Pease Pottage

Pease Pottage
Moto
10 more photos in the gallery
Road:	M23 at J11 (also accessible to traffic on the A23 and the A264)
Address:	Moto Break Pease Pottage Motorway Services Area Brighton Road Pease Pottage Crawley West Sussex RH11 9YA
Telephone number:	01293 562852
Signposted from the road?	As Burger King/Costa/M&S
Opened:	1993
Previous operators:	Welcome Break, Granada
Grid reference:	TQ263332
Services type:	Single site located at a junction.
Visit Pease Pottage/Moto's official website

The only 'proper' services on the M23/A23 route and the last for almost 100 miles, Pease Pottage is very small and struggles as soon as two or more coaches try and stop at the same time.

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Facilities

General: Picnic Tables, Local Information, Wi-Fi
Restaurants: Eat & Drink Co., Burger King, Costa Coffee
Shops: WH Smith, Marks and Spencer Simply Food
Fuel: BP with pumps for Unleaded, Ultimate Unleaded, Diesel, Ultimate Diesel, LPG and AdBlue
Motel: none

Parking Prices

First two hours free for all vehicles, after which cars must pay £8 and HGVs £18, or £20 to include a £7.50 food voucher.

Prices can be paid through the phone, with instructions in each car park. They are strictly enforced by CP Plus.

Trivia

Pease Pottage is unofficially the smallest service area in the UK, however this title is now being questioned after Chieveley was upgraded.

Given its lack of size you could be forgiven for thinking the services aren't needed. For over 15 years, heading north it was 100 miles to the next services - Toddington on the M1 and Oxford on the M40. Thankfully, two new services, Cobham on the M25 and Beaconsfield on the M40, have plugged the gap, but Pease Pottage is still quite isolated.

As the services are situated within Pease Pottage, a small village with few shops, they act as a corner shop to the residents, who can access it via a bridge over the A23 and a path round the side. This isn't actually allowed, as motorway services can't be built or designed in any way so that people will be making journeys just to visit them. I suppose because the extra visitors are pedestrians the Highways Agency have turned a blind eye to it.

To give you an idea just how small the services are, you need to consider how few facilities it has. The Marks and Spencer is a new build, built as an extension to the main site. The retail store was recently converted to a WH Smith, and at some point the showers were removed to get that little bit more space.

There was a sign on the M23 southbound which stated the distance to Pease Pottage, but under the name 'Moto GU221', with the 'GU221' being in a smaller font. It turned out that even the Highways Agency were completely unaware of this, but in December 2005 they found out and, after not even they knew why it was there, patched it over. Maybe it was added by someone as a joke, referring to Moto Guzzi the Italian motorcycle manufacturer?

The services were built by Welcome Break, but they became Granada (now Moto)'s after the Fortes and Granada merge/diverge mess, which is what happened at Sutton Scotney on the A34.

Survey Results

In 2006 the services won a four star loo award.

Alternatives

Comments and Reviews

Showing the most recent responses only: for the full thread and the ability to edit your own posts, you need to view the topic in the forums.
Author: Message: Al The food is incredibly expensive and the servicve is pathetic I had my dinner at the MOTO restaurant and the food cost me £12 and the potatoes were raw and uncooked. I also saw the cook REFRYING the chips just so that they tasted fresh. This is misleading and cheating[/b][/b] Posted: 19 May 2010, 12:54 Duncan Some form of patio seems to be getting built outside the Burger King here. Not sure why, as you only look out on the car park. Toilet extension progressing well. Interesting in view of the MSA vs TRSA debate in that the new AA Road Atlas shows Pease Pottage as a TRSA, even though it is signposted from the M23. Posted: 13 Mar 2010, 23:07 Duncan Moto have started to build a toilet extension here. This is well overdue - the Gents has only four cubicles. Posted: 08 Feb 2010, 03:13 davehammer Pease Pottage starred on Crimewatch after a robbery there in the early/mid 90s. Posted: 19 Nov 2008, 00:56 MatthewB6323 This is only from memory, but I think that part of the reason the Pease Pottage services can be used as a 'corner shop' is that at one point it was treated as a trunk road service area rather than a motorway service area. It wasn't treated as part of the Welcome Break motorway estate when Granada sold that business off. Its ambivalent status might be reflected in the inconsistent signage. Posted: 22 Jul 2008, 13:00 Johnny Thank you Luke, I have now updated the page accordingly. Posted: 16 May 2008, 19:58 luke85 I remember stopping here in 1996 on a school visit to the isle of wight, I distinctly remember it being Welcome Break at the time. However when i stopped with my family in 1997, it became Granada. Posted: 15 May 2008, 20:45
Showing the most recent responses only: for the full thread and the ability to edit your own posts, you need to view the topic in the forums.

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With thanks to the user 'luke85' for the information used on this page.