I WOULD like to know how the fields at the top of Hurworth, just off Blind Lane, got their name, the Ring Fields? Ray Robinson, Middleton St George.

THE Ring Fields at Hurworth are described in a book published in 1808 by Edith Harper, entitled Hurworth-on-Tees, Sketches and Some Reminiscences. The fields lead down to the river from Blind Lane and it is worth citing Harper's idyllic description. She describes the Ring Fields as an "undulating expanse of bright emerald turf, in springtime glowing with buttercups like the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Here the hawthorn is dazzling white with blossom in May and early June. Amiable cows chew the cud in lazy contentment and drink the pure iron water of a little trickling stream".

It is mentioned that the fields are named from being either a venue for wrestling, which allegedly took place in a ring, or from their association with fairies. Harper suggests that the wrestling theory was commonly accepted at the time, but I don't know of any evidence to support this. I agree with her view that it is more likely connected with fairies and more specifically fairy rings, a natural phenomenon which aroused a great deal of superstitious folklore in times gone by.

Fairy rings are produced by certain species of fungi, which form circles of mushrooms on the surface of the ground. The mushrooms grow in this fashion because they are all linked to a central point under the soil. They were shrouded in mystery and were often feared. It was believed that fairies constructed them in the middle of the night. Fairy rings are a subject of folklore throughout Britain and may have given rise to fairy legends in places like Middridge and Ferryhill in Durham.

The usual superstition surrounding a Fairy Ring is that it is dangerous to step into it and there is even a story from Orkney in the 1920s that a young girl died shortly after stepping into one.

I WAS interested in your correspondence about the coelacanth as, in 1942, I visited the museum of Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, in East London, South Africa, to look at the creature she had discovered. This was the prime exhibit of the museum at the time as it was the only one found. It was mounted in a long glass case looking as you have described and blue in colour. The article revived some happy memories of East London many years ago. - Bill Rydal, Hartlepool.

DO you have any information on an aircraft crash on South Moor Golf Course in 1954-55? I was a pupil at Bloemfontein Infant School at the time and I am told the pilot fought valiantly to keep the aircraft from crashing into the school. - E Suddes, Stockton.

I HAVE drawn a blank on this one, but if any reader remembers the incident or can give a more precise date for its occurrence, we would be very grateful.

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