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Where to find out how a street got its name?

thanks for looking mike malthouse gardens is the top end of what used to be wilton street the other half of wilton st is called gunmakers walk on account of the gunmakers pub although closed now is on the corner of gerrard st and what was wilton st...

will try and look into it more when i can as i feel sure there must have been a malthouse around there at one time or maybe even a pub although i have to say i cant recall reading about one

sorry i am going a tad off topic now...tend to get carried away when researching the old end :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

lyn

 
Back in the 1980s [I think] I used to read the Ward Minutes for Harborne & these always reported new developments/street names. It seems that the developer can nominate the name. Checked on BCC web site & situation looks the same:

"Developer are requested to provide suggestions for new road names which should follow the council's criterion:

  • names must have a geographical, historical or cultural link to the site or near are
  • names of living people must not be used.
  • names must not have a commercial connection.
  • names which are duplicated within the& Birmingham authority area will be rejected
Proposals should include:
  • a detailed reason for the choice of name
  • a location plan
  • a site layout identifying plot numbers and property entrances.
A list of pre-approved names is also available where the developer is unable to make suitable suggestions.

Naming of roads is a legal process and once a new street name has been officially approved, it cannot be renamed without a statutory order. This is costly and time-consuming, and may involve a Magistrate Court hearing."


So in theory BCC would hold information on why a particular road was so called but whether they could trace a particular road on request is doubtful.
 
The council is supposed to work with the contractor to discuss names. These then go to the appropriate committee to be agreed - or not. According to info when I Google docs it. There are some rules about names. I suppose that with all the info at one's fingertips today it is relatively easy to find names with a connection to the site.
PJM, I think you are correct! The names are a combination of the contractor and LA, if a road/street or what ever is already there the name usually stays,
 
Some interesting info on this subject, thank you, it's good to know that 'pearl and button' were considered and used in the new development on Villa St as noted by Lyn.
Generally the Town Planning Dept of a particular city or town are the best ones to approach on this, Kat, particularly newer streets. I believe that they have to approve them.

Maurice :cool:
I am going to send an email now to Bristol Council to see what they say about Strawbridge Road in Bristol. I know that Strawbridge Terrace once stood on the site, but it would be interesting to see what they have to say about it.

Thanks Maurice for pointing me in the direction of the town planning dept.:):)
 
Will do Lyn. I have just trawled through their website for an email address! I have sent an email to an address that looks kind-of relevant and I have politely asked if necessary, that they would direct me to the correct contact.

I have just looked at my notes and I can see from the 1851 census that Francis Strawbridge resided at 3 Strawbridge Terrace.
 
Kat,

Now you've given us a date and put a little more flesh on the bones, so to speak, I'll make another comment and a supposition. The comment is that the date is too far back to find anything relating to this in a Planning Dept. The supposition is that Francis STRAWBRIDGE, or his parents, bought a freehold plot of land, built a block of terraced houses on it, and lived in one while renting out the rest, thus providing an income from his/their investment.

Too early to find anything in the Land Registry, but you might find an advertisement relating to this in a newspaper local to the area, or, of course, he or his parents might have been left the land in an ancestor's Will. There are numerous possibilities.

Maurice :cool:
 
Kat,

I've just had a look at the 1851 Census entry. His occupation is a mason, and most of the houses are still unoccupied, so he would be known today as a developer. So I would say that they'd only just been built.

No Strawbridge Terrace on today's map, but it would have been off or in close proximity to Marlbourough Street. Much of one side of that street is now taken up by Bristol Royal Infirmary, so my guess, and it is only a guess, is that the terrace was built over as the hospital extended. The National Library of Scotland maps might enable you to prove whether in fact this is the case

Having just searched those maps, they're not of a large enough scale to show the exact location of the Terrace, though they show Marlborough Street and the original Royal Infirmary building, which has now been considerably extended. Here's the area in 1885:-

https://maps.nls.uk/view/109729702

Maurice :cool:
 
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Hi Maurice, sorry for initial lack of meat on the bones!!!!! I suppose I was thinking it wasn't a Brum enquiry, the forum have been very welcoming to me, I don't want to take advantage.

Great info and I appreciate your input. I am thinking the same as you that there were properties built for investment.

What I would like to find out from Bristol council is why when they redeveloped a site they named it Strawbridge Road.

Perhaps it was purely because previously there was the terrace? But it will be interesting to see what they come up with.

I'm yet to look at the maps for Bristol, so your findings are interesting.
 
Kat,

On the map link above, delete the copyright notice and the map will appear. On the right hand side, midway down is the word St James. Zoom in with the mouse wheel and under this is the wording St James Ward. This goes right across the old Infirmary and Marlborough Street is just north of this. But not in sufficient detail to find the Terrace.

The Terrace is obviously developed by Strawbridge, but I doubt if records have survived to prove this.

Maurice :cool:
 
Long Nuke Road. B31 Just come across this name, where would this name come from does anyone know?
 
Anybody know where Millington Road Hodge hill came from next to Oakdale Road Erminghton Creesent Chipperfield Road ¿
 
For almost 23 years I lived on MOAT LANE Yardley. Now it must mean that there was a caste there at some time, with a Moat around it???
Do you remember the track behind the houses in Vera Rd., opposite the park in Moat Lane, by the bus stop.
I'm being told it was called "Woodbank" Is that right? I always thought it was just an access to an allotment site. I thought I know a man who will know!
 
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