​Eighty one year old John Reese has been working the much-loved fuel supply business for all his working life and he was joined full time by older brother Philip, who is 84, when he retired from his earlier job working for British Telecom. They have been shovelling coal, hoisting fifty kilo bags of the fuel and heaving gas bottles since they took over the business from their father and mother, working out of a villa on Station Road in Credenhill. Their father was not someone who liked diversification, but when the coal business started to decline with the clean air rules, they started selling briquettes and gas cannisters, again doing the heavy lifting for the local community – quite literally. Phillip and John Reece grew the family business by adding Calor gas bottle sales to their services. (Image: ROB DAVIES) As a sign of how long they have been working, they recall that there was not even a tarmac road to carry them to work when they started out, it was just made of stone. But now the pair have decided to call it a day, running down their stocks ready to take their last orders – those orders still taken by telephone, to A Reese & Co (the A is homage to Granny Anne who first took over the business in 1901). John, who has worked there since leaving school at 15 told us: ” I have enjoyed what I have done for every moment of it. The very best thing has been our customers who we know as friends really. Even today I delivered some fuel and the lady gave me a Christmas pudding and a jar of mincemeat, which she does every year.” His sons are not interested in taking on the business and could not be more different from their father, who still does all the accounts by hand and letter. One writes software for the NHS, the other invests in crypto currencies. The company, which in its heyday would collect coal from the station in Credenhill, closed back in the 1960s, then shovel it into bags or previously collect it into baskets of 112 pounds which would then be delivered by truck to customers. The baskets have gone but the shovels still stand, with the brothers loading up from piles of coal being delivered from Bishop Auckland. ALSO READ: They now deliver by a more modern vehicle, but originally used a vintage Bedford TK. “Life was certainly simpler,” said John who is now looking forward to having a lie in, having started most of his work at seven in the morning, bagging up coal and often still shovelling at midnight ready for the next day’s rush. He took over the business with his other brother, George who tragically died in a motorbike accident in 1971. One other reason for the trade falling off was that hops, the mainstay of Hereford farming back in the day, were usually dried with the gentle warmth of a coal fire, again no longer the case. They expanded into delivering gas in the late 1980s, which again was particularly popular with local homes. However as Philip said wryly: ” Mains gas killed us off.” Bot