Local hero (From Bournemouth Echo)

Local hero

7:00pm Monday 29th December 2008 in

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EVER wondered who thinks up the road names in your town, and where they get them? It has been suggested we should be involved in X-Factor-style votes to find local and national heroes to give their names to streets and parks.

The idea would, says the New Local Government Network, help build “community cohesion” and civic pride.

David Beckham is among names floated for Manchester, along with the Gallagher brothers of Oasis.

JK Rowling could give her name to the public library in her adopted town of Edinburgh, it is suggested, and JRR Tolkien could be honoured in Birmingham (or indeed Poole, where he lived later in life).

London mayor Boris Johnson has been urged to pledge that any British athlete who wins more than two medals in the 2012 Olympics should have a street named after them.

In most places, the names are a mix of geographic references and nods to the great and the good of bygone days. But they do not always mean much to passers-by.

John Walker, known for his informative guided walks around Bournemouth, provided the Daily Echo with a handy list of Bournemouth road names and where they come from. Is yours here?

A number take their names from the founder of modern Bournemouth, Lewis Tregonwell, his estate and family connections. Apart from Tregonwell Road itself, there are Cranborne Road, Exeter and Exeter Park Roads, Exeter Crescent and Lane, Orchard Steet and Walk, and Priory Road.

The other big land-owning families of Bournemouth also gave their names to roads. The Tapps-Gervis-Meyrick Estate and family connections inspired Ashbourne Road, Bodorgan Road, Gervis Road and Place and Upper Hinton Road among others.

The Cooper Dean family is honoured in Cooper Dean Drive and Dean Park Road and Crescent. The family also chose several Biblical names including Ophir Road and Gardens, St Luke’s Road and St Paul’s Road.

The Cooper Dean sisters named a collection of roads after the Hampshire countryside they loved, including Cheriton Avenue, Corhampton Road, Hambledon Road, Meon Road, Petersfield Road and Place and Warnford Road.

Meanwhile, several Scottish road names were inspired by the Earl of Leven, including Dulsie Road, Dunbar Road, Dunkeld Road and Elgin Road.

Percy Shelley, whose parents were the great poet and Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, influenced Abinger Road, Crabton Close, Hawkwood Road, Percy Road, Shelley Road and Wollstonecraft Road. Other famous poets are remembered in Browning Avenue, Byron Road and Wordsworth Avenue.

British prime ministers give their names to Gladstone Road, Palmerston Road and Mews, Rosebery Road and Salisbury Road. But more surprising is a collection of roads named after American presidents: Cleveland Road and Gardens, Garfield Avenue, Grants Avenue and Close, Jefferson Avenue, Lincoln Avenue, Roosevelt Crescent, Washington Avenue and Wilson Road. Prominent people with more obvious local links inspired Argyll Road, Cassel Avenue and Mountbatten Road, Derby Road, Robert Louis Stevenson Avenue and Rolls Drive.

Town mayors inspired Beale Place, Bishop Road, Cartwright Close, Grower Gardens and Russell-Cotes Road. And the town’s Victoria Cross winners are honoured with Noble Close, Riggs Gardens, Seagrim Road.

A young New Zealand pilot who lost his life over the town during the Battle of Britain is remembered at Pilot Hight Road, and Second World War leaders are commemorated in Cunningham Close, Crescent and Place, Montgomery Avenue and Tedder Road and Close.

There is a collection of “royal” roads, including Alexandra Road, Balmoral Avenue, Coronation Avenue, King John’s Avenue, King’s Park Road, Drive, Prince of Wales Road and Victoria Road.

More surprising is that someone decided to devote a little collection of road names – Calvin Road, Cranmer Road, Luther Road and Ridley Road – to famous Protestant matryrs.

• John Walker contributes the Did You Know? feature to the Daily Echo’s Magazine on Saturdays. Information on his guided walks can be found at bournemouthwalks.com or by ringing 01202 265436.