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Content:
Abbey Barns
MSO Home - Unbuilt Services - Abbey Barns
Factfile:
Motorway: M40
Junctions: Between J3 and J4
Location: Buckinghamshire HP10
Other names: none
Date planned: unknown
Until 1991 the M40 was the 31-mile long London-Oxford motorway, a road which was never quite long enough to warrant a service area. Even so, it was flagged up as part of the '12-mile crisis' which is why this service area was planned. The site is quite small, and being only ten miles from London, it's no surprise that this site was never used and never will be. It doesn't help that this area is on green belt land and is an area of outstanding natural beauty, so if an operator did try to develop a service area here they would be very unpopular.
To date, the M40's extension in 1991 (bringing it to the length it is today) is the last long-distance motorway to be built in the UK and as a result, we made a few mistakes, one of them being that the now 89-mile long motorway was given absolutely no service stations - making it possible to drive from Dover to Telford (240 miles), entirely on motorways, without passing a service area. Cherwell Valley was the first of three services on the M40 to put an end to this, however despite this the London-Oxford section of the motorway still has no services today, even though it is one of the busiest bits of the M40 and one of the most dangerous sections of road in the country. This is made worse by the fact that the A40 into London, a continuation of the M40, is almost as good as the motorway and yet that also has no services.
Thankfully, the controversial Beaconsfield services are now being built at J2, five miles south of where Abbey Barns services were supposed to be.
Using Google's aerial photography I have made an educated guess as to the positioning of the service area:
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.
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With thanks to Samuel Goddson and SABRE's A303Chris for the information used on this page.