The Media Archive for Central England is the public screen archive for the East and West Midlands. An independent charity and company based at the University of Lincoln, MACE acquires, catalogues, preserves and makes widely available moving image materials that inform our understanding of the diverse cultures and histories of communities between the Lincolnshire coast and the Welsh border.
This film is part of Free
Motorway Pub
Another Campari for the road, sir? Non-alcoholic of course!
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Overview
The motorway service station had become a ubiquitous part of British life by the 1970s. In 1975 Mecca Ltd saw what they thought was a gap in the market and opened a pub at Trowell services on the M1 in Nottinghamshire. Obviously non-alcoholic drinks were the order of the day as Bev Smith reports (although worryingly he finds plenty of bottles of spirits dumped outside) but is a Swiss made non-alcoholic lager really the tipple that the UK's lorry drivers have been craving?
When they were run by Mecca Ltd the services at Trowell were entirely Robin Hood themed with the pub being named the Friar Tuck-In. When the services were sold to Granada in 1977 these locally themed innovations were removed.
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