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Content:
Kempshott
MSO Home - Unbuilt Services - Kempshott
Factfile:
Motorway: M40
Junctions: Between J6 and J7
Location: Hampshire RG23
Other names: Hatch Warren
Date planned: 1976-1980
Originally, these services would have been at the bottom end of the M3 where it splitted into the A33 to Southampton and the A303 to Exeter. The services were never given an official name, but they were given four 'sliproads to nowhere' and two clearly-shaped fields. In my The Observer Road Atlas of 1976 the services were marked as open but unnamed.
Unfortunately, the land which was reserved for the northbound service area was recently sacrificed and used for Basingstoke's ever-growing housing estates. Whilst the cones were out, the 'sliproads to nowhere' on the northbound side were also removed, with the onslip becoming an emergency lay-by. I'm not really sure why this is, was there ever a problem with the workforce or residents attempting to use the sliproads as a shortcut, perhaps?
The services look like they could have been original to the M3, however one problem with them is that they would have been very squashed in - the next junction to the east is three miles away, west is one mile away and the one after that heading west is two miles away. Fleet, which until recently was the only service station on the M3, is located 13 miles from Kempshott.
Today the need for these services has been replaced by the opening of Winchester services, however they are located between where a lot of traffic leaves for the A303 at J8 and where a lot of traffic joins from the A34 at J9. Damn!
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.
 | A suspiciously quiet M3, looking north. You can quite clearly see how we should be standing above the exit to the services, but instead this "sliproad" just ends beneath the bridge. Photo taken in 2007. |
 | Turn around, and this is the field where the services should have been built. Photo taken in 2007. |
 | Still looking south, you can see that on the west site a housing estate has been built on the land. You can work out by the land shape that the southbound onslip would have joined where the red lorry is in the distance. Speaking of which, why has it suddenly got really busy? The use of the "double junction" road sign in the distance shows just how squished in the services would have been. Photo taken in 2007. |
 | A big queue, a hill, and an emergency lay-by. This was built on the old northbound onslip when the housing estate was constructed, you can just about work out where the sliproad went by looking at the embankment. Photo taken in 2007. |
 | Big lorry! I'm not sure whether this photo was taken because of the lorry or the services, but nonetheless it explains the rapid change in traffic levels. Photo taken in 2007. |