Clacket Lane

Clacket Lane
Roadchef
17 more photos in the gallery
Road:	M25 between J5 and J6
Address:	Roadchef Motorways Ltd Motorway Service Area M25 Westbound Clacket Lane Westerham Surrey TN16 2ER
Telephone number:	01959 565577
Signposted from the road?	As McDonald's/Costa
Opened:	1993
Previous names:	Titsey Woods
Grid reference:	TQ423545
Services type:	Two sites located between junctions, with no public connection between them.
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Clacket Lane consists of two large services on the M25 and they're a popular stopping point for coaches and lorries. It recently became one of few services to have gained McDonald's and Hot Food Co, with many more set to follow.

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Facilities

General: BT WiFi, Children's Play Area, Jackpot £500, Traffic Information
Restaurants: Fresh Food Café, The Bread Kitchen, McDonald's, Costa, Chozen Noodle
Shops: WHSmith (with Costa Express Krispy Kreme), Fone Bitz, Cotton Traders
Fuel: Shell (with: Costa Express Engenie electric vehicle charging point)
Motel: Days Inn^{[book rooms]}

Parking Prices

First two hours free for all vehicles, after which cars must pay £10 and HGVs, caravans and coaches £26, or £30 to include a £10 food voucher.

Prices are paid using PayByPhone - more details or in the shop or restaurant. The location code is 5258 (westbound) and 5257 (eastbound).

The fees are strictly enforced by CP Plus.

Trivia

Until the opening of Folkestone services, Clacket Lane westbound was often said to be the largest services in the country. It also describes itself as the "brightest". At one point it also had the most expensive fuel!

They are situated below the North Downs, and as you head westwards they are the start of a long section of the M25 which has no services.

The original planning application for the services had them down as 'Titsey Woods', but this was changed for no known reason (although it's often claimed that Roadchef feared that no-one would take the name 'Titsey services' seriously), so they went for Clacket Lane instead - which appears to be a last minute-decision to name it after the road which provides the emergency exits. Before the services were built several alternative sites, such as M25 J6 and Harps Wood were looked at as Tandridge Council were opposed to the services. Before the M25 was built, it was presumed there would be a service area at Chevening, but the plans were changed as the M25 was moved.

In each amenity building there is a large cabinet titled 'The History of Titsey Woods', which has several Roman artefacts which were discovered whilst the services were constructed.

For a long time the services have had a problem with lorries parking on the hard shoulder to access the services. There are now bilingual 'no parking' signs on the exit from the services on each side.

As Roadchef expanded the site, the sliproads became incredibly short so they were eventually extended to improve safety, leaving four very clear 'ghost exits' on the carriageway. It also explains why the access roads through the services appear to head for the motorway and then curve away from it.

The services sit right next to the Kent-Surrey border, causing confusion as the nearest postal town (Westerham) is in Kent, but the services aren't. Therefore, although "Westerham, Surrey" is usually wrong, when talking about the services it's right. The two buildings were therefore designed to form a gateway to Kent/Surrey respectively, and the westbound side, once the first services for traffic coming up the newly-formed M20, a gateway to England, with a traditional design trying to mimic a courtyard.

The services was the first Roadchef site to introduce the 'Engenie Electric Car Charging Points'.

The filling stations here were previously ran by Total.

Survey Results

In May 2012 and August 2011, Visit England rated the services as 3 stars.

Lord Adonis (Secretary of State for Transport) said he was "very impressed" by the services when he made a surprise visit in September 2009, saying it was clean and provided a good meal.

The services were inspected by the AA on the 24th and 25th of March 2007. These are their results:

The services were said to be well supervised with a good range of items in the shop and restaurant. The food wasn't tasty though, it had no picnic benches or indoor play area, it was very expensive and it was described as dirty, with the fold-away baby changing tables being described as "hazardous to health".

The services were also inspected by the AA on the 3rd and 4th of April 2004. These are their results:

In this test, the services were said to be well prepared and tasty. Again, the variety of stock in the shop was brought up, but again the services were described as "extremely dirty". The shop was expensive and the staff were unfriendly, too.

Alternatives

AA survey results from the Automobile Association, you can view the full report and what they were looking for in this this PDF document for the 2007 test, or this one for the 2004 results..

With thanks to Duncan for the information used on this page.