THEY are adventure places familiar to succeeding generations of kids. But how many stop and ponder as to origins of some of the more off-beat names bestowed long ago on various features of the St Helens landscape?

Now a couple of schoolmaster chums who enjoy a dash of nostlagia with their weekly arm-bending sessions in Greenalls Club, have put a challenge to knowledgable customers of this column.

The pair (in the interest of classroom control they wish to remain anonymous) ask if anyone knows how the Burgy Banks at Haresfinch, the Kimmicks industrial dumps which once towered off Jackson Street, and the Licker fields at Parr came by their intriguing monickers.

And there's more. Can anyone say how Pilks' Sheet Works came by its title (apparently there's some textile connection involved); and why another product, plate glass, has a 'crockery' ring about it.

ANY answers? Then please drop me a line at the Star.