Motorway Services Trivia - M1 Northampton Services

Originally named Rothersthorpe

For many years a Truck-only stop
Northampton.

Northampton Services Southbound, 2008. Honest I haven't just used a Norton Cannes picture, theres no fountains.

In the old building (now demolished) crossing the footbridge would lead directly into the MSA building.

Offline-ish services- the site is accessable from the A43 without touching the M1. The M1 slip for the services is shared with the A43 slip. (multimap)

If you buy food here on a credit card, your bill will read BLUE BOAR MSA - a touch of its past!

Blue Boar - Rothersthorpe under construction. This building has been demolished, as it was rather too small to cope with growing demand on the road, and the authorities preferred to see this site re-developed rather than build another infill site.

Rebuilt in 2002 and the footbridge is now no longer usable.
The design is almost exactly the same asNorton Canes, if you are inside it could be hard to tell which you were in. Its a pleasant stop, light and airy, Costa Coffee a little a slow as normal.
2008 - Several peak time stops here have found the place empty- see below. Food was ok, although a little on the cooler side for something cooked to order. Certainly can't complain about queues!
Free Wi-fi! Woo hoo!
Very quiet

Rush hour at Northampton.

Received votes so far and a sample of comments:

People who prefer this MSA	8
People happy to visit	4
People who avoid this MSA	7
Selection of comments received	Very bizarre, I used this MSA very recently and used my debit card, nothing unusual about this you may think, but when i received my statement, it was listed as blue boar MSA, Rothersthorpe is it still officially trading as this then? 18/04/2006 21:59:23 Clean and tidy. Got 3 sausages on a loing baguette with a coffee for £4.99, which for a motorway isnt bad. 04/05/2006 12:22:26 24/06/2006 14:20:04 just got food poisoning from the wimpey at this service station. Need the address to write to them 28/02/2007 13:03:14 Its a nice place to relax after time on the road. The toilets are ok and although fairly expensive, the costa coffee drinks are lovely. 26/03/2007 16:29:55 Restaurant serving cold food. Food is very expensive and tasteless for price they selling. Some Staffs are good. One staff named TAJ offer me free Danish Pastry when he found other staff served adult price meals to my 9 year old child 27/06/2007 20:01:25 Not very good at night, few dodgy people hanging about at times too 31/10/2007 22:34:12 27/04/2008 18:54:50

I prefer to visit this MSA in favour of other nearby ones

I would visit this MSA but have no preference for it

I prefer to avoid this MSA

Do you have any comments about this MSA? (e.g. cleanliness, bad points, good points)