Toddington services
| Toddington Services | |
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The main building.
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 Toddington services (Bedfordshire)
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| Information | |
| County: | Bedfordshire |
| Road: | M1 |
| Coordinates: | 51°56′52″N 0°30′07″W / 51.947800°N 0.502075°WCoordinates: 51°56′52″N 0°30′07″W / 51.947800°N 0.502075°W |
| Operator: | Moto Hospitality |
| Date opened: | 1965 |
| Website: | Moto |
Toddington Services is a motorway service station on the M1 motorway between junctions 11 and 12 near Dunstable in Bedfordshire, England. It takes its name from the nearby village of Toddington. It is owned by Moto Hospitality.
Toddington Services partially opened at Whitsun in the spring of 1964; the rest of the main 800-seat restaurant opened in early 1965. The section of M1 it is on opened in November 1959. When opened, it was the first service area on the journey north from London on the M1, and the UK's largest. It was the UK's eighth motorway service station, and the M1's third service area; the M1 had the UK's first two motorway service areas.
It was Granada Motorway Services's first motorway service area; its next would be Frankley in the north of Worcestershire on the M5 in 1966. Granada Motorway Services Ltd (now called Moto Motorway Services) was incorporated on 28 August 1962. From January 2001 to September 2006 it was known as Compass Motorway Services.
Other Granada services further up the M1 were Trowell in Nottinghamshire and Woolley Edge in West Yorkshire. By the end of the 1980s Granada had twenty motorway service areas, being headquartered at Toddington.
Around one mile south, on the western side of the M1, is the large Sundon Substation in Chalton, a terminus of many pylon lines of the National Grid. The eastern side of the car park (trucks) is underneath a 275kV pylon line, which terminates at Sundon. Around 300 metres to the east is the Midland Mainline, between Harlington railway station (to the north) and Leagrave railway station (to the south). The site is accessed off the motorway via a private road from the B530, which connects to junction 12 (A5120, for Flitwick and Woburn) to the north. The Icknield Way passes east-west north and south of the site.
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