History of local Road-names: supporter/context letter

Posted on March 18, 2018 by Kerry Hood

Date: Tuesday, 17 February, 2015, 9:39

Dear Friends of Havelock Rec,

My wife and I only recently heard about this plan to move the ‘La Fontaine’ school to Havelock Rec this past weekend… I whole heartedly support your efforts in stopping the proposal to build on this land….
I would also like to add that the individuals planning this proposal have failed to consider the appropriateness of having a French named school located around Victorian built street names that are named after famous and revered British Generals, namely : Lord Wellington (Battle of Waterloo 1815 defeated the French) Wellington Road, The Duke of Marlborough (Battle of Blenheim 1704 defeated the French) Marlborough Road, Lord Raglan ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade (Crimean War 1853-1856) Raglan Road and last but not least Major General Sir Henry Havelock who was mostly associated with India and the recapture of Cawnpore during the Indian Mutiny 1857 Havelock Road.Therefore my point is that it is highly insensitive to British military history and the respected and former British generals that a French named school should descend upon our neighbourhood in the 200th year of the defeat of the French by Lord Wellington Arthur Wessley in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo. I am not anti-French and I appreciate other peoples’ cultures and nations and the need to move forward with the times but please can we respect British history too.Perhaps we should consider lobbying the Ministry of Defence for additional support on this topic namely to stop the building and relocation of this school to Havelock Rec in this bi-centenary year of the Battle of Waterloo (1815–2015)?

Please keep up the excellent work.

Regards
[name with-held]
Marlborough Road Resident

History of local Road-names: Chatterton

Posted on March 18, 2018 by Kerry Hood

Thomas Chatterton

There is also a page about Thomas Chatterton, that Chatterton Road (and now ‘Village’) is named after: from Chatterton Road History Society pages (with this evocative picture):

Death of Chatterton by Henry Wallis

History of local Road-names: Pope

Posted on March 18, 2018 by Kerry Hood

Alexander Pope

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pope

(21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744) was an 18th-century English poet. He is best known for his satirical verse, as well as for his translation of Homer. Famous for his use of the heroic couplet, he is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson.^[1]The money made from his translation of Homer allowed Pope to move to a villa at Twickenham in 1719, where he created his now famous grotto and gardens.

History of local Road-names: Haywood

Posted on March 18, 2018 by Kerry Hood

William Haywood (engineer)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Haywood_%28engineer%29

With Joseph Bazalgette he was responsible for the enormous undertaking of improving London’s sewerage system which enable the growth of the city (Abbey Mills pumping station). He worked with James Bunning on the Holborn Viaduct.^[1]

His main work however, for which he should be remembered, is the City of London Cemetery and Crematorium. The facility was built near Little Ilford (now Manor Park) as a way of relieving the appalling overcrowding of London’s church burial grounds (described e.g. in Dickens’s ‘Bleak House’). As the City was redeveloped the remains from many of its churchyards were reinterred there. Haywood was a pioneer of cemetery reform.

There is a small Gothic mausoleum near the gates of The City of London Cemetery and Crematorium which contain his ashes.

History of local Road-names: Homesdale

Posted on March 18, 2018 by Kerry Hood

Homesdale Road

The original Lord Holmesdale was Wolfe’s commander at Quebec and a native of Sevenoaks; but the pub – and road – was probably named after Viscount Holmesdale, the local MP from 1859 to 1868. The road has always been spelt without the ‘L’.

History of local Road-names: Elliott

Posted on March 18, 2018 by Kerry Hood

Elliott Road

Probably named after Major Edmund Halbert Elliot R.A. 1897 who was second in command to Kitchener and distinguished himself in the Zulu wars. Need to check for a local dignitary that it could be.

The surname Eliott is believed to derive from the village of Eliot in Angus although the Old English form of Elwold also appears in Scotland. Little is known of the early history of Clan Eliott because few records survive. This could be because Stobs Castle where clan records were kept was burned down in 1712.

