THE PLACE NAME
The place name Lichfield occurs in a Life of St.
Wilfrid (d. 709), written soon after the saint's
death, and in the Ecclesiastical History of Bede
(d. 731). The two surviving manuscripts of the
Life date from the 11th century, but they preserve versions of the name that tally with those
given in the earliest manuscripts of Bede, copied
in the 730s and 740s. According to the Life
Wilfrid, between 666 and 669, was given a site
suitable for an episcopal see by Wulfhere, king
of the Mercians. In 669 Wilfrid presented the
locum donatum sibi Onlicitfelda (or Anliccitfelda)
as a seat for Chad, and later in the Life there
occurs a bishop de Licitfelda (or de Lyccitfelda). (fn. 1)
The earliest manuscripts of Bede tell how Chad
had his seat in loco qui vocatur Lyccidfelth (or
Licidfelth) and refer to one of Chad's successors
as the bishop Lyccitfeldensi. (fn. 2) The spelling Licetfeld is found in the 11th century (fn. 3) and, with the
alternative Licitfeld, apparently survived until at
least the early 12th century. (fn. 4)
The second element in the name is the Old
English feld, generally taken to mean 'open
country', either naturally treeless or cleared for
agriculture. (fn. 5) The meaning of the first element
has been much disputed. In the 1880s Henry
Bradley suggested that Bede's Lyccid was an
Anglicization of the early Welsh luitcoit (modern
Welsh llwyd goed, 'grey wood') and that luitcoit
itself had evolved from an earlier Celtic form
Lētocēton, the native name of the Roman settlement at Wall, 2 miles south of Lichfield. The
Latin name of the Roman settlement survived in
the Antonine Itinerary of c. 300 as Etocetum and
in the 7th-century Ravenna Cosmography
(based on earlier material) as Lectocetum. Bradley proposed an amended Latin spelling Letocetum. He noted the Cair Luitcoit ('town of the
grey wood') which Nennius had included in a
catalogue of 28 British towns and Caer
Lwydgoed where according to an early poem the
Welsh of Powys fought a battle in the 7th
century. (fn. 6)
Advances in phonology and etymology have
modified and refined Bradley's theory. Lētocaiton has been proposed as a better rendering of
the earliest Celtic form of the native name, and
the spelling Caer Lwytgoed is now generally
used for the site of the battle. (fn. 7) Linguistic evidence suggests that the native population at the
time of the English settlement spoke Celtic and
not Latin. (fn. 8) The feld in Lichfield may bear a
more restricted sense than Bradley imagined: it
has been argued that at the time of the English
invasions feld meant 'common pasture', that the
use of the word in an early English place name
means that the land to which it refers was
common pasture when the English arrived, and
that feld became incorporated in a place name
when the inhabitants of a new settlement began
to put part of it under the plough. (fn. 9) It may
therefore be significant that, according to the
author of the Welsh poem, the booty captured
by the Welsh at Caer Lwytgoed consisted of
1,500 cattle, 80 horses, and five bondsmen. (fn. 10)
The list suggests a successful raid on a place
known to control a large tract of pasture. A
further trace of Celtic elements has been found
in the local place name Leomansley, probably
another Anglo-Celtic compound, with the Celtic
lēmo, an elm, as part of its first element. (fn. 11)
The precise meaning of 'Lichfield' and its
historical and topographical significance remain
obscure. The simplest explanation is that at the
time of English settlement the Celtic-speaking
natives were using Luitcoit in its original sense,
as a forest name. In that sense 'Lichfield' would
be 'common pasture in (or beside) grey wood',
'grey' perhaps referring to varieties of tree
prominent in the landscape. (fn. 12) The Lichfield area
long remained wooded, and compound English
place names in the area include references to
alder, ash, and elm (Aldershawe, Ashmore
Brook, Elmhurst). (fn. 13)
If the forest-name explanation is accepted the
fact that Lichfield is 2 miles from Wall is
irrelevant. If Luitcoit was still being used as a
settlement name when the English arrived, however, 'Lichfield' could, on the analogy of
Chesterfield (Derb.), (fn. 14) be feld near or belonging
to Luitcoit. The identity of such a Luitcoit
remains unknown. (fn. 15)
The period in which the name Lyccidfelth was
coined, and hence the date of English settlement
in the area, remains conjectural. The chronology
of linguistic change in Primitive Welsh, upon
which a phonetic dating of the Celtic element in
Lyccidfelth depends, is uncertain. An early date,
c. 600, for the coinage of the name by the
English assumes that there had been widespread
English settlement in the area for at least two
generations before the 660s; presumably Wulfhere would not have offered, and Wilfrid would
not have accepted, a cathedral site in an unnamed spot that was remote and inhabited chiefly by semi-independent Britons. A coinage of
c. 600 is possible, historically and linguistically, (fn. 16) but some linguistic anomalies remain,
and they are reduced if Lyccidfelth is regarded
instead as a formation of a later date, in the 660s.
