ORIGINS OF STREET NAMES
 

Go on, ask me?  I will see if I can tell you why a particular street in Accrington has been given that name.
Atarah

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ok russell street

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Ha! Typical, I honestly dont know that one!  >:(

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lol what about charter street

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This one has always puzzled me atarah:

Blackburn Road???

No, but really how about Russia Street?

:D

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nuttall street

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paxton street

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Russia Street, like Swiss Street and Poland Street, was named after the countries that Mr Frederick Steiner's turkey red dyeworks in Church exported to.

I've got to be honest, I nicked that from June's excellent Accrington Uncovered site.

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do you know there are two nuttall streets in accrington ?

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paxton street?  does anyone live on there?

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what about knowlmere Street?

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what about edmundson street in church was it named after me i wonder.

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used to go dancing at Knowlmere street

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What about South Shore Street in Church? Where's the beach, that's what I want to know....

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south shore street is next to blackpool street, thought you might have known that tea leaf. plenty of sand around there.

Street names
 

Just dashing to work, but will be back.  Paxton is something to do with The Great Exhibition in the mid 1800's, will sort that one for you.   Nuttall is named after the owner of the land.
Be back later though.
Atarah

Hey, who is pinching stuff of my site?  :-)  Will tell you more about old Steiner when I come home.

HORIGINS OF STREET NAMES
 

Hi, here are some answers to questions from earlier.  Of course, no one knows for sure the real explanation of our local street names.  Some are obvious, but some will just have to be guesswork.

RUSSELL ST - "May" be named after Lord John Russell, Prime Minister, who daughter married one of the local Peel family.

CHARTER ST - could be named after the granting of the charter to Accrington

PAXTON ST - Paxton was the designer for the Crystal Palace (Great Exhibition of 1851)

KNOWLMERE ST - Named after Knowlmere Hall, in the Ribble Valley, home of the Peel family of this area.

Hope this helps

PS  No. I did not know there are two Nuttall Streets here in Accy.  I dont think there are actually, cos I live in that area.  There USED to be a Robert Nuttall Street, but that is now Belfield Road.

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OK Atarah....here's one for you. Why was Church Lane (the part that goes up the hill) renamed Dill Hall Lane....and when?

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i been told there is a nuttall street on the accrington map which is up burnley rd area

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do you not mean nutter road happy one.

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dont know but i know people  when coming here somtimes ring me from  burnley road and say they cant find my nuttall street

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only know one nuttall street,near belfield road

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Willows lane, Exchange street.Slaidburn Drive now where did they all come from

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Hi Mik, Slaidburn Drive must  be named after the Lancashire village, as must Downham, Malham, Worston, Pendleton
As for Willows Lane  - must have been plenty of Willow Trees in the area when it was first constructed I guess)
Exchange Street, have racked my brains, but .... have to admit defeat on that one.  Sorry.

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I know there used to be  a resovoir at the bottom of the coppice that now has houses on it, don't know any of the address but wondered if it was called anything like resovior drive or stuff like that? and yes I can't spell resovior!

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;D  Mo Do you mean at the top of Avenue Parade?? If so. it's Pinewood Drive, Sprucewood, etc. No mention of the reservoir up there. :-*

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I used to live on Water street and got told it was called that because water used to run down from the coppice.  Anyone else hear that story?  Is it true?  Cos i have believed it all my childhood life  :-/

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Re Exchange St - maybe there was a Corn Exchange there at one time. Anyone know?

Re Slaidburn - are there any other streets with place names around Slaidburn Drive?

What tends to happen a lot, particularly with newer estates is that they pick fairly generic groups of names & often they don't have any particular connection with the area, or any particular reason.

In Blackburn I lived on an estate which had Leicester, Worcester, Gloucester, Hereford etc.

