Louth Streets

Street Names used in the Rating Lists

The following list covers the street names used in the rating lists and gives the modern equivalent names, but excludes modern streets that either did not exist in 1823–51 or were then undeveloped. It needs to be emphasised that in the first half of the nineteenth century street names were largely a matter of opinion. The names used in trade directories were not always reliable. The terminology of the rating lists was sometimes old-fashioned and their naming of minor streets and yards was limited and inconsistent; for example “Shepherd’s Yard” (231206–9) is named in R1823 but not in R1838 (381604–7).

The spelling of street names was also inconsistent and I have not attempted to reproduce the variations. For example James Street was so spelt in R1851 but appeared as “James’ Street” in R1823 and R1838; and Newmarket was so spelt in R1823 and R1838 but appeared as “New Market” in R1851.

Aswell Lane (all three lists)
Modern equivalent: Aswell Street.
In 1823 the lower half of Aswell Lane (north of the junction with Kidgate) was fully developed, but the upper half, sometimes called Quarry Lane, was almost undeveloped. R1838 shows about a dozen new houses in the upper half and a similar further addition is shown in R1851. Most of the new houses were built on agricultural land, but a comparison of the lists shows some demolition and redevelopment. For more detail see Housing in the Aswell Lane area.

Aswell Lane became Aswell Street in 1886 (Mercury 13.8.1886). At the same time Aswell Hole, off Aswell Lane, was renamed Aswell Spring or Springs (somewhat confusingly, as the spring of water there had been so called for centuries). Aswell Hole ran into, but was regarded as distinct from, Gatherums; the early maps show them partly separated by a pool of water.

Bridge Street (R1838, R1851) or Willow Row (R1823)
Modern Equivalents: Bridge Street, Grimsby Road, St Mary’s Lane
The name “Willow Row” seems to have been almost obsolete in 1823. In 1826 there is a reference to “Bridge Street or Willow Row” (IC minutes 17.2.1826), but White 1826 refers only to Bridge Street. In the Vestry poll 1834 there were many references to Bridge Street but none to Willow Row.

St Mary’s Lane was identified as “Paradise Lane” in Espin 1817, and this name is supported by an advertisement in 1819 (Mercury 6.8.1819; cf “Paradise Close” Mercury 18.11.1825). However at the same time “Paradise” was being used as a place name in Kidgate at which Wright Mason, a surgeon, had his house and surgery (Mercury 12.11.1824; records 230738/9). Later the name was applied to the house itself (Mercury 11.4.1828) and later still “Paradise Lane” was used to mean the eastern part of Kidgate, alias Kidgate Lane. In 1840 the Borough Council approved a grant towards the purchase for the future Kidgate School of “part of the garden occupied by Mr Morgan Jones in Paradise Lane” (Mercury 8.5.1840). The earliest reference to St Mary’s Lane that clearly means the present street of that name appears to be on OS 1837. Two references to Paradise Lane in R1851 seem to mean St Mary’s Lane.

Butcher Market (R1838) Cornmarket (R1851)
Modern Equivalents: Cornmarket, New Street, Rosemary Lane, Butcher Lane, Little Butcher Lane
The name “Butcher Market” appears on Espin 1808 but R1823 contains only an incidental reference to it; the street was treated as part of Market Place, although, inconsistently, one page heading reads “Market Place, and Beast Market”. Beasts (ie cattle) had earlier been sold there, and possibly some still were in 1823; but sales at the sheep market (established in 1799) were preferred and sales elsewhere were prohibited in 1829. The changed name, Cornmarket, was adopted in the 1840s and appears in the 1849 trade directories and in R1851. The corn exchange building was erected there in 1853.

Cannon Street (all three lists)
Modern equivalent: Cannon Street
In R1823 Cannon Street was referred to in the context of gardens. The only building was the (unlisted because non-rateable) Independents’ chapel built in 1821 (Robinson 1979 p 89). By 1838 small houses had been built on the west side, some of the worst new houses in Louth. Robinson 1979 p 24 describes the later state of these houses. The street was listed as part of Northgate in R1838 and as a separate street in R1851.

