TURNING off the motorway and onto the slip road in her family-friendly people carrier, only one thing was on Kate’s* mind — and it wasn’t getting petrol.

Instead of stopping at the services like most drivers, the mum was taking a detour on the way to pick up the kids to pop into Pulse and Cocktails sex shop to buy a kinky toy.

It’s one of four adult stores — some of which were once Little Chef restaurants — lining the A1, a 410-mile stretch of road running from London to Edinburgh, which is also infamous for swinger clubs and dogging hotspots.

While not many people would describe the motorway as sexy, hundreds of people visit these shops every day, and the road has gained a reputation of being the sex corridor of Britain.

Mum of two Michaela, 43, has worked at the Grantham branch — which was previously a McDonalds — for 13 years.

She says: “A lot of businesswomen come in who are on their travels and are looking for something like a vibrator to entertain themselves - and same for businessmen, who’ll purchase DVDS, or masturbators, which are extremely popular.

"We sell loads of them here. Every farmer in the area has one too — I can guarantee that! In the first couple of weeks a farmer came in and word just spread and we sold out completely.”

She estimates up to 500 customers visit the shop weekly, with the clientele a mix of truckers, farmers to businesswomen and mums.

Little Chef to sex shop

The sex shops fall on a 160-mile stretch of the road between Leeds and London, and started springing up here 16 years ago.

When Little Chef went into administration, savvy businessman Graham Kidd saw an opportunity to convert the spaces into sex shops for horny drivers, and has 19 stores in total across the UK, seven are former Little Chef restaurants.

He says: "We opened our first Little Chef shop in 2005 and thought it was worth a punt - and it did very well. People feel comfortable with the location of our stores - they don't have to worry about bumping into the next door neighbour, or someone they know.

"Even though you've got the billboards and advertising outside, the entrance is always discreet and incognito.

"It's a very British thing - all you're doing is going in to purchase lingerie or an adult toy but we're all frightened to death about speaking about it."

When we arrive, a black Range Rover with a personalised number plate is parked up outside the Grantham store and a smartly dressed businessman in his forties emerges clutching his purchase in a black plastic bag.

Inside, porn plays on repeat on two screens, and a sex doll worth £1,000 is propped up, naked, in a glass case.

Perhaps, unsurprisingly, Michaela admits sometimes people get the wrong idea about the shop, with some even mistaking the business for a brothel, saying: “I could have made a fortune by now in massages, extra services, escorting and dinner dates.

"One customer had a foot fetish and wanted to buy my Next ankle boots for £100.

"One time, an HGV driver came in and started masturbating to the DVD playing — he got told to leave pretty sharpish. It's only happened once while I've been here."

‘Mums get so engrossed they forget about picking up their kids’

So who is the ‘typical’ customer in a shop where the vast array of products on offer range from £3 to £1,000?

Michaela says: "It used to be very male orientated, and now anyone comes in. The shop is bright, open and airy, while a lot of people think it’s going to be dark and seedy.

"We get a lot of couples at evenings and weekends, looking to spice things up a little and then single men, and regulars too.

"We get mums coming in before they do the afternoon school run — they're so engrossed they're like, 'Oh my god, I've got to go and get my child!'

“They come in with friends and spend up to an hour looking at the vibrators like the rabbit, or nice lingerie to spice up their homelife.

"Rush hour and when the kids are in bed are also busy times."

For many career-driven customers, spending a lot of time travelling for work and away from home means they’re looking for something in particular.

‘Old couples pop in and buy a film together’

And it seems literally anyone could walk through the door of an A1 sex shop — with customers ranging from 18 to 80.

Forty-five minutes down the road in Sawtry, Huntingdon, lies another Pulse and Cocktails store, which was previously a Little Chef before it got a kinky makeover.

And despite 55 per cent of Brits being too embarrassed to admit they own a sex toy, and a third preferring to purchase kinky toys online, the store makes a killing selling bondage accessories.

Its probably no coincidence that two of the UK's most randy cities, Leeds and Newcastle, are serviced by the A1.

Zoe Carpenter, 38, has worked there since it first opened, nine years ago.

She says: "We have loads of regulars. You get groups quite a lot — often people on the way to their eighties or nineties themed Butlin's weekends, they'll get their sexual enhancement pills, cock rings for men, or something funny like a blow up doll.

"A lot of old couples will come in and buy a film — it's something nice to do together.

"With the sex dolls, it's companionship sometimes. One customer was an elderly bloke who had lost his wife and he wanted something, but didn't want anyone else.”

The store was also thought to be the place where local headteacher James Stewart, 72, bought toys to create a ‘sex dungeon’ in his office where he romped with his married secretary.

He was jailed for four years after admitting fraud after stealing school funds, and it was then that his sordid secret came to light.

Zoe comments: "He was taking the money from the school, and had holiday homes, and he got caught eventually.

"In his office they found a stash of sex toys — he'd spent thousands apparently!"

‘My joy is a new sex toy’

The next shop is independently-owned Happy Lovers, Bedford, conveniently situated just behind a petrol station, just minutes from secretive swingers club The Vanilla Alternative.

Formerly a family-orientated roadside diner ‘Happy Eater’, when it opened 16 years ago the shop was the first sex store on the A1.

A large sign clearly visible from the road reads “My joy is a new sex toy” and inside the wooden clad walls are predominantly littered with a large range of adult DVDs and dildos.

Shop manager Jane*, 47, lives in Cambridgeshire, and has worked there from the beginning.

She says: "The job was being advertised in the Job Centre and I applied because I thought it would be a laugh with the girls — 16 years on, I'm still here.

"My family are so used to it now. Originally when I first came here it was just as a stop gap to earn some money while my two daughters, then six and five, were at school.

"I told them I worked at the ‘naughty shop’.

“Their friends took the mick a bit and at one point I was known as 'a porn star' — people have a misconceived idea of who or what you are when you work in a place like this.

"My daughters, who are adults now, come in now and they'll have a chat and converse with the customers.”

A whole new meaning to the phrase ‘sex drive’

Despite its obvious location, the store does its best not to be too distracting to passersby.

The only source of natural light in the shop are small frosted windows, situated ten feet up.

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Jane explains: "We didn't used to have the film on the windows, but we had a coachload of schoolchildren break down right outside the shop.

"The coach was perfectly level with the windows and the children could see right in. You couldn't make it up!"

Whether people are travelling up it for work, or to purchase something to spice things up in the bedroom, one thing’s for sure — the A1 gives a whole new meaning to the word ‘sex drive’.

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