Road names in Pirton

Originally in the 1400s the village was divided into a number of ends. Cotman End around Walnut Tree Rd, Chepyngend around Great Green, Westwelle End around Rectory Manor, Brygend around Burge End, Grene End by the pond, and Church End by the church. There are a number of roads that I have not been able to locate….Godgrene Street, Hobbe Baulk, Huntinge Way,  Wynteres Crosse, and Wynteres Street

Burge End was known as Bryggend Way in the 15th and 16th century. This may be a reference to the bridge over the Washbrook.

Bury End I cannot find any record of this name.

Bunyan Close was named after George Bunyan, the foreman who built the estate in the 60s.

Coleman Close nearly became Sunflowers until the history group remind the builders that actually it had been called Colemans for at least 400 years and it was part of the land attached to the beer house that was later called the Fox.

Cromwell Way was named after Cromwell Farm. Weedons, who owned the farm sold the land to build the Oaks estate on Lubbars Close.

Crabtree Lane, situated in Church End was Crabs Lane. I have found a man called Crabbe in manorial rolls of 1400 but who knows?

Danefield Road, which were Bevan council houses built in 1950s was named after the large open field that stretched from Wood Lane to the Driftway. In this large field 40 bodies were found in Victorian times and they were presumed to be danes but the fields name precedes that.

Davis Crescent was named after Ernest Davis who lived at Rectory Manor. In the early 1900s he was an important figure in the village and held many village positions, chair of governors overseer of the poor and one of the first parish councillors. Davis Crescent was also known as Poppyfields presumably because of the number of poppies that used to grow there. The field was actually called Gravelly Close. The houses were built in 1919 specifically for the soldiers returning from the First World War “Homes fit for Heroes” but unfortunately in Pirton many of these men found the properties far too expensive to rent.

Docklands was the meadow known as Dorklings on the pre-enclosure map of 1811.

Great Green was Cheyppinge Grene or Chipping Green. Chipping means market. As far as I can find out there was no charter granted for a market here because Hitchin was so close but there was an annual sheep there

Hambridge Way is part of the Ickneild Way Path. It crossed the large open field known as Hambrugge. It was also known as Mill Way by the locals as it was the way to the mill at West Mill which is now in Ickleford but was in Pirton until the 1970s.

High Street used to be Town Street until 1947 when the Parish Council formally named all the roads

Hitchin Road was called Mudwall Lane after the farm house when Mick Goddard lives.

Holwell Road is the road to Holwell.

Little Green, which used to stretch from the Fox to Hambridge Way was known as Green End.

Little Lane was known as Gravelly Lane after the adjacent close of land.

Malting Orchard was the name of the close on the pre-enclosure map of 1811. There was a malting in the field used to malt the local barley for beer. Many farms in the village had a malthouse because the land was particularly suitable for growing barley rather than wheat. The close where the houses are built is actually called Brockets Pightle.

Pollards Way was named after the Pollard family who were tenants at Highdown . They were benefactors to the village in many ways, including the donation by Joseph’s daughter Palacia to build the almshouses in Crabtree Lane.

Priors Hill was Back Lane on an 1811 map. The original houses front onto Great Green in what looks like a planned development and the plots went through to thye Back Lane.

Royal Oak Lane is named after the public house that was halfway down the lane. All Royal Oak public houses are named after the event in the Civil War when the future King Charles the second escaped after the Battle of Worcester. The roundheads were chasing him and he hid up an oak tree in Boscobel House in Breward in Staffordshire. On the enclosure map of the1818 it was called Dead Horse Lane but by 1877 the new school admission registers refer to it as Silver Street.

Shillington Road is the road to Shillington but it changes to Grove Lane at the bottom of Priors Hill.

Three Closes was named by the Parish Council after the field in which they were built.

West Lane used to be Wet Lane because it flooded as it sometimes still does.

Walnut Tree Lane in the 15th century this was known as Cotmore end Way. It went through a series of changes mainly related to who was the tenant in the farmhouse. In the 19/20th century it was Coxall’s Lane or Franklin’s Lane but the final name Walnut Tree Lane came about because of the large grove of walnut trees behind the farm.


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