Severn View services

Severn View Services

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The main building
Severn View services (Gloucestershire)
Information
County: Gloucestershire
Road: M48
Coordinates: 51°36′12″N 2°37′11″W / 51.603241°N 2.619668°WCoordinates: 51°36′12″N 2°37′11″W / 51.603241°N 2.619668°W
Operator: Moto Hospitality
Previous name(s): Aust
Date opened: 1966[1]
Website: Moto

Severn View services is a motorway service station on the M48 motorway near the village of Aust, northwest of Bristol. It is owned by Moto. It was formerly called Aust Services.

History

Originally opened for the M4 motorway, when the road was diverted over the Second Severn Crossing it was expected that these services would close. The original building which offered views of the River Severn was closed and sold[2] and operations moved to an adjacent site.

In 1978 a government report stated that this service station had the largest public cafeteria in the United Kingdom.[2]

Manic Street Preachers band member Richey Edwards' car was found abandoned in the service station car park on 15 February 1995. He had been missing since checking out of a hotel in Bayswater, London 14 days earlier. His whereabouts remain unknown.[2]

It has been owned by Moto Hospitality since the company was founded in 2001, making it one of the first Motorway Services to be operated by Moto. Burger King is the only surviving brand that has been operating there since 2001.

Despite Moto's take over, the mini amusement arcade in the services, Gscape, remained there from the days when Granada owned the service station despite being Granada branded, as Granada created the 'Gscape' arcades to appear exclusively within their services, with the "G" in the logo being the same G that Granada had in their logo. The 'Gscape' branding was removed in the 2010s.

A sign located beside the A403 road some distance before approaching the roundabout that serves the service station has generated some interest. The sign, depicting a pictograph symbol of a bed, is supposed to identify that the service station has a hotel, although the sign appears some distance outside the service station and gives no direction on how to get there.[3] It was erected when Granada bought the service station, and the same sign is normally seen within other service stations once owned by Granda within the service station's entrance.

References

  1. ↑ Motorway Services Trivia - Chronology - Accessed 21 January 2009
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Aust / Severn View Services". Motorway Service Area Triva site. Retrieved 2014-02-27.
  3. ↑ http://motorwayservicesonline.co.uk/Gallery:Severn_View

External links

Next eastbound:
None on M48
Leigh Delamere (M4)		 Motorway service stations on the
M48 motorway 		Next westbound:
None on M48
Magor (M4)