The way in which the Life describes the gift
may help to elucidate the early development of
the place name. The prefix on- (or an-) (fn. 17) attached to the name suggests that what the Life
records is the king's gift of a place 'in Lichfield'
and that 'Lichfield', like some other English
place names, may have originated as an area
name that was later restricted to the principal
place in the area. (fn. 18) It that were so, Lyccidfelth
would presumably be the late 7th-century form
of an already existing area name, increasingly
used to describe merely the cathedral itself and
its immediate environs.
Past etymologies have fostered myth and confusion. Some explanations of the first element in
'Lichfield' were eccentric, (fn. 19) but two were widely
canvassed and seriously considered. One suggested a derivation from the Old English līc
(Middle English lich), 'a corpse', and the other
from Old English words for 'stream' or 'bog'
(laec, lece, lic). (fn. 20) Both were etymologically unsound because they were based on post-Conquest developments of the place name. Lichfield
appears as 'Licefelle' and 'Lecefelle' in Domesday (fn. 21) and as 'Licefeld' in a document written in
the late 1140s. (fn. 22) Variations on the last spelling
are found at least until the end of the 12th
century. (fn. 23) By the 1120s, however, the form
'Lichefield' had appeared. (fn. 24) That, with its variations 'Lichesfeld' and 'Licheffeld', was the
spelling favoured by the king's clerks. (fn. 25) By the
mid 13th century it had triumphed, and at that
point the first known attempts to explain
'Lichfield' were made. The first element was
taken to be 'lich' or 'liches' and the place name
to mean 'the field of corpses', which needed an
explanation. (fn. 26)
The view apparently held at Lichfield in the
13th century was that the corpses resulted from
a battle. Far more influential was a conjecture
made by Matthew Paris (d. 1259) of St. Albans
abbey. According to him the name, campus
cadaverum, commemorated the slaughter of 999
Christians, martyred under the emperor Diocletian, 284–305. He linked Lichfield, possibly for
the first time, with the fabrications that were
accumulating round the figure of St. Alban, the
British protomartyr.
All that is known of the historical St. Alban is
his name. Geoffrey of Monmouth invented a St.
Amphibalus as Alban's supposed catechist,
whose converts, according to a later 12thcentury Life of St. Alban, were massacred in
Wales. Matthew Paris identified the place of the
massacre as Lichfield. His identification was
accepted by at least one 14th-century hagiographer at St. Albans, by John Lydgate in 1439,
and by the Warwick antiquary John Rous (d.
1491). Rous's version was preserved by John
Leland, and passed into the general currency of
antiquarian writing. It seems that it was only
then that it aroused any attention at Lichfield.
The story was not taken seriously in medieval
Lichfield. There is no evidence of any cult of the
martyrs; the story is not mentioned in the surviving cathedral chronicles or in Leland's account of his visit to the city c. 1540. In 1549,
however, the newly formed city corporation
chose to make the alleged massacre the design of
its seal. For over a century the Lichfield martyrs
featured regularly in the city's official art: on
successive corporation seals, in paintings in St.
