transporter man:
Lonewolf Yorks:
Hi guys, I’m looking for info on the following A1 transport cafes. Mainly exact location and photos if poss.
Tower Cafe, Lower Caldicote
Little Green Hut (also “Tonys”) somewhere near Gunnerby roundabout
Blue Star, Blyth. Location known, photos??
Ferrybridge Cafe probably closer to Brotherton as I understand it
Morleys somewhere in the Markham Moor area. Possibly morphed into Markham Moor truckstop.
Cheers Wolfie
I used to stay in the Tower Cafe at Biggleswade it was a bit on the rough side with 6-8 beds per room!
The Blue Star at Blyth was known as the Hilltop it was purpose built with single rooms, can you remember the windscreen stickers they gave out ‘Hilltop or Bust’
Normans Cafe at Brotherton used to be Ma Green’s before he took it over and located in an old railway carriage
transporter man:
Lonewolf Yorks:
Hi guys, I’m looking for info on the following A1 transport cafes. Mainly exact location and photos if poss.
Tower Cafe, Lower Caldicote
Little Green Hut (also “Tonys”) somewhere near Gunnerby roundabout
Blue Star, Blyth. Location known, photos??
Ferrybridge Cafe probably closer to Brotherton as I understand it
Morleys somewhere in the Markham Moor area. Possibly morphed into Markham Moor truckstop.
Cheers Wolfie
I used to stay in the Tower Cafe at Biggleswade it was a bit on the rough side with 6-8 beds per room!
The Blue Star at Blyth was known as the Hilltop it was purpose built with single rooms, can you remember the windscreen stickers they gave out ‘Hilltop or Bust’
Normans Cafe at Brotherton used to be Ma Green’s before he took it over and located in an old railway carriage
Markham Moor Truckstop has nothing to do with ‘Morley’s’ and never has been. For your information ‘Morley’s’ was, historically, where the current Shell Northbound garage is now.
night shift bri:
I just remembered this pic I took of Normans Cafe one Good Friday in the mid-seventies
Heres one of Jackeys, Regards Larry.
Normans was a regular stopping place for Jackeys lads along with myself of course, A bit rough, But Ive certainley been in a lot more places that were a hell of a lot worse, Ei The West End Cafe in Gloucester, Regards Larry.
Lawsons Cafe at Londonderry long gone of course, It was a regular stop for me in the 50s, Open 24 7, A lot of the Scotch lads used to stop there In fact Pollock from Musslebrough ran a two night trunk to London Their driver traveled down to Lawsons parked up slept through the day the set off at night at night down to their Hatfield depot, The shunter then tipped & loaded the motor for the night trunker who then drove back up to Lawsons , The on to Musslebrough the next night, They also owned the Moss Cafe at Todhills just North of Carlisle, Long gone too sadley to say, The Lawsons were a great family concern, Old Bob Lawson allways looked after his customers in the best possible way, Helen Lawson was allright too. The cafe was a bit old fashioned but the grub IMO was spot on & at the right price, In the 50s they had a big open log fire which never went out in the winter, Ive seen drivers fall asleep sitting in front of it, The good old long gone days sadley to say, Regards Larry.
Well can any of you old drivers remember Joes at Catterick, A regular stop for McPees & Capstaffs lads in the 50/60s era, Plus the Hut Cafe on the right before you got to Joes, They used to serve up very hot delicious soup in the winter months, Skitter mixture IMO, But is was very good full of the best local grown ingredients, Plus home made Bread Rolls to go with it, Plus the Lady behind the counter who served you was a real nice person, , I used to to Chat her up from time to time 
, Regards Larry.
Well what about The Quernhow at Sinderby on the old A 1, IIRC They opened up about 1959/60, It was a small family enterprise concerne, But they went on to build up one of the best transport cafes Northbound on the A 1, The food was as good as you co,uld get anywere, Ive had food in 5 star Places that was rubbish compared to The Quernhow stuff, Sadley its no longer a Transport Watering Hole,But the happy memmories are still about, Regardsd Larry
Lawrence Dunbar:
Well what about The Quernhow at Sinderby on the old A 1, IIRC They opened up about 1959/60, It was a small family enterprise concerne, But they went on to build up one of the best transport cafes Northbound on the A 1, The food was as good as you co,uld get anywere, Ive had food in 5 star Places that was rubbish compared to The Quernhow stuff, Sadley its no longer a Transport Watering Hole,But the happy memmories are still about, Regardsd Larry
A lot of ours used to call at the Quernhow on the way home. It was exactly 40 mile from Spennymoor and always when we had customers waiting for vans to load & we’d been telling them there’s one due in shortly & we’ll send it straight round, we’d ring the Quernhow and ask them to tell our next driver to come in, to ring the office, so we could tell him where to go to load, & ring the customer back & tell them exactly what time he’d be there.
We therefore got a lot of reverse charge calls from Sinderby.
Hi guys, I’m looking for info on the following A1 transport cafes. Mainly exact location and photos if poss.
Tower Cafe, Lower Caldicote
Little Green Hut (also “Tonys”) somewhere near Gunnerby roundabout
Blue Star, Blyth. Location known, photos??
Ferrybridge Cafe probably closer to Brotherton as I understand it
Morleys somewhere in the Markham Moor area. Possibly morphed into Markham Moor truckstop.
Cheers Wolfie
Tony’s used to be where Grantham Services is now, just off the roundabout on the left as you go south. The Blue Star was at the south end of the Donny motorway on the left hand side as you head north. Morley’s was at Markham Moor roundabout, I would say it was where the Shell services are now on the northbound side, not quite as far up as the truckstop. The one you are probably thinking about at Brotherton would be Normans. Heading north over the river at Ferrybridge take the second sliproad, the road goes over the top of the A1, take the first left by the Fox Hotel, back over the top of the A1 round the bend, and about quarter of a mile on the right was Normans. The site is now a car auction.
There are some pics of Grady Halls wagons on page 29 of the North East Hauliers thread and some of these were taken at Normans. I can’t say I’ve seen any pics of any of the others.
Hope this helps.
Sorry, that page number should be 28
I just remembered this pic I took of Normans Cafe one Good Friday in the mid-seventies
THIS WAS AT NORMANS ASWELL 1983-84
BUMPER HAS A FEW THAT WHERE TAKEN IN NORMANS ASWELL
MARK
ANOTHER FROM NORMANS AROUND 1983
Thanks guys thats brilliant. I’d quite like pics that show the caff though.
Any old hands remember tony:s when it was at the top off the hill leaving grantham southbound.
Tonys was apparently on the site of what is now the services at Gunnerby, which hill do you mean?
hi ,
i remember that the origional tonys cafe was at the top of the hill on the old a1 just as it dropped down through grantham ,that was in the 60s, then a new one was built on the roundabout at the northern end of grantham bypass also called tonys ,used to do change overs there in the early seventies
cheers diesel .
I remember tony was refused permission to build on the bypass.there was a petition by drivers and in the end he got permission to build there,
and by way of thanks to all the drivers he sold out to trust house fortes shortly afterwards.
jeffreyk:
Any old hands remember tony:s when it was at the top off the hill leaving grantham southbound.
Yes,I remember the old Tony’s cafe on the old A1 south of Grantham.One of the best known cafes in the British Isles in the 50s and 60s.Some tales come out of there,true or false,don’t matter now. 
Wax treatment springs to mind… 
