Marlborough Town Council
Letsbe Avenue
An opportunity to name new streets in Marlborough
Street names are important - and not just for the postman or your satnav.
Place names become part of our heritage and can often provide fascinating links with our landscape and our town, industries or people going back in history.
Frees Avenue was named for the Free family who have made their mark on the town in so many ways. Specifically, the trees along Frees Avenue were planted by Mayor Thomas Free in 1910 to celebrate the coronation of George V.
We received a call from a curious new resident not too long ago asking about the origins of Chopping Knife Lane. The answer? It was an area on the outskirts of town where people could cut pea and bean sticks from hazel coppices so it likely originated from that.
Other gems include Patten Alley - named for the overshoes people wore to keep their Sunday-best shoes out of the mud on the walk to church, or Poulton Hill - poulton means "the farm by the pool" but also Thomas de Polton (later Bishop of Worcester) lived here in the early 15th century. See David Chandler's book, Place Names of Marlborough for more.
Most recently we have been able to maintain this local connection by proposing names for the streets at Marleberg Grange, which were named after local people who played their part in World War 1.
The Town Council has been approached by developers, GreenSquare, about street names for the new Rabley Wood View development, where there will be two new streets and we can suggest four names in case any aren't suitable. There are a few rules - they mustn't duplicate similar names already in the town, be awkward to spell or pronounce, be offensive or lead to obvious defacement opportunities.
The Town Council will be exploring themes and names at the Planning Committee meeting on 1 September. If you'd like to make any suggestions please get them to us by 4pm on Wednesday, 26 August - please send them by email to enquiries@marlborough-tc.gov.uk.
We've had a few suggestions already - thank you. Keep them coming.
**Updated 26 August - this has now closed. Thank you to everyone who contributed**