- Location: Lancaster Service Station Northbound, M6, Lancaster, LA2 9DU
- Opening times: 24 hours all year round.
- Entry: Non-applicable
- Access: Free parking.
By chance rather than design, this is the third consecutive entry to feature a tower, albeit one that bears no similarity to the Abernethy Round Tower or Muthill Old Church’s Romanesque one. Whereas they are both very much products of their time, in this case the 1100s, the Pennine Tower was a vision of a 1960s world of tomorrow, of Dan Dare and Thunderbirds. In short, it was a brutalist glimpse of the silver foil-clad future that promised jetpacks and monorails. It’s now a neglected part of a motorway service station, so I fully understand people not getting its appeal.
However, the first time I saw the Pennine Tower – during the glam rock apex of 1972 – service stations were still a modern concept, as, for that matter, were motorways. The eight mile-plus Preston Bypass, Britain’s first motorway, only opened in 1958 (and eventually grew into the M6), and the M1, the first ‘full-length’ motorway, in 1959. The public’s interest in these new unfangled roads was such that a public information film was made reminding travellers and locals alike that “motorways are for motoring, not for parking and picnic parties”.
The first service station also opened in 1959, on the M1 at Watford Gap, and like all early service stations was fuel only. However, the need to provide drivers and passengers with ‘tea and pee’ stops was soon recognised, as was the potential for increased profits, and eateries were added. Watford Gap’s Blue Boar restaurant was such a regular meeting place for touring musicians in the 1960s that Jimi Hendrix, having heard so many bands mention it, assumed it was a venue and wanted to play there.
The Pennine Tower was originally part of Forton Services, since renamed Lancaster Services, and stands between junction 32 and 33 on the M6. It opened in 1965 and was the second M6’s service station after Charnock Richard. At 65 feet tall and 74 feet across, the hexagonal ‘flying saucer’ tower was Forton’s unique selling point. Designed to look like an air traffic control tower by Bill Galloway and Ray Anderson of the architectural firm T. P. Bennett, the structure housed a fine dining 150-seater restaurant operated by Top Rank. Steak and lobster were the order of the day, and the food was served by smartly uniformed waiting staff to a distinctly upwardly mobile clientele. Bar stools clustered around an open, central kitchen area and tables for two hugged the windows, allowing diners to count the passing Hillman Imps, Ford Anglias, and perhaps even the occasional E-Type Jaguar. They could probably buy the appropriate I-Spy book in the downstairs shop, where they could also buy postcards of the tower or “the new M6 motorway near Preston” to send to their friends. After eating they could head up to the open air sundeck to take in the view across to Morecombe Bay.
Fine dining and service station postcards may seem a world away from the motorway experience of today, but to quote the opening line of L. P. Hartley’s The Go-Between, “The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there”. Driving was still considered a pastime in the early to mid-sixties, not to mention something of a luxury; less than 40% of British households owned a car. The rise of the motorist, of motorways, and of service stations were all signs of post-war, post-rationing Britain, and with its unique tower, no service station said “This is tomorrow calling” quite like Forton.
As car ownership rose and roads got busier, driving became less an experience than an endurance. Travellers preferred fast food and grab-and-go options, and soon all the familiar roadside names like Top Rank, Blue Boar, Granada, Happy Eater, and Little Chef went the way of the dodo. The Pennine Tower survives but is no longer in use. Fire regulations forced its closure in 1989, due to it only having the one entrance / exit.
Destination or Diversion?
Service stations were destinations in and of themselves in the early days, but (a) this ain’t the early days, and (b) Lancaster / Forton services’s USP has been closed for nearly forty years, so in this case I am saying it is neither destination nor diversion. Just drive a bit slower as you pass and admire it from the road.
