Is this the best service station in Britain?

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Most motorway companies are an uninspiring pitstop of fluorescent lighting, petrol filling stations and quick meals. However in Cumbria’s Lake District, Tebay Providers is a vacation spot in its personal proper: greater than 4 million folks go to yearly. 

Opened in 1972 on the northbound carriageway of the M6, Tebay was Britain’s first – and stays one of many solely – independently owned, farmer-run companies. Set amid the rolling fells of Shap, the constructing is a world away from conventional boxy, prefabricated motorway cease buildings, having been constructed from native stone and slate. Exterior is a lake with resident geese and swans, and in the automobile park a espresso truck serving artisan brews. Sarah Dunning, Tebay’s chair and second-generation proprietor, describes it as “an escapist oasis the place you can now not hear the motorway”. On the street to elsewhere, “clients really feel like they’ve landed someplace”. 

The temper continues inside: there are not any chain retailers right here. As an alternative, travellers refuel on “proper food” – assume do-it-yourself shepherd’s pie, buns filled with regionally farmed bacon and Sunday roasts. There’s a butcher’s counter promoting complete racks of lamb, Cumbrian-style Camembert on the cheesemongers, and regionally sourced cabinet items together with dried spelt pasta, jams and a banana chutney by Penrith-based Mr Vikki’s (glorious slathered on a ham sandwich). The store additionally shares candles (Fellside), hand-carved chopping boards (Hampson Woods) and ceramics from close by makers. 

There are not any chain retailers right here. Travellers refuel on “correct meals”

The concept for Tebay was born when the Division for Transport introduced plans to construct the M6 and put a obligatory buy order on nearly all of Dunning’s mother and father’ farmland. Again then, service stations have been all run by oil corporations that might bid for possession of websites: none needed Tebay. “I think about they all checked out Shap Fell and thought, ‘This location has no prospects,’” laughs Dunning. “My mother and father noticed a chance actually on their doorstep.” After successful the bid to function on the positioning they joined forces with Birketts, a neighborhood bakery with the obligatory hospitality expertise, and opened as a refuel web site with a small café. 

A southbound web site adopted in 1992, and at this time Tebay employs round 400 employees. The remaining farmland, in the meantime, is run by Dunning’s sister Jane, with many of the sheep provided to Tebay for the café and butcher’s. Sheepskins are changed into rugs and footstools, and offered within the store. “Most butchers simply purchase within the cuts they know will promote, however we have now to be revolutionary and take advantage of each bit of the animal. The sheepskins are actually an emblem of what we’re about,” says Dunning, who sources a lot of the companies’ produce from its onsite backyard.

The life-style part is stocked with the same ethos. Tebay works with round 80 producers inside 30 miles, providing vibrant “Westmorland” socks utilizing wool from the farm’s sheep, bespoke lambswool knits by Harley in Scotland, Anglepoise lamps in restricted colourways, and hats and luggage by Kendal-based Molly Sellars, who recycles the material from deserted tents.

Travellers are likely to dawdle at Tebay. “A lot of individuals issue us into their journey; they’ll stand up early to have a celebratory bacon and egg breakfast right here,” says Dunning. “From the start, my mother and father have been constructing a neighborhood enterprise, and on the coronary heart of that’s folks. Tebay is a group. And greater than ever, folks wish to expertise that.” Cease by the lake and scent the espresso.

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