During almost all of their married life, Meg and Charles Richardson had lived in the large old Georgian house in the hamlet of Burbank, one mile east of Kings Oak, that he had inherited from a spinster aunt.

The house had five acres of land; this included a lake, which was a short distance away from the house. Charles met Margaret when they were both in their late teens. They had studied art together at the local college. Charles wasn’t very rich, and made a small profit from paintings he crafted. He also worked for the local press drawing cartoons for the newspapers such as the Castlewich Clarion and Midland Gazette.

This small income wasn’t enough to pay the family bills, especially with a young daughter and even a younger son to provide for. The Richardson family, by 1951, had turned their home into a guesthouse which provided bed and breakfast to travellers heading to and from Birmingham – the road through to Kings Oak at the time was also the main road into Birmingham. All that was to change with the announcement of the motorway.

In 1960 Birmingham City Council issued details of a brand new motorway that was to be built close to Burbank and Kings Oak – so close in fact – it cut through a number of residents’ land.

One such family affected by the development was the Richardsons and their B&B. When the motorway development began Margaret and Charles decided to close the guesthouse down – as the work and road disruptions made it impossible to operate. During this time the Richardson home became a hostel for the motorway workers, and later, the motel builders.

Construction work began on the motorway in late 1961 after the compensation money had been paid to the various estates who lost land with the development. In the same year, Charles Richardson died of a heart attack. He left his widow Margaret to bring up their two children, Jill and Sandy. With some of the compensation money and a hefty bank loan Margaret – more fondly known as Meg – decided to take advantage of having a motorway running near her home. More often described these days as a Motorway Service Station back in the 1960s the buzzword for such a place was a motel. Richardson opted to use mainly a bank loan to create the motel in order that should the venture fail she could pay the bank back with the compensation money – rather than risk losing her home – but if it did prove profitable she could then invest the compensation payment in expanding the complex.

With planning permission granted the new motel was swiftly built over 18 months between October 1961 and March 1963. The motorway opened in January 1963 – the motel soon followed in April of the same year. Because the Richardson family home stood on the side of a cross road junction Meg decided to call her new motel ‘The Crossroads’. And it soon was the place to be for the locals and travellers alike.

Details from 1965 reveal:

It seems travellers – not used to the motel idea in the UK – enjoyed the family feel that the motel prided itself on, it was far from common, the motel oozed middle-class values and good service.

The opening ceremony was documented in the local newspaper ‘Castlewich Clarion’ – and this is how the Crossroads Motel came to life in print:

KINGS OAK AT A CROSSROADS, April 18th 1963;

“I name this motel Crossroads, and God bless all who stay here,” said Meg Richardson, 46, owner of the Crossroads Motel which opened yesterday. As she spoke those words, Mrs Richardson popped open a bottle of champagne and the resident groundsman, raised a union jack on the motel flagpole.

A grand affair for the launch of the new humble establishment. After a round of applause, Mrs Richardson gave a small speech. “First, I want to thank you all for being here today. I am indeed lucky to have so many good friends. In particular, I want to thank Mr Prescott, my bank manager. We often think of bank managers as hard men who send us nasty letters when we have an overdraft. Thanks to Mr Prescott, I have the biggest overdraft you can imagine! The motel is my overdraft, and I want to thank Mr Prescott for all his patience and kindness in helping me to raid his bank vaults to pay for it!”

The motel boasts a restaurant (open to the public) and bar (residents only) and currently six chalets, however, by the end of 1965, Mrs Richardson expects to have forty chalets open.

Reminding the attended crowd that she is originally from Scotland, Mrs Richardson burst into a Scottish accent as she declared, “There’s a wee dram for all o’ you waiting in the hoose!” With this announcement, the gathered guests ventured into the smart modern foyer. Attending the occasion the Mayor and his wife, Rev Guy Atkins, Otis Brown, owner of The Running Stag, Peter Hull, manager of the Rivoli cinema and many villagers also turned up for the ceremony.

Speaking to us later, Kitty Jarvis, 49, local newsagent – and also Mrs Richardson’s sister – told us “I am so very proud of Meg. I wish I’d had the guts to do something on this scale.”

Despite not being an overnight success, Crossroads did over the months build up its clientele – and by November 1964 the motel was doing a reasonable trade. It wasn’t long before the motel had another rival nearby. A flood in early 1965 saw damage to the kitchen from the shared bathroom facilities above. Blame was put on the original construction company, with Mortimer Properties correcting the pipework faults and fixing the damage.

