Mobile tyre fitting
in Quarry.

A fitter at your car
in Quarry.

Say Quarry to a driver in Oxford and half of them will hear Headington Quarry, which is a separate address a bit over half a mile off, so the postcode and the street settle it before anything else. The trouble itself is ordinary enough. Something sharp off the A40 works its way in and the tyre is down by morning, or a wheel gets scraped squeezing past parked cars on Windmill Road. Read the numbers off the sidewall, say where the car is parked up, and the right tyre is loaded.

Drives, bays and car parks.

Best of all is a drive, and plenty of houses in this pocket have one. Next best is the permit bay outside your own door, with the car sat properly inside the markings. If the car is drivable and there is nothing at home, Headington Car Park or St Leonards Road Car Park gives a bay away from traffic; pick a space at the quiet end and send the row. Windmill Road and the A40 are not working surfaces, and using a supermarket car park means asking the store first.

The callers are householders on the streets between Old Headington and the shops, plus people who have driven in to the district centre and found a tyre flat when they came back to the car. Parking splits two ways. Residential streets here are largely permit controlled, so a car outside its own house is usually on a bay it is entitled to, which is workable. The public options are Headington Car Park and, a little beyond it, St Leonards Road Car Park, both a walk from the shops and both a fair place to meet while the car still drives. The Waitrose car park is for shoppers, so ask at the store before treating it as a workshop. The A40 itself is not a place to stand.