DON'T mention the car! I did in Wednesday's column, and I didn't get away with it. I got my Populars and Prefects muddled again. Sorry.

As well as calls about old Ford cars, I've received some interesting follow-ups concerning items on this blog.

We'll start with Leven Bridge, the dingly dell with the "decaying grandeur of its ancient pub". Whenever passing through, I was always taken by the derelict Georgian pub propped up by scaffolding.

P Mulhern points out: "The Cross Keys pub by the Leven Bridge decays no more. It has been converted into a house, and the land around it filled with a half dozen or so "executive houses" a couple of years ago."

He also points to a very good history site for the area, www.inglebybarwick.com, which also tells how Leven Bridge was a Teessiders' day-out spot several decades ago. To serve their needs, there was a small shop on one of the sharp corners. Naturally enough, it was regularly rammed by vehicles as they came down the steep, wooded banks of the dell and lost control on the corner.

The word "Leven" is supposed to be a Celtic word meaning "smooth", and it seems quite a popular name for rivers. When I was at university in Scotland, we played football on the banks of another Leven, this one in Fife. However, the derivation for this river's name is said to be a Pictish word meaning "flood".

With these ancient words, you can often make up a meaning to suit your own theory!

As I mentioned in the last entry, the landlord of the Cross Keys during the 1940s and 1950s was retired footballer Billy Eden who played for Sunderland inbetween two spells at Darlington.

A nippy winger, the stats reveal that he did a good job for Darlo who were then mildly successful in Division 3 (North) (ie: they were not rooted to the foot of the Football League).

Billy made 136 appearances for the Quakers in his two spells, and scored 36 goals including a hat-trick ibn a 4-2 win at Crewe on January 21, 1933.

All very interesting, but still I find no bloody history in my dingly dell. I want highwaymen, robbery, murder, smuggling and foul deeds in days gone by, but all I get is a favourite picnic spot beside the smooth-flowing river with a genial ex-footballer serving warm beer.