Driving on Britain's motorways can often be a rather dull affair, so when an intriguing sight grabs your attention, it's certainly worth exploring.

And one landmark will particularly peak the interests of anyone who has driven along the M6. Here we get to Forton Services near Lancaster. This UFO-esque tower has left many a motorist doing a double-take.

The service station was built in 1965 to serve motorists on the newly completed 13.5-mile stretch of the M6, linking the Lancaster bypass with the Preston bypass.

However, it's the northern end of the services that houses the most remarkable feature - the Pennine Tower. Rising 90ft above the motorway, this futuristic, hexagonal tower was conceived as a striking restaurant for peckish drivers, reports the Manchester Evening News.

Built by the Top Rank organisation, the tower provided unrivalled views of Morecambe Bay and the fells, complemented by an observation platform. Upon its inauguration, the 150-seater Pennine Tower claimed the title of Britain's loftiest motorway restaurant.

Emerging alongside Britain's burgeoning motorway network in the late 1950s, this service station was one of the pioneers. It embodied a grand ambition to transform travel across Britain for the growing legion of car owners, as previously reported by the Manchester Evening News.

Forton Services, much like its older counterparts, boasts an all-weather enclosed bridge that enables pedestrians to utilise facilities on both the northbound and southbound sides.

Beyond its eye-catching tower restaurant, the motorway stop-off was designed with two self-service cafeterias on either side of the motorway, baby changing amenities, and showers for lorry drivers.

However, the crowning glory was undoubtedly the Pennine Tower fine-dining restaurant, which provided waitress service and unrivalled views across Lancashire.

Its inaugural menu in 1965 reflected the restaurant's lofty aspirations, offering grilled rainbow trout, fillet steaks, lobster, along with local favourites such as Lancashire Hot Pot and Morecambe Bay potted shrimps.

There are charming anecdotes suggesting that shortly after the tower's unveiling, some mistook it for a bona fide UFO, especially when lit up at night - though no solid evidence has emerged to substantiate these tales.

A treasure trove of memories has been unearthed from the now-defunct Forton Services website, where former Pennine Tower's waitress Noreen Blackburn shared her experiences. Noreen reminisced about her start in 1966 at the service's separate cafeteria, where she was responsible for stocking shelves with sandwiches and cakes.

Noreen said: "As I was eager to learn, my next job was serving tea and coffee – tea was made in a huge teapot and poured as necessary – coaches made the place very busy. The phrase used was the 'tea and pee brigade'."

She added: "However, my greatest wish was to be a waitress in the 'tower' and I really pushed the catering manager to consider me. The uniform was so chic in a shade of mid-green with a pencil slim skirt which had to be just above knee level, a white blouse, a waistcoat with shiny chrome buttons and a Top Rank emblem embroidered on it.

"There was a full time uniform mistress who altered all the clothing for new staff as they arrived. The tower waitresses' uniforms were simply the best – as were the ladies who wore them – and I was so delighted when I donned that uniform and entered the lift to go up to the tower on my first day!".

Despite its lofty aspirations, the restaurant's offerings failed to tantalise the taste buds of diners. The Motorway Services Online website reveals that in 1978, the esteemed food critic Egon Ronay condemned the establishment's cuisine as "an insult to one's taste buds", slamming the service station's food as 'appalling'.

The idea of a posh eatery at a motorway service area, no matter how novel, couldn't last and the tower eventually became a trucker's lounge before closing its doors for good in 1989. Initially sold by Top Rank to Pavilion, which was then snapped up by Granada, the site is now in the hands of Moto and operates as Lancaster Services, still catering to hungry travellers.

Post-restaurant life saw the distinctive structure used as offices and storage until it was completely abandoned. In 2012, the tower received recognition with Grade II listed status.

According to its listing on the Historic England website: "Forton demonstrated a new popularist architecture ideally suited to the democratic new aesthetic of the motorway, the Pennine Tower Restaurant acting both as a beacon to attract the passing motorists and as a glamorous vantage point from which they were able to enjoy spectacular prospects of the motorway below and more extensively over the miles of surrounding countryside through which they [are] passing."

Historic England has also acknowledged the Pennine Tower as one of eight architectural specimens shaped by the 1960s space race, which reached its pinnacle with the lunar landing in 1969.

Featured on its blog as an example of 'Space-age architecture', Forton services has been compared to a "Star Wars ship next to a motorway".

Whilst Forton services continues to operate, the tower remains closed to visitors. Photographs from Motorway Service Online, captured around ten years ago, show how the tower's interior has deteriorated from its once-magnificent state.

'It's always a great symbol that I'm home'.

Despite years of neglect, the tower continues to occupy a cherished position in many people's affections and is celebrated for its distinctive design. Members of the SABRE roads forum (The Society for All British and Irish Road Enthusiasts) have expressed their nostalgic recollections of the Pennine Tower.

User mikehindsonevans said: "Viewed through the prism of a child's eyes in the 1960s, Forton was fantastic to a Gerry Anderson fan with imagination. Forton was the point where the holiday in the Lakes began."

M19 added: "Forton is a significant piece of roadside history," before adding: "The landmark isn't used which must be disappointing for those of us who would be keen to experience it."

While Rob590 said: "(In the '90s) Forton was one of the first buildings I grew to love too. From our end it was the first landmark that you were going somewhere - Preston (wow! ) Blackpool, Manchester or maybe even further. It seemed impossibly huge, and to my eyes reinforced that we'd left our rural county for something bigger, modern (ha! ) and better," he also expressed a wish: "Would love to see it brought back into use."

In another online blog about the iconic services, another commentator wrote: "I was born in Lancaster, and used to work in the services in the restaurant (now underneath the tower). It's always a great symbol that I'm home when I see it coming up the M6."