The abandoned tower on the M6 in Lancashire is a familiar sight for regular drivers, but its unique design might surprise those who see it for the first time.
Forton Services, near Lancaster, was built in 1965 to serve users of the newly constructed 13.5-mile stretch of the M6 connecting the Lancaster bypass and Preston bypass. The most eye-catching feature of the services is at the northern end – the Pennine Tower.
Standing 90ft tall above the motorway, this futuristic, hexagonal structure was designed as a fancy restaurant to attract hungry drivers. Constructed by the Top Rank organisation, the tower looks like a UFO and offers unmatched views of Morecambe Bay and the fells. It even has an observation platform.
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When it opened, the 150-seater Pennine Tower was the highest motorway restaurant in Britain. The service station was one of the first to be built following the birth of Britain’s motorway network in the late 1950s.
It was part of a grand plan to transform travel across Britain for the increasing number of car owners, reports the M.E.N. Forton Services, like many older service stations, has a covered bridge that allows people to use facilities on both sides of the motorway.
It also boasts two self-service cafeterias, baby changing facilities, and showers for lorry drivers. But the standout feature is the Pennine Tower restaurant.
This fine-dining spot offered waitress service and stunning views across Lancashire. Its first menu in 1965 included grilled rainbow trout, fillet steaks, lobster, and local favourites like Lancashire Hot Pot and Morecambe Bay potted shrimps.
There are stories that some people mistook the lit-up tower for a UFO when it first opened, but there’s no real proof of this. Memories of a former Pennine Tower waitress, Noreen Blackburn, were shared on the now offline Forton Services website.
Noreen recalled leaving school in 1966 and working in the separate cafeteria, stocking shelves with sandwiches and cakes. She said: «As I was eager to learn, my next job was serving tea and coffee tea was made in a huge teapot and poured as necessary coaches made the place very busy. The phrase used was the ‘tea and pee brigade’.
She added: «However, my greatest wish was to be a waitress in the ‘tower’ and I really pushed the catering manager to consider me. The uniform was so chic in a shade of mid-green with a pencil slim skirt which had to be just above knee level, a white blouse, a waistcoat with shiny chrome buttons and a Top Rank emblem embroidered on it.»
Noreen also said: «There was a full time uniform mistress who altered all the clothing for new staff as they arrived. The tower waitresses’ uniforms were simply the best as were the ladies who wore them and I was so delighted when I donned that uniform and entered the lift to go up to the tower on my first day! «.
But despite the restaurant’s high hopes, it seems the food didn’t live up to expectations. The Motorway Services Online website reveals that in 1978, famous food critic Egon Ronay described the restaurant’s offerings as «an insult to one’s taste buds», rating the food at the services as ‘appalling’.
The idea of having a posh restaurant at a motorway stop didn’t work out, and the tower changed into a lounge for truck drivers before it shut down for good in 1989. Top Rank initially sold the services to Pavilion, who later passed it on to Granada.
Now, the site is owned by Moto and continues to serve hungry travellers under the name Lancaster Services. After its stint as a restaurant, the iconic building served as offices and storage space for a few years before shutting down completely.
In 2012, the tower was granted Grade II listed status. According to its entry on the Historic England website: «Forton demonstrated a new popularist architecture ideally suited to the democratic new aesthetic of the motorway, the Pennine Tower Restaurant acting both as a beacon to attract the passing motorists and as a glamorous vantage point from which they were able to enjoy spectacular prospects of the motorway below and more extensively over the miles of surrounding countryside through which they [are] passing.»
Historic England also recognises the Pennine Tower as one of eight examples of architecture influenced by the 1960s space-race, which culminated in the moon landing in 1969. The services are featured on its blog as an example of ‘Space-age architecture’, with Forton services likened to a «Star Wars ship next to a motorway».
While Forton services remains operational, the tower itself is closed to the public. Photos taken about a decade ago on Motorway Service Online reveal how the interior of the tower has faded from its former splendour.
Many people remember the old tower fondly, even though no one uses it now. They talk about it on a roads forum called SABRE.
One user, mikehindsonevans, said: «Viewed through the prism of a child’s eyes in the 1960s, Forton was fantastic to a Gerry Anderson fan with imagination. Forton was the point where the holiday in the Lakes began.»
Another person, M19, said: «Forton is a significant piece of roadside history,» and they wish it could be used again because it’s special.
Rob590 also shared memories: «(In the ’90s) Forton was one of the first buildings I grew to love too. From our end it was the first landmark that you were going somewhere – Preston (wow! ) Blackpool, Manchester or maybe even further. It seemed impossibly huge, and to my eyes reinforced that we’d left our rural county for something bigger, modern (ha! ) and better,» and they would like to see it open again.
Someone else who wrote about the tower online said: «I was born in Lancaster, and used to work in the services in the restaurant (now underneath the tower). It’s always a great symbol that I’m home when I see it coming up the M6.»
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