Street names

At last it has rained and everything in the garden has soaked it up and looks much happier - including the weeds of course. Walking Molly I enjoyed seeing her forging her way through the wet grass and also catching the characteristc smell of the elder flowers. Now is the time to be making cordial.

But if the plants have been parched the bees have been making honey as the sun shone. The beekeepers here have been extracting it as fast as they can and now it is for sale outside the house. I have been tasting it and it it fascinating to try and taste the various blossoms the bees have been on.

https://www.facebook.com/SaltmarsheHoney/

One of the questions I often get asked is how certain streets got their names. Sometimes the names are ancient such as Bridgegate or Hailgate in Howden. The gate in these names means street and comes from the Viking word gata. The bridge was a stone bridge probably very near where Marsh End joins Pinfold Street  - Bridgegate seems to have extended further than it does today.
Hailgate is from the Viking word halh meaning a nook of land and describes the land enclosed by the giant curve of the Old Derwent alongside which Hailgate runs -it was first mentioned in 1199.

Hailgate, showing how it curves

But it is sometimes not so obvious as Bishopgate was only built in 1834 to  link Hailgate and Flatgate and for much of the nineteenth century was just New Street before being named Bishopgate.

And more recently  there have been new housing developments and the council has often suggested names to the builders which have a link with the past.

So Shelford Avenue takes its name from William Shelford, the engineer of the Hull and Barnsley railway while the other streets off it are the names of stations and other features on the line. As of course this area was the site of the Hull and Barnsley railway station.

Hull and Barnsley track bed and station house [picture courtesy of Arthur Henrickson]

Congregational chapel

Milton Close takes its name from the Milton Rooms which were behind the Congregational chapel  which stood nearby and which in turn took their name from the poet John Milton who wrote Paradise Lost. Milton was an early Congregationalist.

now site of St Helen's Mews

The Vinery is a nod to Howden's former grape growing past whilst Langrick, Loftsome and Welham are named for  local bridges.

Charles Briggs was a former Hailgate brewer  who gave Howden the Ashes and the Shire hall and Carter street takes its name from another prominent brewing family who owned land nearby. Interestingly this is the same family after whom Carter Street in Goole is named.

It is good to see that Howden's history is being preserved in its newer street names - material for lots of school projects -- eventually!!!