As one researches through old Southam records, certain road and place names are easy to understand as they are quite logical. It is easy to follow the roads out of town to Banbury, Coventry, Leamington or Daventry and if you are familiar with certain parts of the town, it’s easy to find which road was once called Workhouse Road, Station Road, Church Hill or Red Lion Close, but then it starts to become much harder.

Workhouse Road was today’s Welsh Road West, as the Workhouse stood where the primary school now stands. Station Road is now known as Kineton Road, heading towards Harbury via what was once Southam’s nearest railway station at Deppers Bridge. Church Hill was what Warwick Street was often called, while Red Lion Close was the courtyard of houses behind the Red Lion Inn which once stood north of the Fire Station.

Market Hill has understandably been interchangeable with Market Place, where the medieval Market Cross stood. The High Street, which runs south from Wood Street, sometimes included Market Hill to Oxford Street, but few would know that The Beast Market (The Cattle Market) was really Coventry Street running north between Wood Street and Welsh Road West. Wood Street refers to the name of the Wood family who built and owned substantial areas of Southam, including in Wood Street.

Abbey Lane, today named after the 17th century house on the corner, was once called Crow Lane. The origin of this took some working out, but it appears that due to the allotments once cultivated along the open lane, crows were attracted to the area – it’s almost a shame to lose that one.

Pendicke Street has fluctuated between Appendix Street and back to its original name of Pendicke Street from the early 1600s, when the Pendicke (Pendicle) was land on the edge of the Edmunds family estate on the edge of town.

The source of The Little Close has taken some time to establish. This turned out to be a close of land, footpath, houses and outbuildings between Oxford Street and Warwick Street down to the River Stowe, behind the Black Dog and Vernon House. The earliest reference goes back to the 1600s and was where William Mason’s tannery caught fire and was destroyed, damaging his neighbours Richard Newcombe and Richard Lyndon’s houses. Over the next 400 years The Little Close frequently changed hands, often within the same families, new houses were built on the foundations of old, and further properties were built, until all that is left of The Little Close today is the footpath jitty next to Vernon House between Oxford Street and Warwick Street.

Many recent street names have reflected noteworthy events in national history. The roads of the large estate between Welsh Road East and Daventry Road, once land belonging to the town’s World War Two airfield, record aircraft names of that era, while most recently Doherty Close, just off Oxford Street, was named in honour of Jeff (JJ) Doherty, the Southam paratrooper tragically killed in Afghanistan in 2008.

 

Southam Heritage Collection is located in the atrium of Tithe Place opposite the Library entrance. Opening times Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings from 10am to 12 noon. To find out more about Southam’s history, visit our website www.southamheritage.org  telephone 01926 613503 or email  southamheritage@hotmail.com  You can also follow us on Facebook.