I THINK your correspondent Peter Cain of Wembley (Letters, August 22, 'Plea to find Pharoah hut') may have Ravenglass in mind.

Here, in the 1970s, I saw a notice on a gate on the street's seaward side, saying 'Keep Clear for Boat' - R. Pharoah.

Pharoah, as a surname, is said to be a variant of Farrer or Fairer.

'Shambles', says Arthur Nicholls (Nostalgia, August 22) means 'a table for the display of meat'.

So it did; but, by 1548 onwards it also meant 'the place where feasts' were butchered (see the shorter Oxford English Dictionary).

That's why it needed the drains.

Penrith's were in the street and had no drains, only bloody footprints of the customers, in around 1800.

Jeremy Godwin

Penrith