Chequergate (all three lists)
Modern equivalents: Chequergate, Ludgate
The coachmaker’s premises listed in R1823 were in Ludgate (advertisement in Mercury 11.9.1829). The present Ludgate is approximately on the line of Healey’s Court, which was named in R1851. Healey’s Court comprised 18 houses, some shown on Espin 1808, some not built until after 1838. The nineteenth century Ludgate was farther west.

Cisterngate (all three lists) See also Enginegate.
Modern equivalents: Cisterngate, Broadbank, Grays Road, Grays Court
The last few houses listed in R1823 under Cisterngate were in Grays Road. Following slum clearance in Grays Road a boundary mark dated 1818 and referring to G Healey and John Holland was revealed (Advertiser 30.1.1954, reporting a talk given by J W White). Holland was insolvent in 1827 and much of his property was bought by Stephen Gray, after whom Grays Road was presumably named. R1851 identified “Gray’s Court”, but this probably also covered the modern Grays Road.

Crow Tree Lane (R1838, R1851)
Modern equivalents: Crowtree Lane, Irish Hill
Crow Tree Lane was referred to in R1823, listed as a subheading of Westgate in R1838 and as a separate street in R1851. A subordinate lane, named Irish Hill, was developed in the 1830s by the construction of 14 small houses, “Westgate Cottages”. These were not named in R1838 but were records 382358–71. For a more detailed note see Westgate Cottages.

Eastgate (all three lists)
Modern equivalents: Eastgate, Vickers Lane, Burnt Hill Lane, Albion Place, Priory Road, Trinity Lane, Eastfield Road
Vickers’ Lane was treated as part of Eastgate in R1823 but listed separately in R1838 and R1851. Record 230308 seems to be the earliest reference to it under that name; the street is named “Holland Lane” on the early maps.

Burnt Hill Lane was named only in R1851, under the general heading of Eastgate. Espin 1808 showed at least one building fronting onto the lane but this is not identifiable in R1823. The configuration of buildings was changed in 1837 when the “Warrenite” Chapel was built. In the first half of the nineteenth century some people called this street Bunting Lane.

Eastgate east of its junction with Maiden Row was sometimes called Watery Lane, because a stream originating in Aswell Spring ran down its side. Its extension, Eastfield Road, is referred to in isolated records in the rating lists but does not seem to have been in general use until after 1851.

Priory Road was formerly Union Court (in R1823 records 230453–70; R1838 and R1851 show increased numbers of houses built later). It was renamed in 1886 when a bridge over the dyke was built to link it to Monks Dyke Road (Mercury 11.6.1886).

Albion Place (a name that first appeared in the 1891 census) was formerly Leak’s Court. It was not named in the rating lists but appeared as records 380634–41 in R1838 and 510719–38 in R1851. The original developer was probably William Thorold Leak (1771 – 1840) but Edward Leak, possibly his son, was also active as a builder.

Trinity Lane (R1851 only) was developed in the 1840s mainly by William Coulam. An advertisement in 1842 (Mercury 4.11.1842) offered for sale three existing houses and ten building plots. R1851 indicates that the houses were bought in twos and threes by various investors.

Edward Street (see Gospelgate)

Enginegate (R1851)
Modern equivalents: Broadbank, High Holme Road
The naming of streets in Louth north of the Lud was inconsistent. The street now called Broadbank was shown on Espin 1808 with only one substantial building, the house then or later occupied by Christopher Byron, but in R1823 and R1838 this was listed in Cisterngate (230161/380367). In the early nineteenth century the upper (northern) part of the street was generally called Broad Bank; the lower part was called Lowgate at least until the town’s fire engine was housed there. A Corporation rental for 1822/3 refers to “ground near the Spout Louth where skins were kept and adjoining the road called Lowgate or Engine Gate.” R1851 showed Enginegate as a separate street.

Later (until the 1960s) the length below the junction with Cisterngate was called Enginegate and the remainder Broadbank; but when the houses were numbered in 1860 the numbering was consecutive. Broadbank was also “popularly called Byron’s Hill” (Mercury 27.2.1852, reporting an important sale of the Byron property; but the previous advertisement of the sale referred to “Enginegate”). Temple Terrace, off Broadbank appears to have been developed by a prominent local builder, William Coulam junior, shortly after that sale (advertisement in Chronicle 19.11.1858).

Holmes Lane, later renamed High Holme Road, was first identified in R1851 as a subdivision of Enginegate.

