Over the last few days, we have been discussing online, by email and even face to face the best name for the proposed development of nearly 80 homes in the old quarry on Fishmore Road. I have also had a discussion with the developer to clarify some points.
Quarry Place will be the marketing name only so there is freedom to select a new name. We agreed the name Quarry Place is unlikely to be accepted by Shropshire Council as a permanent name because of possible confusion with Quarry Gardens off Gravel Hill. That leaves us free to choose another name for the road and that will become the name of this new estate.
The highways authority, in our case Shropshire Council, is responsible for street names. It consults with the developer, the local unitary councillor (me for this development) and the town or parish council. Ludlow Town Council will discuss its view on a name for the Fishmore Quarry development at its Representational Committee on Wednesday night.
Many councils insist that street names must have a geographical, historical or cultural link to the site or near area. Some explicitly ban names of living people and commercial names. Names that would duplicate or lead to confusion are always banned. The suffix for the street name must reflect the character of the street (more on that below).
In Ludlow, there has been strong support to find a building or street to be named after local historian, churchwarden and fundraiser David Lloyd. There is agreement that this should be somewhere in the historic centre of the town to reflect David’s primary interests not in the Fishmore area.
Graeme suggested the road could be named after the RAF’s Sergeant Watkins who lived along Brick Lane or the 1960’s “much respected PC” Benbo.
Another suggestion is to name the road after a popular local person. I am awaiting clarification from Shropshire Council on their policy but many councils explicitly ban naming a road after a living person because of the danger of having to rename a street if some horror or other difficult circumstance emerges or takes place.
Geology has a particularly important place in Ludlow’s history. Sir Roderick Impey Murchison’s famous cross-sections and his work on the Silurian system in the 1830s features in the Buttercross Museum. The Shropshire Museum Resource Centre at Ludlow Library has a world famous geological collection.
Along this line of thinking, Nick suggested Silurian, Pridoli or Downtonian. Anne suggested Raglan or Tilestones, tilestone being a finer Raglan Mudstone.
Other suggestions include Whittle’s Way, Fishmore Drive or Fishmore Terrace, East Hamlet. A few suggestions are unprintable or unacceptable for some of the reasons explained above.
The site is a former quarry. I think the name should reflect the reason quarrying took place there. That was to obtain Raglan Mudstone for building and for brickmaking. Raglan is a distinctive name that pays homage to the history and geology of the location.
I favour Raglan Quarry as the name. Quarry is an unusual suffice for a street name but it would avoid any confusion with the Lord Raglan of Light Brigade infamy.
I live on Chestnut Grove. Was there ever a grove of chestnuts here? Was there ever honey on Honey Meadow? I would prefer a name that has a genuine reference to topography, locality or history. If I lived at Raglan Quarry I would feel comfortable an an address that wasn’t bland and acknowledged the history of the location.
I will submit my preferred option to Shropshire Council tomorrow (Monday).
Street name suffixes
I can’t find any national or local guidelines for street name suffixes, so I have collected these insights from various sources, including London Fire Brigade:
- Road or Street: a thoroughfare
- Way: major road
- Avenue, Drive, Grove, Lane, Gardens, Vale for residential roads
- Close: cul de sac
- Square: square only
- Names that describe the street shape or topography: for example, Crescent and Hill.