Why Tebay is ‘the motorway service station from heaven’

For 50 years, the Cumbrian services on the M6 – now featured in a TV documentary – has been a lifeline for local producers and farmers

Almost every day octogenarian John Dunning walks across his farmland to his triumph, Tebay Services, and wanders around aisles piled high with local produce.

Currently featuring in a four-part Channel 4 documentary, A Lake District Farm Shop, Tebay was the first, and remains the only, family-run motorway service station in the UK. With 4.5 million visitors a year, it is a lifeline for the local community who work and trade there.

If there is a road to heaven, Tebay would be the service station on that road

What drew me to the services is it is not always about the highest margin – they put quality and provenance above profit

We are still a farming family, but we have managed to employ hundreds of local people – in Cumbria, that is significant