| Taunton Deane Services | |
|---|---|
 General view from the M5 | |
  Taunton Deane Services Location within Somerset | |
| Information | |
| County | Somerset |
| Road | M5 Motorway |
| Coordinates: | 50°58′35″N3°08′48″W / 50.9765°N 3.1466°W |
| Operator | Roadchef |
| Date opened | 15 April 1977 |
| Website | www |
Taunton Deane services is a double sided motorway service station on the M5 motorway near Taunton, England. It is owned by Roadchef.
The services are located between junctions 25 and 26 of the M5 motorway in Somerset. There are two sites, one for each direction connected by a walk bridge. [1] After a spate of suicides by hanging, the bridge had anti-suicide bars installed.[ citation needed ]
Construction was started by Linked Group Construction of Cheshire, costing £0.75m, who had earlier built Sandbach services in 1976. [2] The cowboy building firm collapsed, and construction was held up by nine months. Warings of Portsmouth took over, and completed the service area in nine weeks. [3]
The southbound site fully opened on Friday 15 April 1977. The site had seating for 250. Roadchef managing director was Clive Lindley. [4] [5] [6] There was limited catering on the northbound site, at the time of opening.
The site employs around 130 people. In 2012, they were awarded RoadChef's Heroes of the Year Awards. [7]
A Costa Coffee drive thru opened on the southbound services in 2019. [8] A corresponding northbound drive thru opened the following year. [9]
The services were notorious in the early 2000s for its poor cleanliness rating. In general, the southbound side receives better ratings than the northbound side. In 2012, the Food Standards Agency gave both sides a rating of 5, showing improvement. [10]
Taunton is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, owned by the Bishops of Winchester, which was rebuilt as Taunton Castle by the Normans in the 12th century. Parts of the inner ward house were turned into the Museum of Somerset and Somerset Military Museum. For the Second Cornish uprising of 1497, Perkin Warbeck brought an army of 6,000; most surrendered to Henry VII on 4 October 1497. On 20 June 1685 in Taunton the Duke of Monmouth crowned himself King of England in a rebellion, defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor. Judge Jeffreys led the Bloody Assizes in the Castle's Great Hall.
The M5 is a motorway in England linking the Midlands with the South West. It runs from junction 8 of the M6 at West Bromwich near Birmingham to Exeter in Devon. Heading south-west, the M5 runs east of West Bromwich and west of Birmingham through Sandwell Valley. It continues past Bromsgrove, Droitwich Spa, Worcester, Tewkesbury, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Bristol, Portishead, Clevedon, Weston-super-Mare, Bridgwater, Taunton, Tiverton, Cullompton terminating at junction 31 for Exeter.
Wellington is a market town in Somerset, England. It is situated 7 miles (11 km) south west of Taunton, near the border with Devon, which runs along the Blackdown Hills to the south of the town. The town had a population of 16,669, which includes the residents of the parish of Wellington Without, and the villages of Tone and Tonedale.
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Cullompton services is a motorway service station on the M5 motorway near Exeter. It is owned by Extra MSA. It has a McDonald's restaurant which is franchised and offers table service, a small WHSmith and a Costa Coffee which is owned by Moto Hospitality. There is also a Shell petrol station nearby.
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Strensham services is a motorway service station on the M5 in Worcestershire, England. It is operated by Roadchef. In August 2011, it was rated as 4 stars (southbound) and 3 stars (northbound) by quality assessors at Visit England.
Gloucester Services are a pair of Motorway Service Areas (MSA) serving the northbound and southbound carriageways of the M5 between Junction 11A and Junction 12, near Whaddon, Gloucester. It specialises in selling artisanal food, and does not offer outlets for popular chain food brands. Fuel is provided by Esso and electric vehicle charging facilities are available.
On 4 November 2011, a multiple-vehicle collision occurred on the M5 motorway near Taunton, Somerset, in South West England. The crash involved dozens of cars and articulated lorries, and a large fireball ensued.
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