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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

WW1UK Street Names


Tom Morgan

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Quite a lot of towns have Drill Streets or variations, because of the adjacent drill hall. Armoury Street is another which is quite popular. Often these are the only remaining evidence of a once-prized building.

This is Keighley. The drill hall is extant.

2715816261_27e6618738_m.jpg

Gwyn

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Cavell Street run along the side of the London Hospital Whitechapel

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Hi Gwyn,

What significance does the 'unadopted' sign have please?

Cheers,

Nigel

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It usually means that the local authority don't maintain it.

In this case it's a cobbled street of terraced housing with the drill hall external wall on part of one side. I imagine that the road scene has barely changed since the men marched to the station ninety years ago.

(There will be pictures on drillhalls.org as soon as we upload Yorkshire in the next few days.)

I've lost track of the number of 'drill - ' street names I've visited. Drill Hall Lane, Gainsborough (drill hall extant), Drill Field Road, Northwich (drill hall demolished, drill field was football ground, now housing). Drill Street, Bradford (drill hall burned down) ... and that's before you get on to the Artillery streets (Heckmondwike, drill hall gone), Volunteer streets (Chester, drill hall modified) etc

Gwyn

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That's great, thanks. I'll be sure to have a look out for the Yorkshire pages going online.

Nigel

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Harking back to a six year old contribution to this thread, Delville Close, Southwood Business Park, Farnborough is probably a WW1 reference once removed.

This business park was built on the site of Delville Barracks and Morval Barracks. These were hutted 'spider' barracks of WW2 vintage populated during the war by Canadian troops. These in turn were later incorporated as Southwood Camp, a Royal Engineers training establishment.

Southwood Camp closed down in about 1979.

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Further to the above, a mile north of Southwood Business Park, there exists Guillemont Park, an IT software development complex. This was built on the site of another WW2 camp; Guillemont Barracks, named presumably after the Somme battlefield of WW1.

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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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A second one for Liverpool which has a small Givenchy Close. There is also a block of flats commemorating this engagement, which cost many local lives.

Daggers

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There's a Haig Street at the back of the Fusilier Museum on your way into Bury and bthe TA barracks in Blackburn are called Somme Barracks. Slight digretion I know but there you have it

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Messines Park in Derry/Londonderry.

Ironic that the only civilian casualties when the Nazis bombed Derry in WW2 lived in Messines Park, many of them family members of WW1 veterans.

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In Glasgow prior to the Great War we had a Kaiser Street in Dennistoun which was later changed to Marne Street after the war. Likewise in the Parkhead area we had a Winston Street named after Winston Churchill who was married to the niece of Lord Newlands the local landowner. This was changed to Whitby Street in honour of the German attack on the Yorkshire town after the war when the Socialists took control of Glasgow Corporation. We even went to the extremes during the war of renaming the plain biscuit with icing and a cherry on top from being a German Biscuit to that of an Empire Biscuit which it still called today. :)

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Not WW1, but In Swansea (St Thomas) theres a Balaclava Street, Inkerman Street and Sebastopol Street, Dehli Road.

Gaz

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Not WW1, but In Swansea (St Thomas) theres a Balaclava Street, Inkerman Street and Sebastopol Street, Dehli Road.

Gaz

And in Pontypool we have a district called Sebastopol

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I know, I ended up there trying to get to yours :D

Gaz

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Verdun Square in Dumfries.

I also knew a lady called "Estaires" which was where here father spent much of the war. She hated the name.

Not seen it mentioned elsewhere but do members know of a lady called Zeppelina? I think her surname was Williams. She was born (I think on a nearrby farm) during a raid in 1916.

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Hi

I have just moved from the UK to a small village about 10 miles north of Dublin, and have discovered that one of my wifes distant cousins lives in Delville Road, Dublin. Not in the UK I know, but given the number of Irish casualties just as relevant, I think. We will have to pay a visit to see if there any anyother similer names in the area.

Ian C

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Not seen it mentioned elsewhere but do members know of a lady called Zeppelina? I think her surname was Williams. She was born (I think on a nearrby farm) during a raid in 1916.

These from Freebmd.

Births Sep 1915: Wilson Zeppelina Adams Driffield 9d 635

Births Dec 1915: Smith Zeppelina V Harper Mile End 1c 643

Wilson/Williams, not too far removed eh?

Cheers,

Nigel

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There's a Cambrai Street not far from me in Belfast though I believe its naming pre-dates WW1. ...... More to do with Huguenots from Cambrai and the linen / weaving industry.

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Births Dec 1915: Smith Zeppelina V Harper Mile End 1c 643

Well at least, since her birthday is in 1915 not 1916, we can assume her middle name was something like Violet or Velma, and not Verdun!

Allie

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As the originator of this thread, I want to say how nice it is to see it revived. I think the latest additions are fascinating and so varied.

Tom

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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!

Windsor has the following streets, all marked with a poppy on the street signs:

Lens Ave

Vimy Ave

Ypres Blvd

Alsace Ave

Lorraine Ave

Verdun Ave

Amiens Ave

Arras Ave

Somme Ave

St Julien Ave

Mons Ave

Byng Rd

The memorial is downtown near city hall

Jackson Park has a number of memorials including one for the Boer War

The Lancaster is a WW2 airman memorial but it has been removed to be restored and replaced by replicas of Spitfire and Hurricane.

Finally, in Canada, the most well-known WW1 named street is Valour Road. The name was changed from Pine Street in 1925 after 3 men, who all grew up on the same block, won the Victoria Cross.(see attached)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valour_Road

http://www.histori.ca/minutes/minute.do?id=10192

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