In 1965 the Fairlawns Manor House, just one-mile east on the same road, was converted into an upper-class hotel by Hugh Mortimer. The future of the motel was threatened in 1966 when a council proposal to extend the motorway would have meant its demolition, in the end, the plan was aborted.

It is safe to say Fairlawns management (excluding Hugh) was not impressed with the Crossroads Motel. The manager Louise Borelli, and her troublemaking brother Kenneth, soon set about a hate campaign to close the rival accommodation down – however, all efforts failed. Things took a turn for the worse when Kenneth kidnapped motel owner Meg’s daughter Jill because Hugh had spurned Louise’s advances. At this time Hugh and Meg were engaged to be married.

After this incident, Meg called off the engagement. It was all very much tit for tat. Without Meg knowing her schoolboy son Sandy broke into Fairlawns and switched all the sugar for salt. There was less rivalry through the 1970s, thankfully.

In 1966 the motel expanded with a coffee house on the land Meg still owned on the other side of the motorway. ‘That Place’ was opened to appeal to the youth in the surrounding areas. It didn’t quite work out and was replaced in 1969 by the Cafeteria in an attempt to get motorway users to stop for a break. This format of offering was much more successful and remained in operation until the mid-1980s.

By the 1980s the motel boasted over fifty chalets after the building underwent several revamps. The first, in 1967, saw the modern motel foyer rebuilt in a more traditional style – although an explosion had forced this change. More alterations and extensions were added in 1973 and 1976. In 1982 a major rebuild took place after a fire in November 1981 had destroyed most of the 1960s buildings and gutted the 1970s renovations. In the same year, Meg left the motel, with the shares going to her daughter Jill. To help with expansion costs in the late 60s Meg’s friend Tish Hope bought into the motel along with senior chefs Gerald Lovejoy and Bernard Booth.

Other shareholders included David Hunter, who bought into the motel in 1971 later accountant Adam Chance in 1978 and businessman J.Henry Pollard in 1980. The fire proved lucrative for Crossroads; it enabled the motel to expand into a huge complex with improved bar and restaurant facilities. The motel namesake – the crossroad junction was replaced with a roundabout in 1982 as part of the improvements to the site.

There were also plans to take over the Slotter Lodge manor house next door, however not to the motel’s advantage. J.Henry wanted to open a supermarket on the site. It, in the end, didn’t happen, after strong protesting from the motel management.

In 1985 the entrance of the motel moved from the East of the main building to the West; with the entrance and reception relocating into the Georgian part of the buildings. This change also saw the motel expand with a number of floors added for what were described as executive guest rooms, the outdoor chalets were also retained but modernised for a more upmarket guests – Crossroads was finally brave enough to directly compete with its nearby rival. The renovations brought about after the entire site was sold off to hotel group, Major International Hotels – much to the distaste of Meg’s daughter Jill who had hoped to keep the motel a family affair.

In mid-1985 Charles Richardson’s former Petrol Station and garage were demolished in order for a more trendy Leisure Centre to take its place. It wasn’t too long before the establishment was once more a family run business – however not the original family.

In early 1987 the motel was sold to Tommy Lancaster and his family-run Red Ox business. September 1987 saw the motel transformed into a luxury hotel. The once nearby lake was now right next to the hotel so a waterside patio area was added to make the most of this. It was a far cry from its early days as a basic low-budget motel.

The Crossroads Country Hotel was later renamed the Kings Oak Country Hotel. After the death of Tommy’s wife – who he had bought the motel for – it was once more placed on the market. It ultimately went into the hands of another chain. The Three Crowns Group, was overseen for the takeover period by Daniel Freeman – the stepson of former MIH boss Nicola Freeman.

For a look at the history of the Kings Oak Country Hotel back into the Crossroads Hotel as seen in the relaunched series of 2001, head over to Crossroads 2001 for more information.

Information sourced from;  ‘Crossroads Archive DVD Releases, Network DVD‘,   TV World/TV Times Magazine, My Life at Crossroads by Noele Gordon, the Crossroads Years by Jane Rossington, the Crossroads paperbacks by Malcolm Huke  and magazine mini-stories. Photographs courtesy of John Jameson Davis, John Drury, James Feltham at the ITV Archive and Noele Gordon archive/ATV Archive.