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The Thrapston branch was a former Little Chef restaurant located at the junction of the A14, A45 and A605 near the small town of Thrapston in Northamptonshire.

Address and Onsite Information[]

ADDRESS: Thrapston Service Area, A14/A45 Junction, Thrapston, Kettering, Northamptonshire, NN14 4UR

ONSITE FACILITIES: Shell, Deli2Go (forecourt), Costa Express (forecourt), Burger King, Subway, Greggs, Travelodge (Book Room)

History[]

Opened in June 1991 with Little Chef, Travelodge and filling station, Thrapston Services opened as part of then owners, Forte's, plan to get a site on the newly developing link road between the M1 and A1 (Kettering West and Kettering East would join it later). In this case, it was a junction site, giving it the ability to serve both sides of the A14, the A605 and A45 which joined it, and the local town of Thrapston, therefore the services had all angles covered.

Owing to its prime location next to the busy A14, Forte wasted no time in adding a Coffee Stop to the site in 1994. Coffee Stop was a concept which was introduced to a number of busy Little Chef sites across the UK in order to cater for those travellers on the move as well as those who had time to dine in the restaurant. When Granada took over Little Chef from Forte in the mid 90s, the Coffee Stop was replaced with a Burger King restaurant and has remained at the site ever since.

In 2017, Euro Garages took over the Little Chef chain and throughout the year, a majority of the restaurants were converted into brands such as Starbucks and Subway. By January 2018, only half of the Little Chef restaurants remaining were converted, leaving around 35 to 40 Little Chefs still trading. Due to Euro Garages being unable to use the Little Chef name after 31st January 2018, they had to think of an option to quickly convert the remaining restaurants. This was when EG Diner was born and Thrapston was one of the first of these to open. However, the EG Diner closed in August 2018, leaving just the Burger King to soldier on alone for some time until it was later refurbished and joined by a new Greggs and Subway. The Subway and Sainsbury’s On The Go then closed in July 2020, with the Subway reopening after 2 years in May 2022 after an extensive refurbishment.


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