however by 1998, a complete U-turn had been performed and both Little Chefs were closed. Shortly afterwards, a Little Chef restaurant opened in Granada's main Colsterworth Services instead alongside the Burger King.
Granada then merged with Compass Catering in 2000 and subsequently demerged in 2001, leaving Compass with its Catering Division. Compass then set about selling off Little Chef and Travelodge and although it kept ownership of Colsterworth, Little Chef and its new owners took care of the running.
In 2006, a Coffee Tempo! takeaway unit opened at Colsterworth alongside Little Chef and Burger King. This later became a Little Chef Express in 2012. Despite the closure of the Coffee Tempo!, signage on entry to the services still featured the Coffee Tempo! logo until it was later removed in 2019.
In the late 2000s, the Colsterworth Roundabout was upgraded to a new, grade-separated junction. Although the services were still accessible to all traffic on the A1, northbound travellers would now be required to take a short detour to access the site.
Following the takeover of the Little Chef brand by Euro Garages in 2017, the Little Chef at Colsterworth ceased trading in January 2018, making it one of the last sites to have closed across the entire estate. Following a brief stint as an EG Diner, the main building was refurbished in Autumn 2019 to house a refreshed Burger King, a Subway (which traded in the space of the former Little Chef Express), and a Greggs. The Subway later closed following a loss in trade owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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