The Hellingly branch (also known as the Boship branch) was a former Little Chef restaurant located on the A22 in Boship Roundabout, Hailsham.
Address and Onsite Facilities[]
ADDRESS: A22 Boship Farm Roundabout, Hellingly, Lower Dicker, Hailsham BN27 4DP
ONSITE FACILITIES: Shell, Travelodge, Greggs, Starbucks
History[]
The Little Chef here was originally a Happy Eater - it opened in 1990, intended to replace the Hailsham branch (which became a Little Chef).
After Granada took over Little Chef and Happy Eater parent company Forte, they decided to close the Happy Eater chain and transfer their sites to Little Chef. As a result, the Hellingly branch of Little Chef opened here in the former Happy Eater in 1996. This had a few drawbacks however - it meant that this site was competing directly with the Halisham Little Chef just further up the A22. Hellingly, though, was the eventual survivor of the two - Halisham was closed in 2000/2001 in favour of this branch.
Hellingly didn't escape the list of closures by RCapital in 2012. It became a Starbucks outlet in 2013 and is operated by Euro Garages. The Starbucks was later joined by a Greggs in 2021.
