Street names and area names come and go. Some names remain in use for centuries, whereas others change with fashion or reflect things that are happening in the world. Some of the town's main streets, including Pinfold Street, King Street, Church Street, Blockall, and The Green have carried the same name for centuries, whereas others like St Lawrence Way, Allen Drive, and Wheelwright Close are quite modern. Some of the street and area names that follow, would have been familiar to our ancestors, but have been almost forgotten today.

A simplified map showing some of the old street names.

Baulk Lane Is the old name of Stafford Road. The name was changed in about 1920. Baulks were unfenced areas of agricultural land that were divided into strips with footpaths alongside. This suggests that the land around Stafford Road was farmed in this way.
Bughole Was the name of part of The Crescent on the boundary between Darlaston and Willenhall. The name is derived from the medieval 'buggehol' meaning a hollow haunted by an evil spirit. When the Grand Junction Railway was built in 1837, the level of the road was raised for the bridge to be built over the railway. The road then ceased to be in a hollow and became part of The Crescent.
Bull Stake Since the Middle Ages, The Bull Stake has been a prominent part of the town centre, obviously named after an area once used for bull baiting. Now that the traffic island has gone, it is has lost its prominence and is just a busy road junction between Pinfold Street, Walsall Road, Darlaston Road, and King Street. Although it has lost its significance, the name is still widely used.
Catherines Cross The name dates from the 1830s. It is used on Joseph Welch's map from 1838, but on his survey for the Tithe Map in 1837 it is named as Catton's Cross. Catton could have been a local landowner, so maybe the name Catherine is derived from this. In the 18th century it was known as Mr. Offley's Waste, named after the Lord of the Manor and landowner.
Cock Street This is the old name for High Street which was used until the end of the First World War. It is still called Cock Street on the 1918 Ordnance Survey map. The street disappeared in 2002 when the area was redeveloped for the ASDA store.
Furnace Lane The lane was named after the ironworks that were once prominent at Darlaston Green. By 1799 a small stone-built blast furnace was working there and in 1826 Darlaston ironworks, in the form of Bills and Mills opened at Lower Green. On the 1884 Ordnance Survey map it is called Heath Road, the name we still use today.
Garibaldi Street The street was named after the Italian nationalist, Giuseppe Garibaldi. The northern part of the street was called Mill Street. In 1910 the whole street became Mill Street, which was named after Darlaston windmill that stood at the top of the hill, beside where Dorsett Road is today.
Great Union Street Is the old name for Forge Road. The street was named after the 1800 Act of Union between Britain and Ireland, which came into force in 1801. By 1838 the street name had been changed to Forge Road, named after Herberts Park Forge.
Great Croft Street Was on the northern side of Pinfold Street, where St Lawrence Way is today. It was between Pinfold Street and several other streets, which have long disappeared. They were Campbell Pace, Blakemore Lane, and High Street. Great Croft Street was named after Darlaston's 12th century manor house that stood nearby.
Green Lane Is the name of a long-gone road that ran from where Slater Street is today, to the junction of Bell Street and Bush Street and to the northern end of Bush Street. The section at the junction with Bell Street was known locally as 'Sewerage Street' because that is where the early open sewers were emptied.
James Bridge The area has been known as James Bridge for many centuries. It is named after the bridge that carries the Walsall Road over the River Tame.
Meeting Street Bilston Street was the centre of early Wesleyan Methodism in the town, where the first preaching house stood. After its opening, in Easter 1762, the road became known as Meeting Street, a name that was used until the 19th century. The site of the meeting house is roughly at the junction of St Lawrence Way and Bilston Street.
Mill Street,
King's Hill
Mill Street is named after King's Hill windmill that stood at the junction of Mill Street and Birmingham Street. It was a wooden post mill, mounted on a central pole, so that it could be turned round to face the wind. It existed in the 17th century and survived until the middle of the 19th century.
Pardoe's Lane Is the old name for Victoria Road. It has existed since the Middle Ages and is believed to be named after the old English word 'parlur' meaning a small piece of enclosed land. It became Victoria Road in 1887 to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee.
Pinfold Street This is an ancient street that is named after the pinfold, where an official, called the pinder, impounded stray animals until their owners had paid a fine to collect them. It is marked on the map above in green and is supposed to have been roughly on the site where Cownley's hairdressers now stands.
Radley Gutter Lane This was named after Radley Gutter, a brook, possibly part of the medieval Hindbrock (Back Brook), a tributary of the River Tame that supplied water to the local fields. In the 19th century the area was heavily mined and covered in spoil heaps which resulted in the disappearance of the brook. The lane later became known as Rough Hays Lane until the area was redeveloped in the 1920s when the council housing estate appeared. It then became Rough Hay Road.
Railway Street The street was built in the late 1880s and officially named after the London & North Western Railway's Darlaston Branch Line, in June 1890. It was built as an upper class residential road, but the residents were not happy living next to the railway. Trees were planted to hide the railway and by 1901 the street had been renamed Avenue Road.
Rough Hay The name is extremely old and refers to a medieval name for a clearing in a wood or an area of scrub, possibly used for grazing cattle.
Smith Street George Smith was one of the last millers at Darlaston Windmill. He owned some land to the north of the mill, that he sold for housing development. He created the street along which the houses were built and named it Smith Street after himself.
The Flatts This was the site of one of Darlaston's medieval fields. A flatt was a strip of cultivated agricultural land, after which the road was named. The modern road appeared in the 1930s when the houses were built. It had previously been known as The Golden Flatts and ran from the end of the present road to Heath Road and its junction with Kendricks Road.
Woods Bank This was the old name for the road from Catherines Cross to Moxley that is now called Moxley Road. It was named after the Wood family who owned much of the land in the area and also Moxley Brick Works. The name has since been used for the Woods Bank Housing Estate that was built along the eastern side of Mill Street.
Woods Bank Terrace This is the site of an old tramway that ran from the Russian Colliery to Moxley ironworks, both owned by the Rose family. The Russian Colliery was on the site of the old Wake Field which is now Pinfold Street Primary School playing fields.

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