Abandoned Cafe and Tea rooms on the A303

Описание: In this video, on our way down to Plymouth, we stopped off to take a look at this abandoned cafe and tearooms situated on the A303, just before the approach to the Blackdown hills. I have always driven past this place growing up as a kid, going down to Devon and Cornwall with my parents every summer and have very vague memories when i was very young, of it being open, as a service stop for tourists. When it was open, it had a former garage and fuel station next to it, on the left.
However, petrol sales here ceased about 1997 and the cafe closed down shortly after (around the late nineties) due to the increase in passing traffic on this busy route and cars going too fast round the bend, making it dangerous and almost impossible to be able to stop. The government did plan to widen the road to help with easing of the traffic and in turn, also served the owners a compulsory eviction notice, however these road improvements never happened.

The whole plot of land here is 2 acres in size and was put on the market in 2019 for a guide price of £150,000, but taken off the market in 2020 over the same safety concerns with its location.

After further research into the history of this place online, we found that the cafe building itself used to be two cottages, and were built around 200 years ago. With one of the cottages being converted into a cafe, this place had been providing travellers with a welcome stop-off point here since before the second world war! In 1988 it was took over by the last owners; Sheila and Roger Strawbridge, however, they both knew at the time of purchase that it days could be numbered, as it turns out that the Department of Transport had bought the building in 1975 and so, originally it was only up for sale as a short term lease apparently. The Strawbridges lived in the cottage( left adjoining the cafe) with their grown-up son and daughter and actually managed to gain a few short term leases on the property, until its eventual closure in the late 90s.

The cafe, under the Strawbridge's ownership, prided itself on its offering of home-made and home-cooked food, something of which was becoming more of a rare thing, with the motorway-style diners that littered the rest of the A303 route. Walking into Hillside cafe used to be described as like entering someone's front room, with a radio playing in the cornered cats purring at your feet. There used to be a pile of old books and magazines for customers to choose from on the shelf, and a cosy cottage stove in the inglenook fireplace available to sit around and keep warm. Apparently the cafe offered very cheap food too, with homemade scones being only 55p compared to £1.95 in a Little Chef at the time!


When we went to explored it, there wasn't a lot left inside but there was a few cool features such as the retro cooker and high chair. I have been wanting to always get inside to see what it looked like, and on this occasion we got lucky enough to do so.

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