I rechecked by Google - it turned up this Mudcat thread
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=50029#757410 and if Malcolm Douglas was puzzled after doing his homework , that's good enough for me.I always believed it was with a "g" - I can go back to the Northern Front days, and I wish Ed,Mike and Nick all the best , should they be viewing these pages.
It's no big deal of course, it's just a visual thing , I (rightly or wrongly) associate "Pickford" as being a spelling mistake e.g. as one I would if saw Middlesbrough spelt Middlesborough.