BY HISTORIAN Roger Bingham of Ackenthwaite:
Highway names convey aspects of our history.
The ‘gate’ ending in Kendal’s Gillinggate, Stricklandgate and Stramongate is of Scandinavian origin, as is Finkle Street. Similarly, all the fell, tarn, beck, moss, dyke and scar lanes - translating into English as moor, stream, marsh, ditch and cliff - proclaim that ours is no mere Anglo-Saxon part of England.
Street signs often recall former work places like Station Lane, once leading to Burton and Holme station, Cart Lane for the over-sands route at Cark, Tram Lane at Kirkby Lonsdale and Bobbing Mill Lane at Crooklands. The Strands, referring to the historic port, and Libby’s Level, recalling a 20th-century milk factory, occur at Milnthorpe.
The same area has a selection of confusing historic names. College Green Lane, Heversham, is not named after an educational venue but after Trinity College Cambridge, which owned a nearby farm. Church Street, Milnthorpe, leads not to its parish church but to Heversham church over a mile away. Grisleymires Lane comes from an Anglo-Norman name for swine, while Paradise Lane refers not to romantic assignation in the hedgerows but to the parish dyke which divided the township from Beetham.
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