Official Guide to North Walsham 2023-2024

136 North Walsham Town Guide
Street Naming in North Walsham
The earliest records of street naming in the town are those shown on the Parish Award Map of
1808. It reveals that a number of the roads and yards in the centre of the town were once known by
different names to those used at present, e.g.: Church Street was Back Street, Vicarage Street was
Church Gate, Mitre Tavern Yard was Maids Head Yard and Bank Loke was White Lion Yard
The main roads leading from the centre were all shown on the Award Map as ‘public road No.10’
etc. and the road leading to Norwich was the only turnpike road and was named as such. The
turnpike gate was situated at the junction with the small road leading eastwards where one of the
stone crosses marking the site of the battlefield of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, is located.
Cromer Road was apparently called Antingham Lane
Mundesley Road was Swafield Lane
One of the more colourful names to appear on the map is ‘Petticoat Lane’ and this is now known
as Park Lane.
Over the years many new streets in the new housing developments have been named after
individuals, as is common practice in many towns. They were often people who had given many
years of public service and served as councillors, justices or in some other capacity. In recent years
Gooch Close and Hazell Road were named after members of parliament who represented this
constituency in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Bloom Court and Masters Court, Stanley Road, Hipperson
Close, Osborne Close and Harmer Close are examples of the names of County Councillors and
District Councillors who served the town in more recent years. Shepheard Close was named after a
well known doctor in the town in pre-war years and Sampson Road was named after a long serving
matron of the Cottage Hospital.
Many roads on the new estates were named after the owners of land in the relevant area of the
town, as shown on the Award Map of 1808. Examples are: Debenne Road, Cooper Road, Juler Close,
Redman Road and Petre Close.
There are cases also when new streets were named after members of the developers’ families, such
as Beatrice Close and William’s Way (the Cork family) and Farman Avenue (after the family famous
for thatching).
The main road through the industrial estate, leading from Laundry Loke, was named Folgate
Road, since the ‘Folly’ was located in this area. The Folly was a deep pond which also served as
a catchment pit, with a ditch system leading towards the North Walsham and Dilham Canal.
The two spur roads off Folgate Road were named after Cornish and Gaymer which was a firm of
ecclesiastical craftsmen, of national repute, which was one of the main employers of labour in the
town in pre-war years.
The Urban District Council, in 1960, decided to purchase land, provide all services and sell plots to
individual purchasers to assist the development of the town and help the small builders who could
not afford to purchase large areas of land for development. Grange Court, off Yarmouth Road, was
the first development of this kind and this was followed by Litester Close and Spenser Avenue
named after the leader of the rebellion of 1381 and Bishop de Spenser whose forces put down the
rebellion. Thirlby Road was named after another Bishop with historical connections in the town.
Examples of other streets and roads which have been re-named in more recent times are: Catchpit
Lane and, alternatively, Catspit Lane. The former is the most likely original name for this lane. Prior
to its development in recent times there was likely to have been situated in the locality a catch
pit for water since the town drain runs across it and its adjoining lands to the North Walsham and
Dilham Canal. At one time this was an open ditch but since the housing development in the area