Lancaster (Forton) Services


Lancaster services is a motorway service station, between junctions 32 and 33 of the M6 motorway in England. The nearest city is Lancaster, about seven miles to the north. The site is operated by Moto.
Like many older service stations, it has an all-weather enclosed bridge which enables pedestrians to use both the northbound and southbound facilities. In 2005 this bridge had work carried out to strengthen it to withstand the impact of a heavy goods vehicle.

History

Opened in November 1965 with the name Forton services, it was the second service station to open on the motorway, and is named after the nearby village of Forton. The architect was T.P. Bennett and Son and it was originally operated by The Rank Organisation. TP Bennett & Sons first design for service areas was Strensham services; Forton was its second. It was opened on the Preston-Lancaster section of the M6.
Junction 33 is to the north and junction 32 is to the south; the section opened in 1965.

Structure

The services is notable for an unusual hexagonal concrete tower on the northbound side, named The Pennine Tower, which originally housed an up-market restaurant and a sun deck. The tower was designed to resemble an Air Traffic Control Tower and is a prominent local landmark. The tower is 74 ft across.
The tower closed to the public in 1989 due to current fire regulations, and is only used for storage and occasional staff training. The tower was built to give views over Morecambe Bay to the west and the Trough of Bowland to the east. Recently, Moto has refreshed the services. The tower has been painted in a Beige colour and one of the passenger lifts has been refurbished.
The Tower was listed Grade II on 15 October 2012.
The site's eastern edge is the boundary between Wyre district and City of Lancaster district.
There is a Burger King and Costa Coffee on each side of the service station. The services also has a Marks and Spencers Simply Food store.