THE chairman welcomed the fifty seven members present at the Forum on Wednesday, April 2.

The speaker finder, Duncan Verity introduced Keith Lister who is a retired Chief Inspector (Police) who gave a fascinating talk entitled What’s in a name-places. There are 12,000 different place names in England and reference books are available giving interpretations of those places. There are many unusual names such as Slaithwaite, Chard and Hatch Beauchamp. In 19 different countries there are towns or cities named Victoria after Queen Victoria but no-one can give a reason why London is so called. The name Wetherby is derived from the word ‘wether’ which is the name for a castrated ram and appears on the coat of arms and is included in the heraldic description. The Deighton in Kirk Deighton alludes to a farm built around a ditch and goes back to 1400. Old superstitions bring names such as Devils Punchbowl or Robin Hoods Bay. Place names that include Ham relate to the homestead. Thorp also means a farmstead as in Thorp Arch from 1086. Places can also have royalty connections such as Kings Cross or Queensborough. Many street names derive from persons who have been famous in a town, for instance in Wetherby there is Lacey Grove, Hayton Drive, Burrell Close, Hodgson House and Lodge Lane which referred to notable people who have lived in Wetherby. The talk included many amusing anecdotes and Forum member Jimmy Angus was asked to give the vote of thanks in his Glaswesgian dialect which he did to much amusement and he thanked the speaker for such a comprehensive talk.