Gatherums (all three lists)
Modern equivalent: Gatherums
A comparison between R1838 and R1851 shows a large expansion of poor quality housing in this very narrow street. “Springside” was later an alternative name for Gatherums, but I have not seen any instance of its use as early as 1851.

George Street (R1851)
Modern equivalent: George Street
George Street did not exist at the time of R1838. It first appears (unnamed and undeveloped except at the north and south ends, fronting onto Gospelgate and South Street) on the 1844 preliminary sketch for Brown’s Panorama (Robinson and Sturman 2001 p 31). It was described as a new street in an advertisement in 1845 (Mercury 15.8.1845).

In 1850 there was a scheme for a square of “twelve superior modern residences” on the east side of the street at a cost of £6,000 and possibly attracting rents of £50 pa (Mercury 26.4.1850). This did not meet with much support (Mercury 21.6.1850). The unoccupied (and probably incomplete houses) listed in R1851 represented a substitute for the scheme. The builder was probably John Dales, who in 1853 advertised a house in the street at a rent of £55 pa (Chronicle 29.4.1853); but it is not known whether this was one of the houses listed in R1851. (For the career of John Dales see Gurnham 2015 p 30).

Goosepool (R1823), Gospelgate (R1838, R1851)
Modern equivalents: Gospelgate, Schoolhouse Lane, Edward Street
The name “Gospelgate” seems to date from about 1828 (advertisement in Mercury 12.9.1828); Espin 1817 shows “Goosepool or Gospel”. In R1823 Goosepool was shown as including Caper Row, a terrace of seven houses at right angles to the south side of the street; in R1851 this was named Misdall’s Row, probably a spelling error, since other sources say “Misdale’s”.

Schoolhouse Lane scarcely appeared in the rating lists, since there was a continuous wall on the west side and the east side was largely occupied by the unlisted Louth Grammar School; but R1823 identified three houses and a shop on the corner.

Edward Street was first listed as a separate street in R1851. In R1823 the only identifiable house in it was the house of the grammar school headmaster (230497).

James Street (all three lists)
Modern equivalents: James Street, Eve Street
James Street was laid out in the 1790s by James Dunn, a builder whose ambitions eventually exceeded his financial resources. He had a 99 year lease from the Corporation. All three rating lists treat Eve Street as part of James Street and all identify Charles’ Court, a terrace of eight houses running between the main street and the Lud.

Kidgate/Kidgate Lane (all three lists)
Modern Equivalent: Kidgate
Throughout the period covered by the rating lists “Kidgate” and “Kidgate Lane” were used inconsistently. Advertisements in Mercury indicate that the generally recognised name for the western half of the street (ie west of its junction with Aswell Lane) at the beginning of the nineteenth century was “Kidgate Lane” (as in R1823); but that by the 1820s the name was commonly shortened to “Kidgate” (as in R1838). Later some people used “Kidgate Lane” to mean the eastern half of the street; R1851 showed this distinction. When the houses were numbered in 1860, numbering was consecutive and the whole street came to be called Kidgate. See also “Paradise Lane”, discussed above under Bridge Street.

Espin 1808 shows the eastern half as “Kit Cat Lane”, an alternative name supported by an isolated reference in the IC minutes 17.2.1826.

Lee Street (R1838, R1851)
Modern equivalent: Lee Street
Lee Street was named after Robert Lee (Warden 1776, d 1779). The land evidently came onto the market after the death of his widow (Mercury 22.1.1819) and parts was bought by Robert Pool and Robert Willerton, both joiners and builders. It was reported that building land “the property of the late R Lee Esq has been sold in lots for upwards of £2,000 per acre” (Mercury 28.5.1819; but the price is impossible, perhaps a misprint for £200). Willerton advertised new houses to let in Lee Street in 1824 (Mercury 24.9.1824). The only explicit references to Lee Street in R1823 are to gardens. However the terrace of cottages later known as Pools Buildings at the north end of Lee Street can be identified (records 230697–230702).

The back land development of Lee Street included a terrace of cottages, still standing, called Schoolhouse Cottages, associated with a former Methodist Sunday school. The late David N Robinson put the start of the school at 1812 (A History of Methodism in Louth 1981); this seems a surprisingly early date.

