|
 The
stories behind our street names
ABINGER WAY: A village in Surrey,
but there is also a local link. Sir James Scarlett was
an MP for Norwich in 1833 and 1835. He was called to
the House of Lords as Baron Abinger of Abinger in the
county of Surrey and city of Norwich.
ALAN ROAD (King Street): Made
up by the Corporation in 1932, this road may recall
two members of the Colman family: Russell Colman’s younger
brother who died at the age of 30 of a lung complaint
or his son Alan, a man who did much for the unemployed
in Norwich and was also a sailor, a flyer and an expert
skier. He was described as a fiery pilot in the Air
Transport Auxiliary who was killed in an air crash in
1943.
AGRICULTURAL HALL PLAIN (Prince of
Wales Road to Castle Meadow): coming generations
will wonder at this name for a small but busy stretch
of road, but it is good that it has been preserved.
On March 25 1882, the Earl of Leicester laid the foundation
stone of the Norfolk and Norwich Agricultural Hall,
despite a court ruling trying to stop it being built.
The old report doesn’t explain why anyone would want
to stop it from being built in the first place. It was
officially opened on November 16, 1882 by the Prince
of Wales, who toured the exhibition put on by the Norfolk
and Norwich Christmas Show Exhibition. Today it is part
of Anglia TV.
ALDRYCHE ROAD (Lloyd Road) THE
Aldrich family served Norwich well in the 15th and 16th
centuries. Thomas, a draper, was sheriff in 1407 and
mayor in 1507 and 1516. One of his sons, Thomas, also
became mayor and burgess in Parliament in 1555, 1558
and 1572.
As burgess he was paid 4 shillings a day — handy money
in those days. He was a grocer by trade and lived with
his wife, Elizabeth, in a flint house, which became
part of the old Labour Exchange in Colegate.
It was formerly the Sun and Anchor, then a weaving factory
and a warehouse. He died in about 1582 and gave £5 to
the poor. His alter tomb is in St Clement’s, Colegate.
ALDERSON PLACE, FINKELGATE (Queens
Road to Ber Street) V Dr James Alderson died at his
home at St Clement’s, aged 83, in 1825. He was buried
in the Gildencroft burial ground of the Society of Friends.
His daughter, Amelia, was a girl at the centre of gossip
and tittle-tattle. From the middle classes, she met
a lowly and obscure Cornish peasant at a party in Norwich
and fell in love with him. His name was John Opie. Not
only was he lowly. He was also divorced — his first
wife had run off with an Army officer. He became the
painter genius.
OPIE STREET
(London Street to Castle Meadow) V This street was
formerly called Devil’s Steps. When Amelia Alderson
married John Opie in 1798, he encouraged her to become
a “candidate for literary fame.”
She did just that and in 1802 published a “volume
of sweet and graceful peoms.” After the death of her
husband in 1807, she continued writing but about 20
years later joined the Society of Friends and changed
her way of life. She spent a good deal of time travelling
and “in the exercise of Christian benevolence”. She
died in Norwich in 1853.
ALMS LANE (Muspole Street) Alice
Crome, a widow, was buried in St George’s Church, Colegate,
in 1516. She founded seven almhouses to be occupied
by poor widows of the parish. The houses were in Alms
Lane and continued up to St George’s Street.
Nothing but the name remains of the original buildings.
We don’t hear anything about alms and almshouses today
— but we all know about social security benefits and
sheltered homes.
ARNOLD MILLER ROAD and CLOSE (Lakenham)
Arnold Henry Miller was born in 1865. His grandfather
was registrar of Norwich Guildhall Court of Record for
many years, and his father, Henry Blake Miller, was
Town Clerk of Norwich from 1876. Arnold was educated
at Norwich Grammar School and the old Belle Vue School
at Eaton.
He was deputy Town Clerk at Swansea, then Town Clerk
of Yarmouth and in May 1901 was appointed Town Clerk
of Norwich, a post he held for 24 years. His initial
salary was £1,000 a year, rising to a maximum of £1,200
with “the corporation providing all clerks, offices,
stationery and other requisites”.
APPLEYARD CRESCENT (Rye Avenue)
Named after William Appleyard, the first mayor of Norwich,
who used to live at what is now the Bridewell Museum.
The son of a father who had “raised a good estate”,
William was described as a “man of principal figure
and fortune” in the city. He married Margaret, daughter
of Robert Clere of Ormesby and they lived in a house
south of St Andrew’s Church, now known as the Bridewell
Museum.
