The Skeeby branch is a current Little Chef restaurant located on the A1 near the small village of Skeeby, North Yorkshire.
Life at Skeeby started in the 1960s when an independent, known as the 'Clock Cafe' opened on site. It was a typical transport cafe which was much loved by long distance travellers and was often used by those travelling north on the A1 to Scotland. The cafe sat about 1 mile south of the famous Scotch Corner junction, a busy intersection serving two roads (A1 and A66) heading towards Scotland so the chances of a lot of traffic passing the cafe were quite high.
In the early-mid 1970s, Forte, along with many other transport cafes, bought the Clock Cafe and replaced it with a Little Chef restaurant as part of their plans to expand the chain rapidly across the UK. In order to save money and time, Forte decided to house the new Little Chef inside of the original Clock Cafe building. After all, the Clock Cafe building was still In decent shape so there was no need for a new building to be built.
The Little Chef was accompanied by a filling station. However, this was located slightly north of the Little Chef at a different site so it didn't share the same site as the restaurant. In the 1980s/90s, the site saw the addition of a Travelodge hotel in order to provide accommodation for tired travellers.
In late 2009, Rainton North closed. This left Little Chef with unused Coffee Tempo equipment and signage. Rather than letting it go to waste, the equipment was transferred to Skeeby and a new Coffee Tempo outlet opened there instead. However, this was unpopular and was therefore gone by 2011.
The Little Chef is still operating today. However, it has an unknown future.........
In 2012, it was announced that the A1 between Leeming Bar and Barton (the section that the Little Chef stands on) would be upgraded to a new three laned motorway. Works started in 2014 and should be completed by 2017. After seeing what happened to other Little Chefs (such as Rainton North and Rainton South) which have closed due to motorway upgrades, there may be a possibility that the Little Chef at Skeeby may face closures when the new motorway upgrade takes place. However, the closure of the Little Chef is not definite so there may be a lucky chance of keeping it open. All we can do now though is keep our fingers crossed.