GENERAL APPEARANCE: Princethorpe is situated south of Coventry on the A423 Banbury Road. It is a small hamlet with a few houses and a pub. The Pace service station is easily identified by the pole clearly displaying the new-design Pace logo.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: In the centre of Old Town, Swindon, the Newport Service Station close to a large Co-op supermarket is easy to see thanks to its attractive Harvest Energy branding.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: This Jet forecourt and Spar shop on the Barnhorn Road at Bexhill-on-Sea only opened a couple of months ago. The site had been derelict for five years.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: This site was easily located in the middle of the market town of Buckingham by the familiar Gulf logo.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: Otterbourne is a village just north of Eastleigh and south of Winchester. In the centre of the village is a thriving enterprise that offers services from a forecourt with shop and post office, through to MOT testing, vehicle hire and even scuba diving! The MOT and service bays, forecourt and shop were busy.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: On Cottingham Road at what must be the geographic centre of Corby, is a recently-opened Applegreen site owned by Irish independent Petrogas. Petrogas has more than 50 filling stations in Ireland and has announced that it is looking to open 100 sites across the UK.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: The village of Square and Compass, Pembrokeshire, is situated about midway between St David's and Fishguard on the busy A487. My stealthcheck target is the Square & Compass garage, which is clearly visible via its bright new Total pole.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: The Millwood Motor Company site is situated at the edge of the large village of Cam in Gloucestershire. In addition to the impressive new Shell forecourt and Spar shop, the site offers a Mitsubishi dealership and what is claimed to be 'the only official UK sales outlet for Caterham cars'.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: On the busy Hornsey Road, just a stone's throw away from Arsenal's Emirates Stadium, is my stealth check target - a Texaco filling station and shop. The Texaco-branded pole is fairly visible and boldly announces that the site offers a car wash, off licence and the National Lottery.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: The store is housed in a 'farm shop' style wooden cabin and the filling station shares the site with an outdoor clothing/camping shop that boldly promotes discount prices and seems to attract a

GENERAL APPEARANCE: Gillhams Service Station, a BP forecourt and Nisa Local Essentials convenience store, opened last November. The enterprise is on a grand scale and all the equipment and buildings are new but in keeping with the old market town environment.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: On the A144 to Norwich is one of the Hammond Group's forecourts. The large Jet Aim Hi prize-winning site has a Ford dealership, plus used cars and servicing/repairs facilities.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: The BP Connect/Marks & Spencer Simply Food forecourt and shop at Popham on the A303 west shares the site with a Little Chef that was recently the focus of attention of Heston Blumenthal.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: Just two miles north of Chichester on the A286 is an isolated small complex of organisations that includes the Summersdale Garage and its Spar Shop. The site also includes the St Wilfrid's Hospice shop and an autocare centre.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: U&I Fuels Service Station & Shop is located at the entrance to the village of Stadhampton. The site displays a sign 'last fuel before M40' and 'Under New Management'.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: Located just off the A48/A466 Larkfield roundabout on one of the main roads to Chepstow town centre is the joint-branded Texaco/Star Market service station. It includes an impressive Countrywide store that has recently undergone a refit.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: On the A360 Devizes to Salisbury road is the small village of Tilshead. At the edge of the village is Tilshead Garage, which has a Murco forecourt, a bright Mace shop and is developing a car park to the side of the site.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: The junction of the A338 (Oxford/Wantage road) and the A415 (Witney/Abingdon road) is off set and somewhat awkward, but constantly busy and an ideal location for a service station. And indeed right on the junction at Frilford is a large Shell service station with Budgens shop.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: On the A148 between Cromer and Kings Lynn is the small village of Aylmerton. Just outside the village is a Murco service station that includes a Your Store shop. Situated on a sweeping, wooded bend in the road, the site is clearly visible.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: On the A35 about five miles west from Dorchester and on the road to Bridport is Winterborne Abbas. On the right at the entrance to the village I found my target, Bride Valley Motors. It's an impressive site which includes a BP forecourt, KeyStore shop, car sales, service and repairs, and also incorporates Dorset Discount Tyres.

Oakdene Service Station is situated at Ulnes Walton, Leyland (between Chorley and Preston). It pumps Texaco fuel and has a Londis shop but what sets it apart is its prize-winning off licence.

The RoadChef services on the M6 Toll at Norton Canes includes a BP-branded forecourt and shop. The service station was the Forecourt Trader 'best motorway site' winner in 2007.

Jeremy Symonds, former boss of the Smile c-store group, which was sold last year to Martin McColl, is back. He has started a business - Symonds Forecourts - and has six sites all with c-stores, three trading as Simply Fresh and three as Country Market.

Following the announcement that Somerfield is up for sale, I wanted to see what any potential buyer might get for its money, so I selected a recently-opened Somerfield forecourt store on the A31 immediately west of Ringwood, on the Hampshire/Dorset border.