Similar groups of streets in Clayton & Accy

Whether this is the case with Slaidburn I don't know.
:)

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When we lived on Lodge St as young kids, we used to play out on the Lodge, a grassy piece of spare land next to the carwash (think ther're houses there now.
Why was it called a lodge if their was no water in it? (suppose all the water was on water st, two streets across? ???

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No, you used to get to it from Burnley road, facing Huncoat

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Peel Park Avenue?

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no, no you kind of head up Burnley road and before you get to the roundabout, its off to the right hand side, at the bottom of the coppice. When we first went back to England they where just building them

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[quote author=Roy link=board=qanda;num=1064959964;start=0#4 date=10/01/03 at 00:13:53]This one has always puzzled me atarah:

Blackburn Road???

No, but really how about Russia Street?

:D[/quote]
There is also India st and China st, Holland st,Rutland st

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Littlemo, You mean off burnley road. That area is now Foxwood chase, Deerpark, Squirrels close. Funnily enough, just down the road from there is the Nuttall Street that happyone was talking about. It's a tiny street and I'm not sure if anyone lives on it, but it is definately called Nuttall street. ;D

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thanx lettie i thought i was going nuts  all the people was saying there was one down there   ;D

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big  applaud for that  ;D lettie

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WHAT ABOUT MONK STREET?

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Oh yeah, I know exactly where you mean now, Littlemo. My mum and dad live just further up. didn't the little road you're talking about that links Burnley Rd to the coppice have a big pig sty on it? My dad used to muck out there as a lad.

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so basically it's not been named after a resovoir then! anyone on here live round there...do you see foxes chasing squirrels?...any deers round there then?

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It's called Foxwood Chase because a "Fox would" chase squirrels there if it could, but it couldn't cos there was a resevoir there and now there are houses.
So it does make sense really!  ;D

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;)  There is also Badgers close on there I think, and despite going there regularly since it was built to visit mums and babies, I have never seen any kind of wildlife. I know there are plenty of sqirrels up the coppice, as my dog chases them regularly, and I have also come across deer up there on 2 occasions ( usually around 6-7am ish) There was probably loads of local wildlife there at some stage, but it will have moved on, when building started. :-/

How did Tampits Road,Church get its name?

Think it is Tanpits George which could suggest they did some Tanning in a Pit dusta think ?

What I find odd is why the Tanpits pub, after being closed for 5 years or so, reopened as the "Plough". Whats the point? It's not as though it's been specifically rebranded by one of the big pub retailers.....I just don't understand it.

As a lad growing up in Church, I can remember many things and they way of life that has sadly gone forever.

Back in 1947/8 when as a small child, I lived in Oswald Street in Church, and my dad use to take me to the Tanpits (where the Pioneer Club now stands), where there was, amongst other things, a blacksmith and on the street there were tanners (the name of them was always Tann Pits), where hides were actually tanned. The whole area stank of old tallow, rancid fat, and horses.
That, I suppose is why it was called The Tanpits, and the Pub reflected the local tanners name.

I can vividly remember that there was also a Tannery or tallow works over Bridge Street near to Chambers Weaving Mill, where my dad took me on Saturday morning where they had bricked-off areas (Tan Pits) full of bits of hides and old stinking tallow. The place was full of rats, and they were about to have a massive "Rat-hunt".

About 40 or 50 spectators were there and about a dozen or so "Rat-Killers". They had Ratting Dogs, Ferrets, Shot Guns and big Staves of wood to destroy the rats.. All the kids and women were told to climb aboard a Trailer about 20 yards from the Tan Pits.

They first sent in the Ferrets, and then the little ratting Terriers. The whole area (about 3 Yds by 10 Yds) actually began to vibrate and rise-up as if an underground explosion had occurred. Then the rats came out of every crook and nanny and the men fired their shot guns at them or beat them with staves of wood. It was like a scene out of Dantes Inferno with small fires around the "Pits" belching smoke and flames to retain the escaping rats in the "killing" area.

