Lupin Cafe
The Lupin cafe was on the A30 just beyond Waterers Nursery. I am told that it closed in the summer of 1973, two years after the M3 (J3-J8) opened in June 1971. It is now the site of Lupin Close. ref 643.0306
A reader asked whether anyone has any recollections of the cafe in the
1960's. ref 620.0106
Roy Draper replied:
At one stage in the sixties it was owned by the Whittle family. My first truck (lorry) driving job was with EH Whittle, who were sand and gravel (and later bulk fuel) carriers. We started carting fuel to Broadmoor prison at about the time the "mad axe man" Frank Mitchell had escaped, all our trucks within Broadmoor boundaries were stopped and searched - three days later he was found hiding in the roof of a warden's house opposite the main entrance to the institution. When I worked there the cafe was run by Vera (who I think was EH's daughter), Les Taylor was the transport manager and 'Ginger' Whickens was forman . The truck depot was at the rear of the cafe. Also out the back was a huge truck park which made it one of the most used truck stops in Bagshot. ref 615.0206x2
From Miles
I have lived in Lupin Close for the past 6/7 years. I am very interested to find out more about Lupin Cafe. Does anyone have further information or any pictures? 326.1206
Little Chef
Another reader tells us
Between Bert's and the garage was a Little Chef, one of the smallest in Britain, seating about 10 from memory. The site can still be traced. ref 643.0306
I remember the Little Chef in Bagshot, writes Diane Draper (Wilson) My Mum's friend, Ella Fogarty worked there. It was small, but you didn't really think about that when you were in there. I did not realise that it was the smallest one in Britain. How's about that then. One day when I was in there with my Mum seeing Ella, a famous gentleman came in, he had big blue eyes. My mum is trying to remember who it was. Any ideas from any one who he was?? Also the Beverley Sisters were in there one day too. They probably had come for a nose at the smallest Little Chef around. Mar06
From memory it straddled the Windle Brook on a bridge that is still there
as seen in these 2007 photos.
Jolly Tea RoomsLynda asks, "Does anyone remember the Jolly Tea Rooms on the A30, next to Sparks Garage and opposite the Jolly Farmer pub ?" ref 697.706 Alan does "I well remember the Jolly tea rooms - we used to have a coke there and play the juke box .When was it demolished I wonder ?" 260.906 Neil wrote that he has a picture of the Jolly Tea Rooms (see at right) on his website www.camberleyarchivephotos.com. He also has an aerial photo of the Jolly Farmer taken late 1970's which shows that the tea rooms had by then been demolished, but the site not yet redeveloped. 7072.907 |
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![[Image]](JollyTeaRooms.jpg)
Dolly Varden cafe
The former Dolly Varden on the bypass now has a page to itself with an authoritive history.
Berts Gone Mad
Berts Gone Mad was the name of a transport cafe on the bypass, almost opposite the Dolly Varden. It is included in the Dolly Varden story.
More cafes
Another reader tells us
There were 14 cafes from Bagshot to Basingstoke. Now there are 2. All closed after the M3 opened. In 1970, the A30 made the Guinness Book of Records for the longest traffic jam in Britain, from Staines to west of Basingstoke one summer Saturday. There is a whole story of the A30 in Bagshot and beyond, to be told. Holiday jams, lorry tales, hitchhikers, rockers, Royal Blue coaches. ref 643.0306
John has written 7005.107
I remember all these cafes in Bagshot (although I never visited them). I have commuted by car for nearly 40 years from Camberley (more recently Farnborough) to Windlesham for my job. I remember following Sainsburys' lorries along the A30 up Jenkins Hill in Bagshot in the late 1960s and early 1970s and they nearly always turned into the Lupin Cafe. It had a large lorry park and the cafe was in a wooden building at the back near the railway. I also remember the "The Little Chef" it was built on a concrete slab over Windle Brook at the back of the BP Filling Station.Also the most famous cafe in Bagshot is the one that used to be in the Pantiles it was featured in the film about Douglas Barder "Reach for the Sky" (1956). He met his wife there, I believe she was a waitress.
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