A previous issue of Forecourt Trader featured a story about Jim and Wendy Bamford, who decided to run their own business. Securing a six-figure loan from the Bank of Scotland, they purchased a garage with a refitted c-store at Crowland near Peterborough - Jim was going to run the garage and Wendy the Total petrol station and Mace shop.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: The small village of Birdham is the location of one of the Forecourt Trader Top 50 Indies 2007 sites, Rusdene Services. It is a Total forecourt with a Smile-branded shop.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: Pump Hill Service Station is on the B1027 which runs between Clacton and Colchester. It is clearly marked by two poles and shares an area with a car sales business.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: As it's over a year since I visited an Esso On the Run site, I decided to 'stealthcheck' the next one I saw. Just on the southern edge of Banbury, on the A4260 Oxford Road, I saw the distinctive pole of an Esso On the Run and pulled in to make a visit.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: Situated on the busy A303, Hazelgrove Services is part of the Chartman Group. From the roundabout the Esso service station with its Spar shop is clearly visible and it shares the plot with a McDonald's.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: Almost hidden away in the countryside is the small Shropshire village of Leintwardine and it contains a real gem. Griffiths Garage has three main offers: a maintenance, repair and MOT service; a forecourt; and a convenience store.

GENERAL APPEARANCE: Leaving Crewkerne town centre, south on the A356 I saw a Texaco pole ahead and as I needed some lunch decided to make a 'stealthcheck' on the site. I parked in a side street as the entrance to the forecourt was blocked, and walked.

Driving north on the A32 from Fareham towards Alton, I passed through the small village of Droxford. I was wondering how the Murco garage and its unaffiliated shop made a satisfactory living, when about a mile further on I saw a Power fuel pole and then its Premier store.

Big chains dominate the motorway service station sector but Westmorland Services, just north of junction 38 on the M6 in the Lake District, is different. And that's because it is an independent, family-run site and it boasts a farm shop.

I try not to refuel at motorway service stations - I only use them as rest stops. But I needed fuel so stopped at the motorway service area at junction 4 on the M54.

Following Westbridge Motors of Northampton winning the Forecourt Trader of the Year 2006 award, I visited its website to find out more about the business. It's an informative website and gives focused details of a many-faceted business.

During my visit to IFFE 2007 at the Birmingham NEC last month, I spent some time at the impressive - and busy - Pace stand. Pace is keen to sign up more dealers, and claims a 'marketing support package that you might only expect to get from an oil major'. Having never used a Pace filling station and shop before, I was then determined to 'stealthcheck' one. It was difficult to plan my visit as the Pace website does not include a site-locator facility. However, the Sunday after IFFE, while driving west to east on the A303 in Wiltshire, I came across one at Chicklade.

General Appearance: Just outside Thetford on the busy A134 from Bury St Edmunds, is the Nuns Bridges Filling Station. Ideally situated for passing traffic, the site is surrounded by two quite dense areas of housing

General Appearance: Driving from the Manor House area along the very busy A503 Seven Sisters Road towards Finsbury Park, I made a 'stealthcheck' on what I thought would be a cutting-edge, gold mine of a Jet Service Station and shop. Wow, what a surprise - this is in fact a very run-down and very disappointing site.

General Appearance: The Simon Smith Group has a number of stores in Gloucestershire and my target was the prize-winning 24-hour site in Barnwood Road. This includes a Budgens store and Total forecourt.

General Appearance: On my way from Watford I urgently needed fuel and found myself on the Dome roundabout (junction of the A41 and A412) and spoiled for choice. A service station is available at three of the roundabouts exits so would it be the Sainsbury supermarket, the Asda hypermarket or the Sainsbury Local Shell site? No contest, I turned into the most convenient of the sites - the Sceptre Local site.

It's more than two years since I 'stealthchecked' an Esso 'On the Run' and I thought it time to have another look. This time I wen to Baynards Green Service Station - a short distance east off the M40, on the busy A43.

For some time I'd wanted to visit a Snax 24 and while driving from Bath to Bristol on the A431 recently, I was able to make a 'stealthcheck' at a site in Willsbridge.

On the B113 and heading towards Newry is a new EuroSpar store and Spar-branded forecourt. EuroSpar claims to be a 'large supermarket format aimed at fulfilling weekly shopping needs'. The advertising strapline is 'Expect a little more'. I did!

There are three forecourts with shops within five miles on the A351, from Corfe Castle to Swanage. There are two Texacos and sandwiched in between, at the village of Harmans Cross, a BP/Londis Express.

With competition increasing each year it has never been more important for retailers to demonstrate that customer service is ingrained in every part of their business. With this in mind, I was keen to see if the recently re-opened Clerkenleap Service Station at Broomhall, Worcester was applying this philosophy.