R1838 shows that the development of Lee Street continued with substantial houses, including the surgeries of two doctors; but by 1838 the housing area had extended southwards (ie up the hill) and houses were becoming smaller. Green 2012 describes the exceptional number of schools in Lee Street. In the street’s early years the most prominent of these was the school for girls (“ladies’ seminary”) run, probably in house 381050, by Miss Beeten and Miss Annison from 1826 to 1837, before they moved to Upgate.

Long Lane (R1851)
Modern equivalent: Church Street (southern or upper part)
R1851 shows many new houses in Long Lane, but how many is unclear, because some were listed under Newmarket in R1838. Long Lane was distinct from the cluster of houses at Monks’ Dyke Head, close to the junction with Kidgate Lane.

Maiden Row (all three lists)
Modern equivalent: Church Street (north of its junction with Monks Dyke Road)
By 1823 the frontages of this street had largely been developed. Subsequent development was in courts and yards. Originally the water from Aswell Spring, after powering a watermill, ran down the west side of Maiden Row as an open stream, shown clearly on Espin 1808 but not on Espin 1817. The stream appears to have been culverted by an enterprising saddler, Elias Croft (1791–1855; bankrupt 1830), who built a terrace of small houses; behind them he built a tannery reached from Walkergate. (The icy stream will be remembered by those who remember using the Maiden Row Swimming Baths.)

Market Place (all three lists; and see Butcher Market)
Modern equivalent: Market Place
With Mercer Row, the town’s chief shopping area.

Mercer Row (all three lists)
Modern equivalents: Mercer Row, Pawnshop Passage
Various yards extended south from Mercer Row, but these were not identified in R1838 and R1851 and only Mawer’s Yard in R1823.

Monks’ Dyke/Monks’ Dyke Head Head (all three lists)
Modern equivalents: Church Street (part), Monks Dyke Road, Little Lane, Mount Pleasant
In Lincolnshire “dyke” normally means a substantial ditch. The Monks’ Dyke led water from St Helen’s Spring to Louth Abbey. Monks’ Dyke Head in later usage meant a small area of what is now Church Street, around the junctions of Kidgate and Monks’ Dyke Road; but in R1823 the name also covered Monks’ Dyke Road and Little Lane. In R1838 and R1851 “Monks’ Dyke” meant the vicinity of the dyke. The Corporation-owned houses referred to in R1823 are well shown on a plan with Espin 1817.

An advertisement (Mercury 5.9.1834) shows that Mount Pleasant was in use as a place name by then and the name also appears in the Vestry poll 1834; but two of the people mentioned in the advertisement as living in Mount Pleasant declared themselves at the poll to be living in “Little-lane-road”, an illustration of the point that street names were a matter of opinion.

New Bridge Hill (R1851; see Ramsgate for R1823 and R1838)
Modern equivalent: Newbridge Hill
Newbridge Hill became an important street when the railway station opened in 1848; but R1838 shows that the development had already begun of the terrace of houses later known as Sharpley’s Row.

Newmarket (all three lists; R1823 added “& Quarry”)
Modern equivalents: Newmarket, Linden Walk, Stewton Lane, Kenwick Road, Legbourne Road
The name “Newmarket” related to the new sheep and pig market moved (from its previous location in Upgate) to the Quarry in 1802. The rating lists contain scattered references to Stewton Lane, Bull Piece Lane (now Linden Walk), Legbourne Road and Kenwick Road, but all of these had few buildings.

A comparison of numbers shows that Newmarket was an area of important housing development during the period of the rating lists; but the area is so large that it is difficult to identify terraces, still less individual houses. For example, in R1823 the only clearly identifiable buildings are the Boar’s Head (231098, next to the sheep market) and Stewton House (231145, in Stewton Lane).

Nichol Hill (all three lists)
Modern equivalent: Nichol Hill
Nichol Hill (wrongly labelled “New Hill”) in Bayley 1834 was fully developed by 1823.

Northgate (R1838, R1851) or Padehole (R1823); see also Cannon Street.
Modern equivalent: Northgate, Spout Yard
This street was largely developed by 1823, although a comparison with Espin 1808 shows that many of the buildings were of recent construction.

“Northgate” seems to have been deliberately adopted as sounding better than Padehole. The earliest reference I have seen to it is to “Northgate or Padehole” in 1830 (advertisement in Mercury 1.10.1830). In 1834 only two voters in the Vestry poll stated that they lived in Northgate as against 47 stating Padehole. Press reports of criminal cases show that “Padehole” continued in common use into the 1860s.

