I was in our local library, not quite resigned to accept the threatened onset of relevance deprivation. I had attended a post-retirement workshop, suggestions included dancing, cookery, gardening or a research project. The kitchen provided sustenance, I killed plants and the thought of dancing in the dark filled me with dread. I reckoned a research project suited me nicely.
Local street names, the who’s, whys, and contemporary relevance of them, seemed an interesting subject for my research. Two weeks in and feedback confirmed I was turning up rivetingly-relevant material, but explanations, they were far trickier – mostly lost in the mists of time.
One success was the pathway linking two cul-de-sacs in our village. One byway was named Kilmore, the other, Madder and had been connected via Psycho Path. True! They had official Council signage! Records suggest the Council’s nomenclature staffer had a penchant towards the occult! The librarian assured me that that same officer also came up with Fear Street, Stalker Road, No Name Lane – that last one probably reflecting a bad-hair day. But I was trying to dig deeper, to uncover the rationale behind the names.
Viz the Psycho, it transpires that several decades earlier, a young psychologist had had a run-in with the Council over his proposal to construct a Headspace clinic. Bitter revenge?
But there were other mysteries. The homesick Danish émigré, naming his property Farht, accessed via Farht Close. There was a Cumming Court, a Beaver Close, a Finebush Lane, Hookers Drive, and even a Cockshoot Close. (I was still to uncover a Peckadillo Road, but we had a Salubrious Hill.)
What was behind these ‘earthy’ names? Imagine the awkwardness of providing an elderly aunt with your address at 41 Back Passage!
The Village was established in the decadent late 18th Century, a time when Fanny Hill and Tom Jones roamed the streets, long before Aquarius, dope and free love were in the ascendency, a time I suspect well before Tarana Burke‘s Social Media leadership.
Funny thing was that nobody seemed to be particularly offended by the names, in fact, the opposite. From the library, I turned left along Crystal Street, determined to survey my neighbours. Of 120 respondents, all but four thought our name was ‘too tame’. Proffered suggestions included Crystal Passage or Lustre Lane with one degenerate suggesting Bottom Road. For the moment it remained unchanged but a Blog site is seeking nominations!