To the North of the Kings Oak village stands the long-established Fairlawns Hotel. A 1920s building surrounded by the Slotter forest.

Opened in 1924, Fairlawns was the London-inspired hotel that provided high quality accommodation to travelers staying in that area of the Midlands. In 1960 Birmingham City Council issued details of a brand new motorway that was to be built close to Kings Oak - so close in fact - it cut through a number of residents land. One such family affected by the development was the Richardsons, who lived in a manor house with ample amounts of surrounding fields.

During almost all of their married life, Meg and Charles Richardson had lived in the large old Georgian house 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 Birmingham Mail. This small income wasn’t enough to pay the family bills, especially with a young daughter and even younger son to provide for.

The Richardson’s by 1951 had turned their home into a guesthouse which provided bed and breakfast to travelers heading to and from Birmingham - the road through Kings Oak at the time was also the main road into Birmingham. All that was to change with the announcement of the motorway. 1958 saw Charles’ widower mother die and money raised from her estate helped the Richardson’s buy the land on the opposite side of the road from their home. It had been a wasteland since the cottages that once stood there were destroyed during the Second World War. Charles planned to open a petrol station on the site; The Kings Oak Service Station opened in 1959. It was renamed the Crossroads Service Station in 1963.

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. Meg’s sister Kitty and her husband Dick Jarvis were also affected by the new motorway. Kitty’s newsagents on the South East side of the main road into Kings Oak had to be demolished to widen the route into the village as part of the new sliproad. They relocated to a store in Heathbury where Dick already worked in a pottery.

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.

In order not to compete for the upper-class cliental of Fairlawns she instead opened what would now be called a Motorway Service Station - but back in the 1960s the buzzword for such a place was a motel.

She 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 ‘Crossroads’. And it soon was the place to be for the locals and travelers alike. It seems travelers - even some that traditionally stayed at Fairlawns - 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 grounds man, Phillip Winter, 28, 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! I want to also thank Hugh Mortimer, for building the motel.”

 

Crossroads Motel has been built by Mortimer Developments, and the new building has been styled to blend perfectly in with the family home that it is attached to. The motel boasts a restaurant, bar, swimming pool and currently twelve 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, manger 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.”

It is safe to say Fairlawns were not impressed with the Crossroads Motel - especially when they began to lose custom to the  rival lodgings. The manger Louise Borelli soon set about a hate campaign to close the new accommodation down - however all efforts failed. Although not an overnight success, Crossroads did over the months build up its cliental - and by November 1964 the motel was doing a reasonable trade.

By the 1980s the motel boasted over fifty chalets after the building underwent a number of 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.

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 cross road junction was replaced with a roundabout in 1982 as part of the improvements to the site.

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 cliental - Crossroads was finally brave enough to directly compete with its nearby rival.

These developments finally saw the motel become a luxury hotel in September 1987. The once nearby lake was now right next to the hotel so a 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 and Charles Richardson’s former Petrol Station was demolished with a Leisure Centre taking its place.

After Meg left the motel in 1981, it was handed down to her daughter, although by then many investors had come and gone. The mainstay  shareholder was David Hunter who for fifteen years oversaw the business as manager. Others who bought into the motel included business tycoon James Henry Pollard and Tish Hope - a local businesswoman who owned the village antique shop.

In 1985 J. Henry and David Hunter sold up; leaving Meg’s daughter Jill with a dilemma of whether to sell-out her stake in the once family business or hold on and battle against the corporate era. In the end MIH, Major International Hotels, became the sole owners of Crossroads - however it wasn’t to last. Just over a year later local businessman Thomas Lancaster decided to expand his Red Ox restaurant chain by venturing into the hotel business. Crossroads was bought mainly to be overseen by his wife, Mary, as her own little project.

Tommy first renamed the motel the Crossroads Country Hotel and refurbished the complex in 'ole England' style furnishings - a major change in feel from the modern motel of the 60s. Later the same year the Crossroads branding was ditched entirely and the Kings Oak Country Hotel opened with little fanfare.

He felt he had taken the complex upmarket and improved the overall standard of the establishment. But Tommy's interest dwindled when his wife Mary died in 1987.

Ultimately the hotel ended up in the hands of another corporate chain. This time the Three Crowns Group took over the complex and the hotel lost its final link to its original owner; Jill Chance, nee Richardson, left the company to open her own 'Crossroads Hotel' in the west country.

© Crossroads Appreciation Society 1988-present
Written by Mike Garrett. Research by Scott Curtis and Elizabeth Garrett.