Corley Services

Corley services is a motorway service station between junctions 3 and 3A of the M6 motorway in the county of Warwickshire, England. It is close to the village of Corley, with the nearest city being Coventry several miles to the south, with Birmingham being situated slightly further to the west. A footbridge, made of concrete but now clad in green fibreglass panelling, spans the motorway to link services on both sides.

History

Construction

At Corley Moor, a service area was proposed on 14 October 1968 on a 36-acre site.

Forte was awarded the £500,000 contract on 29 May 1969, to open in late 1971. It is situated on the Ansty to Coleshill section of the M6, which opened on 1 July 1971. The site would have room for 400 cars, 150 lorries, and 24 coaches.

The northbound side opened on Monday 17 January 1972 (six months after the section of motorway it serves) and was originally operated by Forte. The southbound side would open possibly by late March 1972, when the M6 was fully open. When opened it was Britain's biggest, built in Meriden Rural District.

There was mining subsidence from Coventry Colliery in May 1975, which closed the northbound site. In February 1975, Forte tried to stop the coal board from mining near the service area, but could not. The northbound side reopened in late 1978.

In 1979 Forte opened their first 'Julie's Pantry' at the site. In May 1980, when run as a 'Motor Chef', it was named in the top three UK service areas.

Operation

It is currently operated by Welcome Break and receives approximately 2million visitors per year. It had changed to Welcome Break in May 1988.

In early August 1983 Forte negotiated a deal with National Express Coaches for its London-Birmingham Rapide service to have a staging post at the service area, with a park-and-ride service into Coventry. The service began from late September 1983. It was the first time that National Express would have that type of staging post at a service area. This is now commonplace across the country.

The ''Midlands Today'' Children in Need event was hosted at Corley in November 1984.

In the late 1980s the company National Holidays also operated a staging post at the service area, for switching regional coaches. It was not just coach services that operated staging posts at the service area; drugs routes passed through the service area as well. West Midlands Police seized £1m of heroin at the service area in November 1995.

In December 2003, Corley became the first motorway service station to have a permanent Police Community Support Officer, jointly funded by Welcome Break and Warwickshire Police.

Incidents

On Saturday 4 May 1974 Liverpool football fans, travelling south to the 1974 FA Cup final, wrecked the gaming machines at the service area. 23 Liverpool fans were arrested in August 1977, after stealing cans of drink from the cafeteria, in the early hours of the morning, being held at Nuneaton police station.

Probably from these incidents, in December 1977 all football coaches were banned from all Motor Chef service areas. Football fans had vandalised service areas and ransacked retail outlets, and Forte decided that this could go on no more; it would safeguard everyone else.

On the evening of Monday 16 November 1981, in a police operation against IRA bombings in London, a van at the service area was found to have gelignite. The driver was taken to Bedworth police station.''Wolverhampton Express and Star'' Wednesday 18 November 1981, page 24

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Corley Services
Borough of North Warwickshire
Economy of Warwickshire
M6 motorway service stations
Transport in Warwickshire
Welcome Break motorway service stations