In my previous piece, I linked the overall layout of our streets to "Magdalen College's Fairy Godmother", Sophia Sheppard (1769/70 - 1848). Sophia owned much of the land round here, and when she died it passed to the College - then, and for a long time afterwards, in the hands of her brother Martin Routh (1755-1854).
There's also a pattern in the road names - nearly all have associations with Oxford. Magdalen, Headington, Isis are perhaps the most obvious ones. But what about the rest? It turns out that most do - Ellerton, Tilehurst, Frewin, Routh and many others - even Loxley itself. Some are literal, some are playful, one is tragic.
Here are some local road-names and their likely (or possible) origins - perhaps you know some more?
— Magdalen Road - the largest road by far - after Magdalen College, Oxford, founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete.
— Aldrich Terrace - probably named after the Magdalen Fellow William Aldrich, one of two University Proctors in 1814 (Edward Ellerton had been a Proctor in 1804.) The Proctor's powers were "very extensive; so much so that, after a certain time at night, they are, by virtue of their office, enabled to exercise their authority over the inhabitants of the city, and, in case of resistance, to imprison offenders".
— Baskerville - John Baskerville (1707-1775), printer and type designer - his exquisite editions of the Bible, and of Virgil and other classics in Latin and Greek would have appealed to the classical scholar Martin Routh, Sophia's brother.
— Brightman - Frank Edward Brightman (1856-1932), English scholar, liturgist, and librarian of Pusey House, Oxford. Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford.
— Broadgates - probably from the medieval hall of that name, near Magdalen, that became Pembroke College. At the end of her life Sophia Sheppard endowed two lay fellowships there, in law and medicine.
— Burcote - Burcote House (Bucks) owned by Dr Fines, former Fellow of Magdalen.
— Ellerton - Edward Ellerton (1770-1851), English cleric, academic and schoolmaster, closely associated with Magdalen, who left numerous College scholarships and prizes. Proctor in 1804.
— Frewin - probably after "Accepted Frewin" (Magdalen President 1626-1644), who changed the communion table of the chapel into an altar, the university's first since the Reformation. Martin Routh was decidedly "High Church", and would doubtless have approved. Though I seem to recall there was also a bursar, or similar, of the same name in the C19. Some say our area as whole was planned out by this Frewin's architect-brother.
— Godley - Alfred Denis Godley (1856-1925), Magdalen classical scholar and poet.
— Gunners - "Richard 'Gunner' Gunstone (1840-1924), Steward of the JCR from 1879-1914. Gunner was barman, tobacconist, mentor, confessor and professional man of the world to generations of Magdalen men including Edward, Prince of Wales - latterly (if briefly) King Edward VIII."
— Headington - Oxford suburb.
— Henderson - John Edward Henderson (1826-1882), Magdalen Fellow and Bursar.
— Isis - alternative name for the River Thames that flows through Oxford.
— Littleton - probably after brother James and Thomas Littleton, students at Magdalen who drowned in the Cherwell (a tributary of the Thames) in 1635. There is an imPressive monument in the Magdalen chapel.
— Loxley - partner in Benfield & Loxley, Magdalen's preferred builders.
— Lyford - the Oxfordshire village? The e.C17 Calvinist William Lyford? Possibly, but more likely to be the Magdalen benefactor William Lyford who (along with Thomas Sheppard, Edward Ellerton, and others) endowed trust exhibitions. The issue would be settled if we could consult Brief Lives of the Benefactors of Magdalen College, anon.[K. B. McFarlane], (Oxford: Oxford University Press, n.d. [c. 1950s], available in the Magdalen searchroom.
— Multon - Multon Hall (Lincs) - estate owned by Magdalen College.
— Patten - birth name of William Waynflete.
— Quinton - probably after the estate near Stratford-upon-Avon, owned by the College.
— Patten - birth name of William Waynflete.
— Routh - Martin Routh (President of Magdalen, 1791-1854), Sophia Shepherd's brother.
— Swaby - Swaby, a Magdalen-owned estate in Lincs.
— Tilehurst - village in Berkshire with strong connections to the Sheppards.
— Titchwell - Titchwell Manor (King's Lynn, Norfolk) - owned by Magdalen.
— Tranmere - my best guess is that it derives from Dr William Hayes (1706-1777), organist and master of the choristers at Magdalen, whose most famous compositions are the hymn tunes "Tranmere" and "Magdalen College".
— Waynflete - William Waynflete (1298-1486) - born William Patten - Provost of Eton, Bishop of Winchester, Lord Chancellor of England - founded Magdalen College and School.
A few roads have quite different origins - the top right of our area, for example, was only built up after the three big houses and gardens that once stood there (Burntwood Grange, Burntwood Lodge, and Collamore) were demolished and the land redeveloped in the twentieth century - at different times, hence the inconsistent building styles and road layout.
Burntwood Lane is old - there was walled woodland here at least from the early C17 (it's there on the Endymion Porter map of 1633), and probably for much much longer. I suspect that it was called that not because there had once been a significant fire that destroyed a large part of the wood - it's generally considered impossible to burn old grown woodland. It seem more likely that it refers to charcoal burning.
And there are some local dignitaries - for example Dawnay Rd is named after a Archibald Davis Dawnay, head of an engineering company, elected Mayor of Wandsworth in 1908, who died during his tenth consecutive term in office.
You might like to try your hand at some of the other names - Dorlcote, Freshford, Herondale, Leckford, Lyminge, Nicosia, Sandgate, Waldron.
In short, then, our area is a kind of mirror held up to Oxford in the nineteenth century. And perhaps for that reason, the one person who is not commemorated is Sophia Sheppard herself.
From Keith Bailey (8 June 2020):
Congratulations on your latest piece, which, of course, prompted me to have a (superficial) dig.
The following seem reasonable explanations:
Dorlcote Mill is the Mill on the Floss, published 1860. It's where Tom & Maggie Tulliver grew up.
[NB There's a Floss Street in Putney approved 1884, but I know nothing of the development of which is part. No Magdalen link as far as I know.]
Nicosia [and Cyprus!] was acquired by Britain in 1878, 4 years before the street-name was approved.
As for the rest, Freshford is near Bath, Leckford near Stockbridge on R. Test, Sandgate near Folkestone and Waldron near Heathfield in Sussex. The last is also a surname, and possibly some of the others also.
PB:
Yes, I did wonder about Dorlcote Mill, particularly as George Eliot is said to have been writing The Mill on the Floss when she was living in Holly Lodge, 31 Wimbledon Park Road, just over the Wandle from us here. By the way, did she choose to live there because of the mills?
[BTW there's an interesting article in the Independent on the "Battle to save George Eliot's unspoilt vista" (17 Nov 2010).]
As you say in your study of Battersea street-names, even when one knows the origin of a name it can be hard to know why it was chosen.
Incidentally, growing up round here there was always confusion about how to pronounce "Nicosia" - people were less travelled then, and had little or no idea of its association with Cyprus. Was it "nick-oh-SEE-yah" or "nick-OH-she-ah"?
PB to KB: 19.8.2020:
One small thing came out of reading the terrific I'Ansons book [Peter Jefferson Smith, The I'Ansons: A Dynasty of London Architects & Surveyors (Clapham Society, 2019)].
As you pointed out, Cyprus became a British Protectorate in 1879 at about the time the road was laid out. So it was interesting to see (p308) that the Chief Justice for the island was an I'Anson nephew, and Edward I'Anson junior spent 2 months on the island Jan/Feb 1882.
A compelling case, eh?
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Please contact me, Philip Boys / 14 Loxley Road, if you have any comments, queries or information to add. And if you want any more of this kind of thing...