"THE question is quite elementary, my dear Watson," said Sherlock Holmes, "did the greatest detective in fiction get his name from the Craven area of North Yorkshire or not?"

Taking out his pipe and filling it, he continued: "Let us look at the facts as we know them. Firstly the author, Arthur Conan Doyle, who created and christened him, had a mother living in Masongill in the far northern reaches of the Craven district.

"Secondly he was married at St Oswald's Church at Thornton-in-Lonsdale on August 6 1885. His bride is named on the marriage document as one Louisa Hawkins, and the certificate is tacked up on the noticeboard in the porch today."

"But Holmes," interrupted Watson, "That tells us only of his maternal and marital conditions, not of the sudden impulse to give his greatest character such an unusual name."

Holmes gave one of his withering looks, before continuing: "Thirdly the famous sleuth made his first appearance in the novel, A Study in Scarlet, which was published in 1887, just 18 months after the nuptials were formalised in this northern outpost of the kingdom."

Watson asked: "Yes, but how does this relate to the nomenclature of the magnificent man?"

"My investigations have shown me that during the time that Conan Doyle's mother was living in Masongill, one of the important families in the area was called Sherlock. In 1874 the Rev TD Sherlock became vicar of nearby Ingleton, and on August 9 the following year his father was tragically killed at the station by a bolt of lightning.

"And Watson, note this fact carefully, when Arthur Conan Doyle was writing A Study in Scarlet, the church at Ingleton was being rebuilt under the direction of an architect from Liverpool by the name of Sherlock.

"And the area around Masongill is surrounded by holmes. There is Lund Holme on the Kendal-Keighley road and Holme head on the road from Thornton to Ingleton. Conan Doyle would have been conversant with these names."

Conan Doyle's mother, Mary Foley Doyle, who moved to the area after her husband was admitted to a lunatic asylum near Dumfries, had great influence on her literary son.

In November 1891 Arthur became so fed up with having to write stories to meet the public demand that he wrote to his mother, whom he called 'The Ma'am', to say he felt like killing Holmes off.

She replied at once saying: "You won't! You can't! You musn't!" So for the time being he stayed his hand.

The author sent 1,500 letters from his home in Portsmouth to Masongill and depended very much on his mother for advice.

When he was wondering whether he should refuse a knighthood from King Edward VII in 1902 she wrote to him every day until he accepted it.

His wife Louisa died from TB and in 1920 his mother left Masongill to live with Arthur and his second wife. She died at the ripe old age of 83.

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