The BDHS Road Names Project

Questions are often asked of Battle and District Historical Society about the origin of local road and street names. A number of books about names and place names are available and these are helpful, but often non-specific. Many of the roads and streets in and around Battle have ancient origins, and road names are constantly being made up to christen roads in new developments.

This study looks at the roads, lanes and streets of our district and how their names have been, or may have been, derived.

The roads listed in the accompanying table are those that are in Battle and 16 surrounding parishes – as outlined on the map shown on the Battle and District Historical Society website. This list of roughly 550 names has mainly been derived from East Sussex County Council data, but has been supplemented and amended using other available information, including old Ordnance Survey (OS) maps, tithe maps, census returns, published town street lists and some published texts.

A full description of our project is available by clicking here.

 

BDHS list of Road Names and their origins

Click here to see the list.

 

We would welcome your contributions to this project. We appreciate that some of our interpretations, especially if involving ancient languages, may be incorrect or incomplete. And we are also aware that those with more local knowledge may be able to help add to and refine this work. We would therefore very much like to receive information which would help to update our list. Please send any comments and suggestions to us using the form below. All contributions will be acknowledged via updates.

If appropriate we shall get back to you as soon as possible, but please be patient as we may need to consult before replying.

Don’t forget to give us consent to reply and to confirm that you are not a robot by clicking the boxes at the bottom before submitting your message!