The motorway services at Gloucester has become one of the wonders of the South West, but few realise that its roots lie in Swindon. SUE BRADLEY meets the Wiltshire-born social campaigner who helped get it off the ground.

MOST people who remember Mark Gale from his school days in Swindon will probably associate him with the one thing that ruled his world during the late sixties and early seventies: football.

Back then he was keen youth player, making appearances for Stratton and Avebury, but for him the biggest moment was the Robins’ 3:1 victory over Arsenal in the 1969 Football League Cup Final at Wembley, although it was a bitter sweet time.

Just a few weeks earlier the 11-year-old Pinehurst School pupil had lost his railway worker dad, Dennis, who died after suffering a fatal heart attack at just 49.

This meant that he went to the match with his uncle Norman Gale, who ran Hickmans in Brunel Mall and Old Town for many years.

“The year 1969 was momentous in my life: it saw Swindon’s great football victory but it was also the year I lost my dad,” he recalls.

Despite his passion for football, Mark’s future career lay in a completely different direction and ultimately led him to come up with an idea that would bring Gloucester Services to the M5, a business that’s unusual in the way that a proportion of its sales goes towards projects and charities that support disadvantaged people living around Gloucester and Stroud and the environment.

The motorway service station is also celebrated for the way in which its farm shop and restaurant source almost all their products from around the south west.

Mark, chief executive of the Gloucestershire Gateway Trust charity, first came up with a vision for a services that benefited local communities while he was working for Matson Neighbourhood Project, an organisation that helped people living within a large council estate in Gloucester, more than 20 years ago.

Subsequently he and several others worked with Westmorland Family, the company that founded Tebay Services in Cumbria, to make the idea a reality.

During his Swindon years, Mark attended Headlands School as a teenager before going on to study went to study for a diploma in computers and business in Cheltenham, where he met his wife, Jacqui, and subsequently made a home in the town.

Nevertheless he says that much of his way of thinking, particularly the value of communities, access to green spaces, outdoor play and locally-grown food, has much to do with the place where he lived during his younger years.

“I look on Swindon with great fondness,” says the father of three.

“For me it was a very positive childhood, family bereavements apart.

“We lived off Cricklade Road, with the Plessey factory at Gorse Hill behind us.

“There was a field separating us from the factory and as children we used to go and play in there for hours. As kids we had a real passion for playing. We went out the door at 9am and ran around in the fields, played football in the sports ground and rode our bikes, whether it was to Marlborough, Savernake or Lechlade to sit by the river. We also had Stratton Youth Club, and we used to go up to the Hop at Penhill

“Later on, the field behind our house was turned into allotments and I used to help my mum grow vegetables there, although I expect she used to do more than I did. Gardening is something else that has stayed with me both in terms of producing food and the beneficial effect it has on people’s health.”

One aspect of Swindon that fired Mark’s life-long regard for social justice, and the creation of opportunities for everybody, whatever their backgrounds, was the prejudice he came across in relation to people living in certain parts of the town.

“I didn’t always feel that people had a fair crack of the whip just because of the areas they came from, communities that I loved; where I was brought up and played.

“I think my passion for what I do now has always been driven by the belief that everybody should have fair opportunities and access to a reasonable quality of life.”

Something else that stayed with Mark is the importance and supportive nature of families, which experienced at first hand from his late uncle.

“I’ve always had a real belief in the idea of a family, in terms of understanding why it’s important to have a mum and a dad, and what you miss when you don’t have those things,” he explains.

“Support that comes from an extended family became really apparent to me.

“Uncle Norman and I were quite close and he looked after me during my teenage years. He was incredibly supportive. He kept me out of trouble too.”

Mark returns to Swindon from time to time to visit his mum, who lived in Lydiard Millicent for several years and is now, at 93, resides in a nursing home. For a period he was the chairman of Co-operative Futures, linked to the Oxford, Swindon and Gloucester (now Midcounties) Co-op.

As for football, he supports the Robins – although not the ones from the place of his birth.

“I used to be a Swindon season ticket holder but nowadays I support Cheltenham Town, which shares the same nickname,” he admits.

“I live near their ground, a small ground that I could go to with my kids

“Eventually both clubs ended up in the same division and I had to choose which group of supporters to stand with. For me, that was quite a difficult moment.”