We've all known that sinking feeling. A long journey, a recalcitrant car, fractious passengers and an odd and ominous noise coming from somewhere in the engine compartment.

Heart-in-mouth you carry on through grey and grizzly weather, cursing the fact that you "forgot" to have the car serviced when it was due.

Then just as the engine conks out, invariably miles from anywhere, a bright beacon of hope appears by the roadside, a yellow box with the heart-warming letters AA stamped across it.

For more than 90 years the sight of one of their emergency telephones has sent a sent a surge of relief through stranded motorists, be they high on the Yorkshire Dales or deep in a rural nowhere land.

But all good things come to an end and now their time is over _ as they fall victim to the high-tech revolution that has seen mobile phones become commonplace.

The AA is to phase out most of its 522 roadside phones because of lack of use. Of the 5.5m calls they receive each year less than 6,000 come from them, with the vast majority of motorists resorting to their mobiles.

Some of the old-style "sentry boxes" will remain, such as the familiar fixture by the A68/B6160 junction near Aysgarth, west of Leyburn, although the phones themselves will be removed.

But the modern, pedestal phones will go _ or be taken over for other concerns like the Highways Agency.

The AA's director of road services, Kerry Richardson, admitted that, in the age of the mobile, their phones were mow virtually redundant. Bur he insisted: "While technology spells the end of an era for one thing, it heralds the dawn of a new beginning for others.

"It may be time to ring in the end of the AA's emergency roadside phones, but our commitment to the best possible service to our members remains the same."

The first AA "sentry" box was erected in Ashstead Surrey, in 1911 and the early boxes were first intended as shelters for passing patrols.

But they seen became available to members, who could phone for help, free of charge, if their car had broken down.

Early boxes were even equipped with fire extinguishers and in 1920 keys were issued to members to gain access.

Designs changed over the years and inn 1925 "superboxes" started to appear at major crossroads, complete with illuminated direction sighs on top.

But in the 1970s the old boxes began to be phased out _ other than those that had become listed _ in favour of the free-standing pedestal phones.