WHAT'S IN A NAME?....

...A  road name, that is...

Dee Kilroy found this old Echo article which asked readers the reason for the  road name change, from 'Lindbergh Rd' to 'Franklin Rd', here in Moordown during WW2.

As you can see from the notes, the reason was because of Lindbergh's apparent willingness to hold talks with Nazi Germany.... and the new name 'Franklin' was US President Roosevelt's christian name.

So, an easy one!......but why are some of our other local road names so called?....Some names of course are obvious....the Royal Avenues... the main routes (Wimborne Rd, for example) ... those named after literary figures  (Cowper, Tennyson, Barrie..).... 'natural' road names like 'The Avenue' and 'The Grove' are easy enough to understand.....

But some are not so obvious.  We know that Malvern Rd was previously called Manor Rd, and the name changed to avoid confusion with Manor Rd in Bournemouth itself. But why choose 'Malvern'... and who chose it?

Some roads are named after prominent local figures .. McWilliam Rd... Elmes Rd.... but who was 'Oswald'... and why did Clarkson Rd become part of Mayfield Rd....and who was Clarkson anyway?  (no, it wasn't him!)

Like most things, if you know the answers, then the questions seem easy... but if you don't?....

You can read about the derivation of many of the Bournemouth road names in the appendix to the 'Bournemouth Buildings' pamphlet from the 'Streets of Bournemouth' project (You can donwnload that appendix section HERE),  But there are still many of the Moordown road names not on that list.

If you know of any reasons behind some of our more obscure road names....or if there's one you'd like to know about yourself...do please get in touch.

(I'd love to know the derivation of the names  'Newmorton Rd' and 'Edifred Rd', for example?...)