Sad news recently of the death at 94 of Flossie Lane, long-serving licensee of the Sun Inn at Leintwardine in Shropshire, one of Britain’s last unspoilt “parlour pubs”. I managed to visit it once, about twenty years ago, and can confirm that it really was like stepping back in time. Regrettably such pubs have become a critically endangered species, either closing their doors for good, as happened with the unforgettable Hop Pole at Risbury, not too far away from the Sun, or being turned into upmarket gastropubs bearing no relationship to their original incarnation, as with the Crooked Billet at Stoke Row in Oxfordshire, which now apparently “cooks an eclectic menu: with modern Italian, French provincial and popular Brasserie favourites all working in harmony.” Sadly, in this day of licensing plans, premises supervisors and risk assessments, there seems to be no place left for this kind of slice of history.