“Finkle Street” appeared in Espin 1808 and also in IC minutes 17.2.1826 as an alternative name for Padehole, but it was not used in the rating lists.

Spout Yard (R1838) or “Spout” (R1823) was not named in R1851 but was records 512135 – 512143.

Ramsgate (all three lists)
Modern equivalents: Ramsgate, Ramsgate Road, and see Newbridge Hill

River Head (all three lists)
Modern equivalents: Riverhead Road, Commercial Road
In 1823 this was an area, rather than a specific street.

South Street and Spital Hill (R1851)
Modern equivalents: South Street, Spital Hill, Horncastle Road
In R1823 there are two references to fields in South Street under its older name, Tinker Lane; but the street seems to have been undeveloped apart from a windmill (230590) belonging to Charles Bellwood.

R1838 did not refer to Spital Hill (“Spital” as in “hospital”: see Green 2012 p 236). However in the Vestry poll in 1834 24 voters stated that they lived there. Most of them lived in the terraces of poor quality houses built by Edward West off the main street. Before emigrating to America West, advertised “30 well built tenements on Spital Hill” at a price (unstated) “that would afford about 10 per cent interest to the purchaser” (Mercury 23.5.1845). R1838 shows West with only 21 small houses; so building must still have been in progress.

The name “South Street” is not found until the 1840s; presumably it was considered more dignified than Tinker Lane. R1851 distinguished between South Street proper (ie the houses fronting on the street) and Spital Hill.

Upgate (all three lists)
Modern equivalents: Upgate, London Road, Julian Bower; and see South Street
Even excluding South Street and Spital Hill it is clear that the development of Upgate continued throughout the period covered by the rating lists.

The complicated history of the name “Julian Bower” is explained in Green 2012 p 123. In R1823 the lane on the west side of London Road contained a windmill (record 231553, which apparently included the other buildings shown on OS 1824). In Espin 1817 the name is applied to a copse of mature trees (illustrated on his title page) with an area of 0.375 acre on the east side of the road; this copse belonged to the Corporation and was not listed in R1823, perhaps because its letting value was considered to be nil.

Walkergate (all three lists) and Spring Gardens (R1838, R1851)
Modern equivalent: Queen Street, Spring Gardens
“We have to regret that this ancient appellation, made venerable by the usage and associations of at least six hundred years, was suppressed by our Town Council, which in 1887 thought proper to re-name the street Queen-street.” (Goulding 1901). Yes indeed!

The frontage of Walkergate was almost fully developed by 1823, but there was much space for further development in back land.

In the rating lists Spring Gardens was first referred to in the R1838, but references to the street in IC minutes show that it existed in the 1820s.

Westgate (all three lists) see also Crow Tree Lane
Modern equivalents: Westgate, Westgate Place, Breakneck Lane
Westgate was largely developed by 1823. Westgate Place appeared in R1823 as Harvey’s Alley. Breakneck Lane was not identified in the rating lists, but can be found in R1838 in one entry, 380781, the premises of Edward Gilliatt, coincidentally (the street name was old) a horsebreaker.

Outners

All of three rating lists end with properties occupied by “outners”. This term was defined by J Ellett Brogden (Provincial Words and Expressions Current in Lincolnshire 1866) as “a stranger, a resident out of the town.” In the rating lists it evidently meant a Louth ratepayer that could not be assigned to any street, because he or she was not resident in Louth. By implication, other Louth ratepayers that were not householders were residents. For example William Grant Allison, an unmarried solicitor, who appears in R1823 only as the occupier of an office, presumably lived with his father, William Allison junior.

Street Navigation

In the absence of numbers it is usually difficult to be sure about the location of buildings named in the rating lists, or even which side of the street they were, and reference has to be made to other sources. More often than not the street lists began with end of the street nearest to the town centre and the position of entries was regulated by distance, which meant that they were continually switching from one side of the street to the other. To take Aswell Lane in R1838 as example, for buildings the sequence of entries begins as follows.

This part of Aswell Lane was substantially the same for all three rating lists; but farther up the street identification becomes more difficult, because R1838 and R1851 both show that some buildings had been demolished or amalgamated and some new buildings had been erected.