MADAM, There will be no mad rush to defend the highways outfit while the current s letter made me curious. So I looked for this place on the map.

It is not to be found on the oldest survey from 1831 — when St Owen was just Cross. But by 1967 it appears on the one-inch ordnance, complete with its apostrophe, half a mile north-west of Peterstow at the intersection of the C road between Glewstone and Sellack (SO 555 250). Habitations are shown and, by the time the 1:50000 OS came out, it had a public house. So I suppose our public servants in far-off Birmingham might be forgiven for thinking that somebody actually lives there; even if folk have stopped smoking and drinking in the pub. Whether it justifies an increase in the undeserved profits of our roadside-clutter manufacturers is another matter.

Keith Horne, Gorsley