It was bought by the city from Baron Sotherton in 1583
“for a Brydewell to keep and stay ydle persons to somme
honest woorke and labor.” It was badly damaged by fire
in 1751. William Appleyard died in 1419.
ARCADE STREET (Castle Street) opened
in May 1899. It was described as a fragment from the
Arabian Nights dropped into the heart of the old city.
It was our Royal Arcade designed by the talented architect
George Skipper - a man described by John Betjeman as
“altogether remarkable and original”. The arcade was
built on the site occupied by stables and the yard of
the former Royal Hotel on Gentleman’s Walk.
ANTINGHAM ROAD (from Springfield
Road to Munnings Road) Thomas Antingham was a worker
in the Norwich shoe-making industry. He lived in the
15th century and he is believed to be the first shoemaker
ever chosen for the Common Council of the City.
He is named as being present at the Great Assembly before
the mayor and sheriffs in the Guildhall on February
5, 1414. Since then, Norwich has had good cause to be
grateful to many councillors who had links with the
once world-famous Norwich shoe trade.
AMPTHILL STREET (Unthank Road)
Until about 100 years ago, this street - now traffic-free
- was known as Bedford Street. Then the corporation
realised there was another Bedford Street in the city
centre. Being faithful to the original name, they decided
on another town in Bedfordshire, and called it Ampthill
Street. A little research shows the word Ampthill comes
from the Old English and means “ant-heap” or “ant-infested
hill”. No disrespect to residents intended!
ANGEL ROAD (Waterloo Road to Catton
Grove Road) From the earliest days of the inns, when
they were mostly hostels set up for pilgrims by monasteries
and abbeys, naturally there were inns with signs of
religious significance, and The Angel was a popular
name. The old Angel has now become Angel Gardens, which
is spot on.
One of the few pub name changes that reflects our history.
The pub occupies the site of Angel Gardens, one of the
Norwich Pleasure Gardens - a spot where the popular
singer Harry Milburn once performed. There was also
the Angel Hotel in the city centre at one time.
ATTHILL ROAD NAMED after a legendary
Norwich soldier Captain A M Atthill. The founder of
the Royal Norfolk Veterans Association in 1898. His
family were Norfolk gentry who lived at Brandiston Hall
for about 200 years.
After serving as a brave and gallant soldier he formed
the veterans association and served as chairman for
28 years. He was one of a consortium of three local
dignitaries — Hotblack and Turner were the others —
who put up the money for building new houses off Dereham
Road.
ANCHOR STREET (Barrack Street)
The “strong drinks” trade of the old days had an affinity
with sea-going names. In Norwich there were five pubs
known by the sign of the anchor – or perhaps the “anchor
of good hope.” There were also nautically named beer
parlours.
Bullards, far away in Westwick, had their Anchor Brewery
and Steward & Patteson had their public house known
as the Anchor, quite close to Anchor Street. It stood
near the corner of Silver Road and Barrack Street and
was later absorbed into the old Pockthorpe Brewery.
THE AVENUES (College Road to Bluebell
Road) On July 9 1909, at the opening of Sewell Park,
the Norwich Playing Fields and Open Spaces Society handed
over the deeds of the Heigham playing field to Dr E
E Blyth, the Lord Mayor of Norwich. Later in the 1920s,
when massive house building was taking place, the houses
in the Avenues were built.
The road roughly divided the CEYMS ground from Heigham
playing fields. It is difficult now to imagine what
it would have been like. The Colman Road estate was
new and the Avenues was a much-desired residential area,
and of course it still is. A modern definition of the
word avenue is “a way of approach; an approach to a
house bordered by trees; a roadway with trees at regular
intervals, a wide street”.
AYLSHAM ROAD IN the mid 18th century,
that great man of letters Francis Blomefield, country
vicar and former curate of St George’s, Tombland, walked
or rode along this way to that “little market town”
of about 120 families, the situation of which is on
the River Bure.
“It is in the most agreeable and pleasant part of Norfolk,
and is much frequented in the summer season, by reason
of the Spaw.
“This is a spring about half a mile distant from the
town, the water of which, tasting very strong of the
mineral, is esteemed of great service in asthmas,” he
wrote. The “spaw” has gone — since 1912, so have the
small wherries which came up the Bure. They once rivalled
the traffic which came to town up the Aylsham Road.
Today, there always seems to be something going on up
the Aylsham Road.
|