| Winchester | |
| Moto | |
 | |
| Road: | M3 between J8 and J9 |
| Address: | Moto Services Shroner Wood Winchester Hampshire SO21 1PP |
| Telephone number: | 01962 791140 |
| Signposted from the road? | As Costa/Burger King |
| Opened: | 2001 |
| Previous operators: | Roadchef |
| Grid reference: | SU522359 (northbound) SU522355 (southbound) |
| Services type: | Two sites located between junctions, with no public connection between them. |
| Visit Winchester Northbound/Moto's official website Visit Winchester Southbound/Moto's official website Facebook Page | |
Fairly new services on the M3, recently sold to Moto.
Contents |
Facilities
General: Meeting Room (southbound only), Moto Free WiFi, Showers
Restaurants: Burger King, Costa, Eat & Drink Co.
Shops: WHSmith (with Costa Express Krispy Kreme)
Fuel: BP (with: Wild Bean Café LPG)
Motel: Days Inn[book rooms] (southbound only)
Parking Prices
First two hours free for all vehicles, after which cars must pay £11 and HGVs £20.50, or £22 to include a £9 food voucher.
Prices are paid using PayByPhone - more details. The location code is 2477 (northbound) and 2478 (southbound).
The fees are strictly enforced by CP Plus.
Trivia
Winchester's location has been slated because not only is it quite a way from the city of Winchester, but it's located between where a substantial amount of traffic leaves for the A303 at J8 and a substantial amount of traffic joins from the A34 at J9. Several services had previously been considered around J7, but these were ruled out as the junctions here are close together and busy, so Winchester was seen as a better site.
Uniquely, the services used to have one secret exit: in other words, authorised traffic could access the southbound services via Chillandham Lane, whereas northbound visitors had to use the M3. This has now been closed off. Another odd curiosity is the several advance signs for the services that are on the motorway, for no apparent reason.
The services were built in a join partnership between Swayfields and Roadchef and the opening was delayed for several years, finally happening in 2001. On the 19th November 2008 Roadchef sold their part (everything except the petrol station) to Moto for £9.5 million as they were looking to channel more money into their existing sites, and until now Moto didn't have a service station in this area. The services still use Roadchef's style of road signs.
In June 2007 staff at the services were threatening to strike after Roadchef said they would withdraw their coach service from Southampton and Winchester provided specifically for staff at the services who couldn't/didn't want to drive. It's not clear what the outcome was.
Scenes from Gladiator were filmed near here before the services were built.
When they owned the services, Roadchef described them as being "attractive". Mm.
An M&S store was planned here but the plans were put on ice.
Here, the BP filling stations are owned by Extra, and the Days Inn is owned by Welcome Break.
Survey Results
In May 2012, Visit England rated the services as 3 stars. In August 2011, they gave them 4 stars.
Alternatives
| Previous: | Next: | |
| Fleet (23 miles) | Services on the M3 |
none on M3 Rownhams (M27 west, 13 miles) Farlington (A27, 33 miles) |
| none nearby | Moto services | none |
With thanks to the user 'grizzle' for the information used on this page.