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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

WW1UK Street Names


Tom Morgan

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Within a couple of miles of my house (West Midlands) are streets named:

Menin Road

Vimy Road

Beaumont Road

Harcourt Road

Delville Road

What others can people find, and where are they?

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An interesting subject.

Chippenham, Wiltshire has an entire estate named not after battles but from names taken from the town war memorial, covering men who fought in all areas of conflict.

One family living there who lost a son KIA in the 3rd Battle of Ypres named there house 'Ypres' in his memory.

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Hello,

Did you know that a lot of cities in Germany have a "Langemarckstrasse"?

Jan

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I didn't know that, Jan, but I'm not surprised. I understand that the Nazis saw the "Kindermord bei Ypern" as a special part of their mythology - something to inspire young people, and once Hitler and the Nazis came to power, "Langemarck Day" was chosen as the day on which the party welcomed new student members. I've also read that after 1938, there was a compulsory payment which all members of the Hitler Youth had to make, called the "Langemarck Pfennig."

I just did a Google.com search using "Langemarckstrasse" and you're right - there are lots of them!

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In the 1920's a lot of housing was built in the UK for returning serviceman, by the authorities around the country. These were known as 'Homes for Heroes.'

In our town we have three terraces built by the then Urban Council named Marne, Menin & Mons. 'Mons' terrace still carries its name plate and 'Marne' terrace was pulled down in the 1970's and replaced with Old Peoples Flats.

Also here in Sussex on the coast between Brighton and Newhaven we have Peacehaven, originally christened Anzac-on-Sea, Peacehaven began its life in 1914.

After the tragedy at Gallipoli, the name Anzac-on-Sea was felt to be unusable. Peacehaven was born - an appropriate name for a post-war town.

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Bugden Avenue in Alstonville (Australia) was named after Patrick Bugden VC, 31/AIF.

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I have the medals and papers of a Royal Sussex Loos casualty who lived in Wieltje Road in London (not far from Charing Cross). This is the address on some of his wartime letters, so it must have been so called prior to 1914 (it is still there, by the way).

It can only be named after the village in Flanders - but why?

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Verdun Road

Wibsey, Bradford.

Wisbech.

Eccles, Manchester.

Mons Road

Dudley.

Lincoln.

Delville Avenue

Keyworth, Notts.

Delville Close

Southwood Business Park, Farnborough.

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And some more I've just found.....

Vimy Road

Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire

Menin Road

Tipton, Devon

Kemsley, Sittingbourne

Beaumont Road

Carlise

Cheltenham

Coventry

Luton

Ypres Road

Allestree, Derby

Somme Road

Allestree, Derby

Colchester

There are a lot of WWI related names at Catterick Garrison, as there are at a lot of Army bases I suppose.

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In addition to street-names, the war was also enshined in the names of children born during and after the conflict. Middlebrook mention a baby girl born in 1916, given the middle name 'Verdun' by her parents. Sadly, her father died on 1st July.

Although I don't know of anyone with such a name, an elderly lady told me about one of her workmates, born in 1912, christened Annie Titanic Wimpress - and I thought Paula Yates was the world champion in giving her children embarassing names!

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Kate - When I was born my parents nearly called me Max until one of my Grandfathers, who had been severely wounded by the Germans in 1917, made his objections known....very loudly! Shame really, I quite like the name! :D

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While we're on the subject of names...

Over the years of doing tours I once had a guy that was desperate to see Hill 60 - because that was his middle name and he didn't know what it was or why it was important!

Another had Mons as his middle name - he showed me his passport as proof! - and he said it was because his grandfather was killed at Mons. When we researched it, his grandfather was killed on the Hindenburg Line in October 1918!

And on a personal note, while my daughter is called Poppy, all her other names have WW1 associations; two of them connected with men who fell. She might hate me for it one day, but I feel strongly that such connections are important.

As Arthur Currie once said when it looked as if the sacrifice of 66,000 Canadians in WW1 might be forgotten in the 1930s;

"If these are the things we should forget, what are the things we should remember?"

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There's Gheluvelt Park in Worcester, and a street named after Pte Turrall of the 10th Bn who won a VC on the Somme.

Simon

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An officer who played a prominent role in the attack on Beaumont Hamel named his daughter 'Margaret Beaumont'.

Rather classy sounding, I think.

One of these days I must check out his other childern. I know he had at least one son - Hamel wouldn't be too bad for a boy's middle name.

Jock Bruce

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Tritton Road, Lincoln

Lincoln has a major road named after the Tank Inventor, William Tritton who invented and produced the first tank when he was General Manager of William Foster and Company, Lincoln. Agricultural Engineers in 1915.

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Australia is littered with street names from WW1.

In Western Australia there was a training ground for WW1 recruits called Blackboy Hill(A Blackboy is a local bush in case you were wondering). Some time after the war a suburb was built in this area but it's street names reflect the places where the men who trained at this place went and fought such as Gallipoli Dve, Flanders Ct, Lone Pine Way, Gaza Ct, Damascus Dve, Messines Ct, Polygon Place, Flers Rd.

There are also scattered through the suburbs street names such as Verdun Rd, Jutland Parade, Ypres Rd.

In a suburb called Como, there are streets named after well known British & Australian leaders & VC winners from the war, such as Birdwood Ave, Monash Ave, Hobbs Ave, Bessell Ave, Todd Ave, Ryrie Ave, Throsell St, Murray St, Blamey Place, Axford St etc.

I could go on and on but it looks like I already have :rolleyes:

Cheers

Andrew

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The Car park in Morice Yard, HM Naval Base Devonport is on raised ground in an other wise flat area. It is called 'Hill 60 Car Park' in memory of the men from the base and area who served in the RN Division.

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Every Turkish town has its Onsekiz mars street (18th March); the date the Turks took as the start of the Gallipoli street; it is also the name of the university at Canakkale. Many Turkish towns have a Cannakale street, too, that being the name used by Turks for the Gallipoli campaign.

My mum went to school with a boy who was born to a father killed in the retreat to the Marne. His middle name was Mons; he was known to the world as Monsie.

But the saddest examples are those one sometimes sees in cemetery registers, where parents have named their houses in Worthing or Preston after some obscure village in Picardy or Flanders because that is where their son was killed.

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Right across the river from Detroit, Windsor, Ontario has streets named after nearly everywhere Canadians fought a big battle. Strangely though it does not have a memorial or I could not find it. Near these streets is a Boer War Memorial which includes a Lancaster!

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In London there is a Marne Hotel sitauted in Belgrave Road.

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I haven't checked it out yet but there is a Bradbury Road on the outskirts of Altrincham, Cheshire. Captain Edward Kinder Bradbury VC came from Parkfield, Altrincham so I assume that this road was named after him.

There is also a Marne Road in Kempston, Bedfordshire.

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In Whaley Thorns, Derbyshire, an old pit village, there are streets named after the King and Queen, French, Jellicoe and Kitchener.

On a slightly different note, in Nottingham the City Corporation changed the names of several streets in 1917, the ones with German names or references, e.g., Hamburg Street and Coburg Street, to English versions. The only ones left untouched were those named after the composers, Mozart, Handel and Haydn! A newspaper article appeared under the heading, "Removing the Taint"!!

Jim

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A few more...

Ypres Way - Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

Marne Avenue - Werrington, Peterborough.

Lusitania Road - Walton, Liverpool.

Arras Drive - Cottingham, outside Hull.

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