Monday 14th February 1966
Leicester Forest East services, with a commercial drivers’ café either side of the M1, a cafeteria area for general use and a bridge top restaurant – “The Captain’s Table” opened for business at midnight on St Valentines Day. The first private car driver, a Leicester man, Andrew Thorp, was presented with a £25 voucher for a meal at the services, to be valid every year on 15th February for the next 25 years; the first lorry drive, Derek Lashbrook, from Greenwich, London received an identical voucher.