Street / road names and their origins

This post may be familiar to those who follow CWK205 so apologies if you have already read it but mention of Wheatley Street on another topic brought it back to mind I found the following when doing some family history research about Thomas Jesson to whom my wife is distantly related. Eight streets were built on land acquired by Coventry Corporation between 1848 and 1851, the streets being named after major benefactors of the city. These were Bird Street, Ford Street, Fairfax Street, Hales Street, Jesson Street, Norton Street, Wheatley Street, White Street. Some of these roads disappeared with the building of the ring road. William Bird, in 1686 left all of his land in trust. Half the yearly rents were to be paid to the corporation and distributed to the poor of the city. William Ford was a merchant who founded and endowed Greyfriars Hospital. Samuel Fairfax founded a charity school in 1751 in Spon Street which was later absorbed into the Bablake Foundation. John Hales founded the Free Grammar School in 1545. Simon Norton was Member of Parliament for Coventry in 1639 who gave 10 shillings a year to provide four dozen loaves of bread to be distributed weekly at St. Michael's Church to the poor of the parish. Thomas Wheatley was Mayor of the city in 1556. He gave money in 1563 to endow Bablake School. Sir Thomas White was a merchant of London. In 1551 he bequeathed money to the city to buy back property which had been confiscated by the Crown and to establish a charity which still exists today. Thomas Jesson who was a London grocer, died in 1634 and left money to pay for 6 poor boys to become apprentices. JESSON'S CHARITY Thomas Jesson, grocer, of London, in his will proved in 1636, left £2,000 to Coventry Corporation in trust to be applied to the purchase of land bringing in at least £100 yearly. From the rents the following payments were made: £3 for the apprenticing of six poor freemen's sons; £1 apiece to ten poor freemen; 10s. apiece to twenty poor widows; £5 4s. and £12 8s. for bread for the poor of Holy Trinity and St. Michael's parishes respectively; £6 for a weekly sermon in St. Michael's Church, or, failing a sermon, to be distributed among twelve poor persons; £20 to be lent to two tradesmen, who should be freemen of the city, for five years at a time; £10 to be given to at least five of the testator's relations; £1 to the Vicar of St. Michael's for a yearly sermon whereby 'the people might be better stirred to deeds of charity' and to commemorate and render thanks for all former benefactions; £3 to the corporation for an annual dinner; and 15s. and 10s. to the churchwardens of St. Michael's and Holy Trinity respectively for cakes and wine. Of the residue 10s. was to be paid to the city clerk for ten years following the testator's death and £1 thereafter and the remainder was reserved for the poor with preference to those who should have suffered accidents at work.

Hi Herritage Thank you so much for that. What a lot of info. Thomas Wheatley is of particular interest to me, not just because of his gift to Bablake school, but by the fact that he was a very honest man dealing with very honest overseas traders. A huge error occurred by accident involving currency exchange rates between Spain & the UK that was in his favour. He wanted to pay it back, but was told to put it to a good cause. That is what he did. I think that I may have mentioned that before too. ps. The city should have named Heritage Rd after you. Thank you again.

Hello Phillip, Kind words, thank you. I put it together two or three years ago for a family history fair that my wife was involved in. She had put together a family tree back to Thomas Jesson and we just carried on digging. Far better than collecting family names like train numbers. I think a working life spent in engineering helps with research and a need for detail (don't like shallow), but it's knowing when to stop before it becomes obsesive and move onto something else.

Excellent post - some names there which need adding to "Famous Coventrians"

What a wealth of information - thanks Heritage

Nice map. Coventry had a great urban network pre-war. Shame they ruined it.

I often wonder where some road names originate and whether they are unique to Coventry A couple spring to mind : 1. Ro-oak Road 2. Momus Boulevard Anyone know of their origins (and why Coventry should have a boulevard) ?

It's a FLYER but Momus, Greek God of poets. In the area we have Tennyson Road, Keats Road and Shelley Road, this area is also known as Poets Corner.

I have to confess, I'd not previously heard of that street! However, my little book "The meaning of the street names of Coventry" by Margaret Smedley, does include it, and has this to say: Named after an ancient field name - "rowe of okes feild" [sic] mentioned in the Leet book in 1541.

I knew of it, but always assumed it was just a contraction of Royal Oak! Thanks for that

Hi all. I have had a number of road names crop up in Warwick. I know it's a little out of your patch but bear with me. Gaveston Close was named after Piers Gaveston (King Edward II sort of fancy bit). I do have a lot of info on him. Beauchamp Ave was Guy de Beauchamp (10th Earl of Warwick). Ordered the beheading of Gaveston. King Edward's wife Queen Isabella found love with Roger Mortimer (Mortimer Rd, Kenilworth). And when Edward III came of age, he ordered the death of Mortimer, as it was said Edward II was killed by Mortimer, and had Isabella (his mum) removed from public duty. It happens that Queen Isabella owned Cheylesmore Manor in Coventry.

I have been listening to Bob Brolly talking about Coventry place names and it set me thinking. I live off Anderton road on an estate built in the 80's. Most of the place names mean nothing to me and I wondered if Forum members knew where the names came from. Names like Ainsdale Close, Delarge Close etc. Newmarket and Haydock are easy (horse racing) but the rest leave me wondering. Thanks lot.

You've certainly got a mixture round there - in addition I see there's Seaford (Sussex), Hurn (Kent), Lancia (motor) and Linstock (Cumbria), and no apparent link with each other or with those you mention

I want to know why an extra "e" has been added to the names of Ernsford (as in Ernsford Avenue) and Edgwick (as in Edgwick Road) , so we now have Ernesford Grange and Edgewick Oh, and don't mention the extra "s" in West Orchard(s)

Another mystery is the change to the spelling of "Bayley Lane". Up to the 1891 census it was "Bailey". By the 1901 census it had changed to the present spelling.