marshman:
There was the Four Oaks just a bit further east.
Still there, according to my Google Streets. Haven’t been that way in 30 years though myself.
Spardo:
marshman:
There was the Four Oaks just a bit further east.Still there, according to my Google Streets. Haven’t been that way in 30 years though myself.
That was were I had my 1st night out inn 1971.I remember there was guy who parked you up according to the time you were leaving in the morning, no chance of overlying…I seem to remember there was a club next door as well.The good old days.
regards dave 
dafdave:
Georges was a great café with a great man at the helm.Only prob was restricted parking.You could park on the ind. est. across the rd but I always managed to squeeze onto the café.A lot better than that silvertown dump.
regards dave.
he was a real pleasent bloke.always glad to see you !!
Particularly if you were a good looking young lad! 
Retired Old ■■■■:
Particularly if you were a good looking young lad!
regards dave.
dafdave:
Spardo:
marshman:
There was the Four Oaks just a bit further east.Still there, according to my Google Streets. Haven’t been that way in 30 years though myself.
That was were I had my 1st night out inn 1971.I remember there was guy who parked you up according to the time you were leaving in the morning, no chance of overlying…I seem to remember there was a club next door as well.The good old days.
regards dave
You very often had to back in off the A13 Dave. Late starters at back (nearly all BRS) and early starters at front - like me.
Chris Webb:
dafdave:
Spardo:
marshman:
There was the Four Oaks just a bit further east.Still there, according to my Google Streets. Haven’t been that way in 30 years though myself.
That was were I had my 1st night out inn 1971.I remember there was guy who parked you up according to the time you were leaving in the morning, no chance of overlying…I seem to remember there was a club next door as well.The good old days.
regards daveYou very often had to back in off the A13 Dave. Late starters at back (nearly all BRS) and early starters at front - like me.
A bit like the top resto at Chateau Gaillard south of Paris on the N20. A much bigger park than the 4 Oaks but there is a lad there each night doing just that, early starters at the front etc. One night he put me behind a Belgian who was supposedly leaving at 4am, the same time as me, but he was still curtained up at 3.30 when I went in for breakfast and no change when I was ready to go at 4. I had a timed delivery for a plane at Charles de Gaulle and couldn’t be late so knocked him at 4.15 to get him to move forward a bit and let me out. He didn’t complain, perhaps he was grateful for not oversleeping anymore. 
I made the plane. 
Chris Webb:
dafdave:
Spardo:
marshman:
There was the Four Oaks just a bit further east.Still there, according to my Google Streets. Haven’t been that way in 30 years though myself.
That was were I had my 1st night out inn 1971.I remember there was guy who parked you up according to the time you were leaving in the morning, no chance of overlying…I seem to remember there was a club next door as well.The good old days.
regards daveYou very often had to back in off the A13 Dave. Late starters at back (nearly all BRS) and early starters at front - like me.
Your memorys a lot better than mine.Yes you are right chris and what a performance that could be as the a13 was mega busy at that time of day.
regards dave.
Went along the A45 Sunday and it jogged a memory. Does anyone remember The Hygenic Cafe? All women ex WAAF cooks. Almost opposite the A45 Blur Boar as far as I can recall.
johnoglesby:
Chris Webb:
Big Al:
If you remember Flishflunk there were two pinball machines in the left hand corner of The Cabin Cafe at Slattocks Bridge near the counter. I.I.R.C. if you accumulated twenty game credits and had a quite word with Bill the owner behind the counter, a ten bob note was secretly passed over and the score would automatically go back to zero
Were The Corona Men and the lads from Cowley and Richardson your rivals in those daysRegards Steve.
Also there was another
one on the A614 between Hatfield Woodhouse and Bawtry, by the railway crossing at Blaxton, served a great dinner, only a few hundred yards from
an Old Haulage firm Earnshaw’s of Blaxton, they ran old KV ERF motors kind of Duck egg blue colour. regards Big AlHi Al,I remember that cafe but as always have forgotten the name and they are a blast from the past,Earnshaws of Blaxton,I can see 'em now trundling about in those ERFs
Hi Al,
The old shed of Earnshaw’s is still standing and the name is still over the top, the cafe is now flats. Over the level crossing towards Finningley “The Station Hotel” still serves excellent food but there is no transport cafe, I remember the good food there when Maude New ran it. The old shed of Earnshaw’s was demolished this month (November 2015) sad to see it go!
Two local ones to me now escape the memory. One on the A 20 at Harrietsham , just past the railway bridge heading east. The other at the top of the hill at Molash on the A252 between Charing and Canterbury.
The Harrietsham one was the Halfway Café, also the Roebuck, about half a mile before that. A252 was the Northdown Café.
Wasn’t the Rose of Tralee somewhere along that bit?
marshman:
Wasn’t the Rose of Tralee somewhere along that bit?
I thought the Rose of Tralee was on the A20 by the lenham turning.Am I right? If not I’m going to pack in posting.Regards Charlie. 
The Rose of Tralee was along that stretch of A20. By a pallet yard. Café burnt down.
A mile or two further south was the Little Chest. Number 13 on the menu was “anything
you like but no ■■■”, not that you would have wanted any off the old bat behind the counter.
I seem to remember a transport cafe called ‘Clearways’ on the A20, somewhere near Brands Hatch possibly. In the very early 70’s they used to do transport digs, you slept in some old caravans they had round the back.
Pete
petecud:
I seem to remember a transport cafe called ‘Clearways’ on the A20, somewhere near Brands Hatch possibly. In the very early 70’s they used to do transport digs, you slept in some old caravans they had round the back.
Pete
Was that the one that had greenhouses at the back.I recall stopping near brands hatch and they had caravans+g/houses,think the café also traded as a garden centre.
regards dave
I recently went on a bit of road that I have never been on before…and passed a cafe. M25 was snarled up at Dartford/Darenth. So I took to the streets of Dartford town and headed towards Swanscombe. Passing along London Road (A229■■) there were trucks galore parked on the side of the road. Permitted “on street” parking? Further on, heading towards the A2 (after Bluewater) I passed a cafe on the right, raised up off the carriageway (garden centre next door?). Trucks parked on and off the carriageway before getting onto the A2. Where was that or what was it’s name? Looked an old style truck stop. I will remember it for the next time I have to get out of Erith in the evening to park up, especially the parking on London road.
That would be the Merrychest