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Hilton Park
MSO Home - Services List - Hilton Park
Moto services, M6 between J10a and J11
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Road: M6
Junction: Between J10a and J11
Operator: Moto
Location: Staffordshire WV11 2AT
Telephone: 01922 412237
Signed from the motorway? Yes
Previous operators: Rank, Pavilion, Granada
Previous names: Birmingham North
Services type: Two sites located between junctions, connected by an internal bridge.
Official website: Visit Hilton Park/Moto's official website
Squashed in on the M6 between J10a and J11, Hilton Park is a large and very busy service area not far from Birmingham. The toilets are halfway up the staircase with lifts for the disabled.
Choose a section: Main Page | Location, Map & Directions
Facilities:
General: Cash Machine, Pay Phones, Local Information, Picnic Tables, Showers
Food/Drink: Eat & Drink Company, Burger King, Caffè Ritazza
Shopping: WH Smith, Ladbrokes, Marks and Spencer Simply Food, Fonebitz
Fuel: BP with pumps for Unleaded, Ultimate Unleaded, Diesel and Ultimate Diesel
Motel: Travelodge
Photos:
Click on a photo to view the full size. If you have one to add, contact me. It's never too late to get your name in the limelight.
 | The main building, with one of the two towers sticking out. I love the way the extension is painted so cheerfully when the rest of it looks bland and aged. Photo taken whilst travelling northbound in 2008 by K. Whatley. It's used under this Creative Commons |
 | Stand in the doorway and this is what you'll see. Photo taken whilst travelling southbound in 2005. |
 | A close-up on the Burger King. Photo taken whilst travelling southbound in 2005. |
 | The motel with the car park in the foreground. I can't think of any other service area which numbers its parking spaces. Photo taken whilst travelling southbound in 2005. |
Trivia:
Hilton Park has a lot to answer for. Its location is the main reason why J10a only faces south, and it has also meant that a whole new dual carriageway has had to be proposed to link the M54 to the M6 Toll. For a while it was to be closed so that junction improvements could take place either side, in a similar fashion to Leicester Forest East.
This isn't going to help southbound traffic, where the next services are 30 miles away for traffic for the south-east and 50 miles for traffic for the south central. When you consider this and just how busy this bit of the M6 is (it's the second busiest single stretch of motorway in the UK), it's no surprise that in 1998 Hilton Park was noted for being the busiest service station in the UK. However, since then the M6 Toll has taken a small amount of that traffic away so it's not known where it still lays claim to this title.
Each side of Hilton Park has a distinctive tower. When it opened in 1970, both towers held a restaurant with a panoramic view, but this has since been closed due to fire regulations and now has offices. If this story sounds familiar, it's because Rank did it again on a much larger scale at Forton.
The services saw a large-scale improvement scheme throughout 1999, which saw it become the first site to gain a Cyber Café and the last to get a Trucker's Lounge. Neither of these facilities are still available.
For a while Hilton Park was known as Birmingham North before changing back. They changed back because Wolverhampton Council weren't happy with something within their area taking the name Birmingham. An M&S store opened here on the 15th February 2007 and a WH Smith store has also opened here, replacing the Retail Store, T2 and Birthdays.
The bridge between the two sites used to be (and may well still be) unsafe to walk across due to high levels of asbestos. It needed to be rebuilt, which would require closing the M6 below and the Highways Agency wouldn't give Moto permission to do this. One thing they did do is mark Hilton Park as an "approved truckstop", something which surprisingly few service areas are.
Its location has also meant that the M54 needed its own service station - Telford. The name derives from the name of the stately home which the services are built on, which itself is named after the nearby village of Hilton.
Survey results:
In 2006 Hilton Park won a five star loo award.
Also in 2006, Holiday Which? magazine rated the services at 2/5.
Parking Prices:
Vehicle: | For up to 2 hours: | For 2 to 24 hours: |
| Cars: | FREE | £8 |
| HGVs & Carvans: | FREE | £18* |
| Coaches: | FREE | £18* |
* For an extra £2, the price will include a £7.50 meal voucher. | ||
Alternatives:
- Stafford (North) Moto services on the M6 northbound, 18 miles to the north.
- Stafford (South) RoadChef services on the M6 southbound, 17 miles to the north.
- Knutsford Moto services on the M6, 52 miles to the north.
- Corley Welcome Break services on the M6, 30 miles to the south.
- Frankley Moto services on the M5, 22 miles to the south.
- Warwick Welcome Break services on the M40, 50 miles to the south.
)Main Page | Location, Map & Directions
With thanks to the user 'Ziathon' for the information used on this page.