"The front parlour of my parents' shop and home became the local doctor's surgery back in the 1930s. The family only really used this room at Christmas and very special occasions so it was empty most of the time and it made sense for it to be used for another purpose.

Dr Davies was the doctor - or "Dr Birchill" as he was known. He was a qualified surgeon and had been awarded an MC for his service during the Second World War. He'd hold his surgery twice a week on a Tuesday and a Friday evening from 4pm until 7pm.

Patients would queue up in the passageway of our house. If they needed medicine, Dr Davies would make up the prescription in the front parlour. He kept everything in a large medicine cabinet which we still have but which is just used for storage these days. We'd also have to provide him with a table and a large jug of water which he'd use to make up the medicine.

You didn't need an appointment then and house calls were made to those who couldn't make the trip to the surgery.

As a young boy, I'd go with the doctor in his car as he made his house calls. It was my job to open up the gates along the way.

The roads weren't very good at the time. Only four or five people in the village had cars. There was only a cart track to get to some outlying farms and it was impossible to reach some by car. If that was the case, Dr Davies would get out of his car and finish his journey on the back of a pony.

Dr Davies was here until the 1940s. Then his nephew Dr Alun took over. There were three surgeries altogether in the village at the time - the one in our front parlour as well as Dr Anderson's and Dr Williams.

Now the last one is closing and it's a sad day, especially for those who can't drive. The nearest surgery will be Tregaron about six miles away but you can only get a bus there on a Tuesday and a Friday. Even then, the times aren't always convenient so we will miss the service." Tom Lloyd Rees