Charnock Richard bull breaks free at M6 services – and gives its handlers the runaround
A bull being led from a trailer at Charnock Richard Welcome Break on the M6 broke free, charged around the car park, then vanished into the fields – with its owners in hot pursuit.
Some people stop at the services for a coffee. This one arrived by trailer and decided the car park was the main attraction.
On the morning of 29 October 2026, a large bull was being led out of a trailer at Charnock Richard Welcome Break on the M6 when it broke free from its handler at about 08:10 GMT. Footage and eyewitnesses described it charging around the car park while its owners tried to surround it.
Real photo: Charnock Richard Services, M6 northbound (September 2021) – not from the day of the escape. Photo: Eirian Evans / CC BY-SA 2.0 (via Wikimedia Commons / Geograph 7156447).
“The owners tried to surround it and catch it, but the bull was having none of it,” one eyewitness told the BBC. “The bull didn’t seem angry or aggressive in any way – just happy to be free to give its owners the runaround.”
AI illustration – imagined pit stop. (Spot Gaz, our gorilla, hiding somewhere in this picture.)
Witnesses said the bull then disappeared through a fenced area at the rear of the car park and into the fields behind, with its owners in hot pursuit. Lancashire Police said they were called at 8.24am after a report of a farm animal in the Charnock Richard Services car park, and that the animal was safely moved to a field. Online jokes wrote themselves: one commenter reckoned he “just wanted a latte.”
AI illustration – imagined after the great escape; not the actual animal.
Next time you’re queuing for a flat white at the M6 services, do check the car park. You never know who else fancies a pit stop.
Reported by BBC News (29 Oct 2026) and Lancashire Telegraph (Sarah McGee), citing Lancashire Police.
