AN interesting snippet left out of our story a fortnight ago about Nurse Alice Welford, who was killed in 1918 while serving in Basra, Iraq, concerned her surname.

She came from Crathorne, near Yarm, where her family had for generations been shoe-makers, and you would expect her surname to be derived from where she lived: at a well near a ford.

But the Penguin Dictionary of British Surnames points out that in North Yorkshire and County Durham, where there is a welter of Welfords, there are no such places.

But in Alice's family tree, the surname is spelled "Welfitt" and "Welfoote", perhaps suggesting that the shoes made by Mr Welford well-fitted the foot for which they were made.

Elsewhere on this page, we’ve got a Batson – rather than being the sons of bats, they are usually descended from a Bartholomew. The dictionary is lamentably quiet on the derivation of Bosher, but our unfortunate Leyburn grocer seems not to have travelled very far from where his name originated.

Spensley, says the dictionary, is a Swaledale name, much in evidence in the 16th Century documents and apparently hailing from the hamlet of Low Spenceley on Whitaside Moor in Grinton.

JUST when we thought people were tiring of old car spotting, there was a best-yet response to last week's picture from Neasham. More on that next week. In the meantime, we've stumbled on this archive picture of St Cuthbert's Well at Scorton station, between Richmond and Northallerton. A reader has asked about the well, but we can find very little information about it, other than its ancient popularity with pilgrims was revived in 1846 when the Richmond branchline was built near to it. Can anyone tell us more – please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk