Max Gas

Steeple Ashton's a village about 5 miles from me, and still home to these fab old pumps. Don't work of course, but are a reminder of a time when every other village had fuel. You'd pull in, bloke would appear from fixing some old Riley, fill you up, take cash, end of. No queuing behind fatties asking about the lottery, Ginsters pasties or newspapers.

But if you needed the bike fixing, or to borrow a spanner to tighten loose nuts, you could get it sorted on the spot. So how are modern petrol stations better? If I want coffee I'll take a flask; if the bike breaks I want help now, rather than when the AA turn up.

Mind you, in Wales last year a friend asked for a paper in a small filing station. "Problem is papers come ever day" he was told. "But people don't." That's what I call rural.