LAST week’s spread of archive pictures of Wolsingham took Craig Porter back to February 22, 1982, when he heard a loud smash near the Bay Horse Hotel, and went running over.

“A wagon’s brakes had failed and to stop it doing any greater damage, the driver had decided to career into the side of the building,” says Craig, who was then 15. “It was not something you see every day.”

The lorry was probably run by Sherbon, a local firm.

“The driver got out the passenger side, no problem,” says Craig, “although he was well shaken up.”

ANNE RAVIN in Bishop Auckland has a theory about the smithy at Wolsingham that had “Nowhere 1880” carved on it.

“My great-great-grandfather was the blacksmith in 1880,” she says.

“As a child, I was told the name came about because children coming home from school would stop and watch the horses being shod.

“When they arrived home late, their mothers asked: ‘Where have you been?’ Their answer was ‘Nowhere’.”