Legend has it that the extra “t” in Eliott arose when a branch of the Eliotts adopted Christianity. The “t” was in reality meant to be a cross. The differences in spelling can be distinguished in this rhyme:

The double L and single T / Descent from Minto and Wolflee, / The double T and single L / Mark the old race in Stobs that dwell. / The single L and single T / The Eliots of St Germans be, / But double T and double L, / Who they are nobody can tell.

History of local Road-names: Napier

Posted on March 18, 2018 by Kerry Hood

Napier:

Like General Havelock, General Napier was such a popular figure in Victorian society he occupies a plinth in Trafalgar Square.


Lord Napier as Governor of Sindh	Contemporary print of Sindh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_James_Napier

General Sir Charles James Napier, GCB (10 August 1782 – 29 August 1853), was a general of the British Empire and the British Army‘s Commander-in-Chief in India, notable for conquering Sindh in what is now Pakistan as well as for success in the Peninsular War against Napoleon – in this conflict Napier had been left for dead in one battle and had two horses shot dead beneath him. At the age of 60 he was sent out to India where he became Commander-in-Chief.

General Napier was a man of his times and upbringing, so he seems to have had little sympathy or tolerance when it came to dealing with ‘insurgencies’ in India during his reign as Commander-in-Chief in India; he expressed his philosophy as such:

“The best way to quiet a country is a good thrashing, followed by great kindness afterwards. Even the wildest chaps are thus tamed.”

Another story which reflects both his attitude, and that of the wider British public, concerned the British authorities forbidding the Hindu practice of Sati – about which the Hindu priests appealed to him. Sati was the custom, when a married man died, of burning his widow alive on his funeral pyre. According to Napier’s brother William, his reply was:

“Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs.” ^[5]

Never-the-less Napier was a popular figure in Britian, which is why there are so many roads named after him, and he has a plinth in Trafalgar Square.

History of local Road-names: Jaffray

Posted on March 18, 2018 by Kerry Hood

Jaffray

john_jaffray
Jaffray Road is named after John Jaffray, a famous Chartist, who collected documents and first-hand accounts of the early trade union movement and book binding trade (he was a finisher).

This collection was donated on his death his to the British Library, shortly before the road was made, and this brought media attention to him.

He was notable for being a committee member of the London Working Mens Association and had been involved in the precursor to the Peoples Charter of 1838. This had six proposals that moved to allow working men to be elected as MPs by removing the property qualification and introducing pay for MPs.

History of local Road-names: Waldo

Posted on March 18, 2018 by Kerry Hood

Waldo:

Massacre_of_the_Vaudois_of_Merindol

Named after Peter Waldo, founded a sect of Christianity, which the Pope then condemned for Heresy :

At about this time, Waldo began to preach and teach publicly, based on his ideas of simplicity and poverty, notably that “No man can serve two masters, God and Mammon” accompanied by strong condemnations of Papal excesses and Catholic dogmas, including purgatory and transubstantiation, while accusing them of being the harlot from the book of Revelation.^[4] By 1170 he had gathered a large number of followers who were referred to as the Poor of Lyons, the Poor of Lombardy, or the Poor of God who would spread their teaching abroad while disguised as peddlers.^[5] Often referred to as the Waldensians (or Waldenses), they were distinct from the Albigensians or Cathari.

His followers relocated to the high valleys of Piedmont to continue their faith until the 14th century.

History of local Road-names: Wendover

Posted on March 18, 2018 by Kerry Hood

Wendover

Richard of Wendover, between 1226-1238, was the first recorded rector of Bromley Parish Church (St Peter and St Paul’s, behind Primark – formally Medhursts). He was ‘advanced’ to become Bishop of Rochester, being elected on 26 March 1235, and consecrated on 21 November 1238 in Rochester Cathedral. Whilst in post, he died in 1250. He is named Wendover or Wendene, as he family held lands at both place – ie Wendover near Buckingham, Wenden in Essex.