As a little kid I was terrified and the girls screamed and screamed. There were rats everwhere. This went on for about 10 minutes, but felt like 2 hours. Then some of the dogs came out with rats in their mouths, and others waited outside small holes for other rats to make a run for it.

I don't know how many rats they killed but it must have been in the hundreds.

Finally my dad carried me home as I didn't want to walk, because I was frightened that a rat would bite me.

But this memory remains as vivid as the day it happened, and I was only about 3 or 4 years old. I didn't go down the Tanpits for many a week after that, and kept to playing on the "Injun Bed" on which the new school (Sacred Heart Primary) was later built.

The tanpits were closed down shortly afterwards, and the blacksmiths also disappeared. But the smell remained for a long time.

The smells still there......or at least the glue factory on Bridge Street still is & depending the wind and what they're producing the smell can be awful.

However, I don't think they go in for Rat massacres these days.....I must admit, I'd never heard of that one before.

My late mother was born in Church and her working days were spent at steiners my grandfather was groomsman to the steiner familyalso among his duties was bellringing at church kirk and for his loyalty and service when he retired he was given one of the one up one down almhouses facing the queens hotel I remember going in the green grocers across the road owned then by a family called caple later in life I became friendly with there son kenneth who became a inspector with the manchester police force and was involved in the moors murders for which he got a commendation my mothers family were called Parr she had two brothers Wilf and Jack who unfortunely died in his twenties and one sister

Small world and Church is even smaller.

I have a picture of my Granddad who was an electrician at Steiners at the turn of the 19/20th century. My mum once worked there in the 50's in the calico dept., and I use to wait for her to finish work at the end of the entrance at the bottom of Dill Hall.

I remember the almhouses opposite to the Queens Pub, it seemed a real pity to pull them down as they use to be kept ever so neat and smart. I didn't know that they were linked to Steiners.

Didn't know the Capel family, but I spent a lot of time in Church when I was a kid. Did you know the Houston Family...Bert his wife Mary and their kids Dave and Ann?? I'm sure they lived a bit further up Church Kirk Road near the Cross Guns. I still see Dave occasionally.

[Keith] I remember those houses,my grandma lived in one of them next to the archway
I cannot remember your mother but i do know Wilf.He use to be manager of
Aneley's on Broadway.My dad also worked at steiners he was a bleacher before
and after the war,when he worked nights i had to go down at 10pm with his dinner
in a basin with a red hankerchief round it.

to darby Sorry but only my grand parents lived in church and to be honest I was slightly scared of grandad parr he was very strict so I was never keen on visiting and I left it to my brothers to go but over the years I have been friendly with people from Church in fact I played alongside George walker yes George member on this forum with the Church Lads Brigade drum and bugle championship in accrington in fact half the band lived in church but I remember the name of one girl who lived in church but worked at a electric distributers shop up Abbey street and everyone in accrington fancied her but could not get near her I believed she lived on Lion street her name Betty birtwistle does that name ring any bells

Sorry Keith...the name Betty Birtwistle doesn't ring any bells....maybe I was too young for girls at the time....or too old, and was otherwise occupied.

betty birtwistle
 

re,betty birtwistle.Keith,i remember betty birtwistle and her brother barth.
their father use breed birds.Yes you are right they did live on lion st,her
brother i know is dead.He was manager at EJ Rileys,for long time.

Re: ORIGINS OF STREET NAMES
 

This thread has been dormant for twelve years, though there have been others which are sort of linked to it.......About thirty years ago, the staff in Accrington library started a card index in which the reason for the names of streets in the town was explained. Since then the reasons for the origins of the street names has been added to the index, mostly by Atarah Hindle and myself. The cards are kept in a wooden filing cabinet in the local studies (upstairs) room, In recent times, Robert Cunliffe has transferred the information on them to a digital database and this too is available in the library on a memory stick. Soon it is hoped that it will be available on the internet. When this happens, I will report about it on here

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Not really true Bob, as you now know. The card index in the library was started off by a member of this website and then added to by staff members.