The Half Built Windrush Heights Hotel A40 Nr Burford - Gloucestershire

Thanks to a tip off from Batroy of this i went to check the site out which many years ago before the M4 opened use to be one of the best truck stops in the Country The Windrush Cafe.

History

Unfortantly the windrush Cafe had to close as the trade dropped and it fell into disrepair, growing ever more tumbledown throughout the 1990s. With the new millennium looming the last tattered remains of the Windrush Café were cleared to make way for the foundations of what a sign proclaimed as Windrush Heights Hotel.

Around 2001 the landscape looked set to be replaced by a building more suited to the beautiful Cotswold setting of a key gateway to Gloucestershire. Hopes were shortlived when building work came to a halt in May 2005 with the L-shaped hotel looking just weeks from completion.

Three years on and the almost-roofed, part-windowed structure stands abandoned to the elements. The wire fencing surrounding the site has been breached and signs of vandalism include smashed windows and scattered building blocks. The steel bonds round plastic-wrapped packages of building stone have rusted. A concrete mixer stands abandoned and a wheelbarrow lies half-hidden in a nettle-filled ditch.

Completed, it would be only the third hotel on the main A40 between Oxford and Cheltenham - joining the Inn For All Seasons a couple of miles east and the Puesdown Inn fiurther west at Compton Abdale, near Andoversford.

Pictures i took





































Matt

I have passed this place so many times and allways wondered what it was like inside but have allways been too busy to stop.
Been on my list for some time now - must pop in.
It doesnt look as bad inside as I thought it would. Looks like smack heads have been around there though. Its been a shame to watch this slowly deteriorate over the last few years as like you said it was so near completion.
I remember when they first started this and thought it seemed a strange place for a hotel cos there is nothing else around there really.
A bit further down the road just before Burford there is a barn on the right I've had my eye on as well but it looks like some rich bugger has bought it for a barn conversion - boo!

JulesP said:

I have passed this place so many times and allways wondered what it was like inside but have allways been too busy to stop.
Been on my list for some time now - must pop in.
It doesnt look as bad inside as I thought it would. Looks like smack heads have been around there though. Its been a shame to watch this slowly deteriorate over the last few years as like you said it was so near completion.
I remember when they first started this and thought it seemed a strange place for a hotel cos there is nothing else around there really.
A bit further down the road just before Burford there is a barn on the right I've had my eye on as well but it looks like some rich bugger has bought it for a barn conversion - boo!

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yes i was gonna do the barn but a nice fresh new gate has been put up and didnt fancy a farmer turning up witha shotgun

That was quick, well done! Did you get to look at the petrol station remains on the other side of the road?

It does look very isolated, stuck in the middle of nowhere like that. Nice explore...love the window shots.

Thats great ...I recall the Cafe very clearly from the late 70s and 80s....it was really good..like you said.... a proper truckers cafe with ridiculously big dinners and a pudding and a mug of tea all in and for daftly cheap prices........
The hotel looks like a classic project that a bank pulled the rug on..........unusual it hasn't been auctioned off by the liquidators though....
On along the road from there is the old Windrush Airfield ....mooched that many years ago...not a great deal there but worth a look if only for the rifle range........

batroy said:

That was quick, well done! Did you get to look at the petrol station remains on the other side of the road?

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I work fast mate I love Working Time Directive with the hours i work get extra day off in the week sometimes even 2!

smiffy said:

Thats great ...I recall the Cafe very clearly from the late 70s and 80s....it was really good..like you said.... a proper truckers cafe with ridiculously big dinners and a pudding and a mug of tea all in and for daftly cheap prices........
The hotel looks like a classic project that a bank pulled the rug on..........unusual it hasn't been auctioned off by the liquidators though....
On along the road from there is the old Windrush Airfield ....mooched that many years ago...not a great deal there but worth a look if only for the rifle range........

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My Dad also recalls the busty staff also

smiffy said:

On along the road from there is the old Windrush Airfield ....mooched that many years ago...not a great deal there but worth a look if only for the rifle range........

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There's quite a lot to look at, including the restored control tower and an old WW2 domestic building full of dilapidated classic cars.

Reminds me of a funny thing that happened when I went up there with Bishop.

We were walking along the public footpath up to the control tower when some big fat businessman drove up the lane next to us, told us we were on private land and to bugger off. I had a bit of an argument with him which basically involved me telling him to p**s off and mind his own business and he drove on up past us.

We get to the control tower when we see him parked up with his two gun dogs out of the car having a chat with a rather more 'attractive' woman who was parked up next to him. They wander off to walk the dogs while we sniff around the buildings (including a rather nice Type27 pillbox if I remember correctly) taking photos, and when we're nearly done we notice them coming back.

So... just to annoy them we sit right next to their cars and have a smoke, him giving us dirty looks all the while. They look a bit sheepish but get into their respective cars and drive off without a word. I think we spoiled their dirty meeting personally

I'll see if I can dig out the pics of the Windrush RLG and post up a report.

Sounds grand...I didn't even realise there was still a control tower there but then again....'twas many a year ago I visited........I think at the time there was an agricultural contractors yard in there???? seem to recall loads of lorries and grain trailers and stuff ???? dunno??? ...like I said .....many moons have passed since Ol' Smiffy was ridin that particular range heh heh!
apologies fer the thread hijack by the way...........

I don't think the range is there anymore. Where it's supposed to be looked like a very large muck heap.

krela said:

I don't think the range is there anymore. Where it's supposed to be looked like a very large muck heap.

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That's a shame. Virtual Earth still has its picture though.

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=51.801456&lon=-1.74296&z=20&r=0&src=msl

I've often wondered what was happening with that place. It's quite amazing that right out in the sticks you get grafitti and vandalism.

Beneath the Inn For All Seasons there is a stone mine BTW. Glouocester Caving Club were digging into it about 6 years ago.

Oh my! I've been driven past that place dozens of times. I always wondered why it was never finished. It's nice to finally have the mystery solved.