Cafes
Lupin, Little Chef, Jolly
Tea Rooms, Dolly Varden,
Bert's Gone Mad, Wickham's, Whittle's,
Connie's on Bridge Street ...
and more
Steve, who has contributed
several items to this website, is researching the local cafes along the
A30 and, would like to get in touch with the former owners of the
various cafes, and anyone else with knowledge about them, and/or with
photos of them, especially those taken before the M3 opening in June
1971. Any general A30 road views as well. 643.108
Prompted by various references to transport vehicles Sue wrote "I used to walk along the A30, between The Jolly Farmer and Yorktown, to school between 1954 and 1958. I remember my brother and I 'spotting' a fleet of lorries that had the names of nursery characters on the front of each lorry - I remember one was called Mother Goose. I wonder if anyone knows which company these lorries belonged to. {Apr 11}
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 The location can be seen here
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 since 2000. I am very interested to find out more about Lupin Cafe. Does anyone have further information or any pictures? 326.1206
From David Good
There is feature film footage of the Lupin Cafe. Stanley Baker starred in it. ''Hell Drivers'"was the name of the film and contains scenes of the Lupin Cafe how I remember it. xii08
Sylvia tells us
During the war and in fact for some time afterwards the Lupin cafe was managed by my family. My mother Zena Champion (then Daniels) also worked there with her sisters, Phylis, Muriel and Edna. Later my Aunt Phylis married Jack Dyer and he became the manager. Jan 10
Steve
provided the photo alongside which he thinks is of Bagshot's Lupin Cafe
and asks if anyone can confirm this. He thinks that the cafe
was used as a location in the 1963 film "The Hi-Jackers" [Aug
11]
Brian has confirmed that this is indeed the Bagshot Lupin Cafe and that it was used in the film that featured Anthony Booth as the truck driver who had his truck hi-jacked. [Jul 15]
Ken P has written to say that the Lupin Cafe featured in a "Dixon of Dock Green" episode in 1973. [Jul 17]
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.iii6
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. iii6
From memory it straddled the Windle Brook on a bridge that is
still there as seen in these 2007 photos.
location
Several readers have written that they remember eating in the Bagshot Little Chef . Does anybody has a photo of it?
I worked there every Saturday and Sunday (age: 14yrs) writes Rita Stevens (Puglisi) . It was the smallest, and the Branch No was 007..!!!! my Boss at that time was related to Jimmy Tarbuck and she had to go on 'This is your life'. I remember Ella working there too.. Great fun and enjoyed working there. (Oct 11)
AlanWoods : I remember the Llittle Chef. I was in the navy and travelled past every weekend. I called in for a coffee, and a smile from Pina. [Jul 17]
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. [re 7072.907] Another Neil writes: The Jolly Tea Rooms backed onto our garden when we lived on the Maultway North. I think it was owned by an Italian family, I only remember his name as being Tony and his dog which never stopped barking, we used to scrump all of his apples which hung over our garden. [ref 9019ii9] The location can be seen here
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![[Image]](JollyTeaRooms.jpg)
Dolly Varden cafeThe former Dolly Varden on the bypass now has a page to itself with an authoritive history. Bert's Gone MadBerts Gone Mad was the name of a transport cafe on the bypass, almost opposite the Dolly Varden. It is now replaced by a fish and chips outlet. Terry Hatchett writes: I used to deliver to Bert's in the early 50's for Telfers meat pies, sausages and cakes. I remember Bert as a large man with a hearty laugh and sense of humour. I remember staying there one night when the fog came down a peasouper and we couldn't move. We roughed it with the truckers, we were packed in like sardines. It was just Bert's cafe then. It was one Christmas when he laid on special Christmas dinner at a very special cheap price and he put a large sign in the window saying "Bert's gone mad". He later did another promotion saying "Bert's gone mad again", and from then on the name stuck. Nov 09 More about the Bert's Gone Mad is included in the Dolly Varden story. The location can be seen here Wickham Tea RoomsThe Wickham Tea Rooms and Gardens were at the foot of Church Road. The property later became Fortuna's Ice Cream Palour. An enquiry about Wickhams and pictures of it are on the Fortuna page. More cafesAnother 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] Tim Wild asks about Whittle's cafe Does anyone else remeber Whittle's cafe? It used to be at the east end of the High Street next to Godwin's paper shop. I don't remember if it was actually called Whittle's cafe, but I remember my best mate's mum and dad used to own it in the early-mid 60's before the land got brought for the Gateway (now Somerfield) store. I spent many an afternoon there after walking home from school with my mate, Clive Whittle as a young lad. We always got a treat of a bottle of coke and a penguin chocolate bar, happy days! [Oct 08] Connie's Bridge Street cafeJames Legge tells us of the Bridge Street cafe
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.
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