Mary's church, and in a stone bas-relief carved
for the guildhall. Attempts were made to use
local toponyms to support the story. In the
1570s it was claimed that Boley and Spearhill,
alluding to bows and spears, (fn. 27) preserved folk
memories of the massacre, and in the 1680s land
at Elmhurst known as Christianfield was regarded as its site. In 1651 the story of the
martyrs, as told by local people, explained to the
Quaker George Fox his vision of blood flowing
through the streets of Lichfield.
Amphibalus had already been dismissed as a
fabrication in 1639 by Archbishop Ussher, who
remarked that only the people of Lichfield still
believed the massacre story. The fictitious saint
was the sole link between Lichfield and the story
of a mass martyrdom of early Christians and
Ussher's case against him was generally regarded as unanswerable. Nevertheless, some of
those who favoured the lich derivation of the
place name continued to explain it by stories of
Christian martyrdom. The most elaborate version of the story came as late as 1819, following
the discovery of human and other remains at
Elmhurst a few years earlier. A variant, possibly
based on a misinterpretation of the design of the
16th- and 17th-century corporation seals,
claimed that the corpses of the place name were
those of the army of three Christian kings,
defeated at Lichfield by Diocletian. Various
spots were suggested as the resting place of the
Christian dead, Elmhurst, St. Michael's churchyard, Borrowcop Hill, and the site of the cathedral. The theory, repeated in the 19th century,
that all place names containing the element lich
marked the sites of battlefields revived the view
apparently adopted at Lichfield in the 13th
century.
The 'stream' or 'bog' derivation was canvassed from the later 17th century. It was
pointed out that the suggested derivation was
topographically sound, suiting the marshy nature of the city's site, was a rational explanation,
and did away with Amphibalus. It found some
support among Staffordshire historians, but is
etymologically impossible.
POPULATION
In 1327 there were 108 people in Lichfield
assessed for tax amounting to £8 2s. 6d. The
number assessed was the highest in the county,
but Stafford, with an assessed population of 77,
had the higher assessment of £11. (fn. 28) Lichfield
had 1,024 people assessed for poll tax in 1377. (fn. 29)
In 1525 there were 391 people liable for tax, (fn. 30)
while 286 appeared on a muster roll of 1539. (fn. 31) In
1563 there were stated to be 400 households in
the city. (fn. 32) Over 1,100 people died during an
outbreak of plague in 1593. (fn. 33)
The Protestation Returns of 1642 listed 706
men. Most were grouped by ward, with 89 in
Beacon Street, 116 in Bird Street and Sandford
Street, 75 in Saddler (otherwise Market) Street,
60 in Conduit Street and Dam Street, 62 in Bore
Street, 46 in St. John Street, 28 in Wade Street,
62 in Tamworth Street, 71 in Stowe Street, and
61 in Greenhill. (fn. 34) During a further outbreak
of plague in 1645–7 there were at least 801
deaths. (fn. 35) In 1664 there were 296 householders
assessed for hearth tax, with a further 242 too
poor to pay. (fn. 36) The figures do not include the
inhabitants of the Close, where 35 people were
assessed in 1666. (fn. 37) The detailed census made in
1695 by Gregory King (1648–1712), a native of
Lichfield and a pioneer English statistician, recorded 2,833 people in the town and 205 in the
Close. (fn. 38) The figures given by John Snape in
1781 were respectively 3,555 and 216. (fn. 39)
Between 1801 and 1901 Lichfield's population
rose from 4,842 to 7,902. In the city centre,
covered by St. Mary's parish, there was a decline at the end of the century; from 2,422 in
1801 and 2,382 in 1811, the population had risen
to 2,832 by 1881 but had dropped to 2,281 by
1901. The population of the Close rose, with
some fluctuation, from 200 in 1801 to 249 in
1901. That of the north part of the city, covered
by St. Chad's parish, nearly doubled, from
1,183 in 1801 to 2,057 in 1901, though there was
some fluctuation after 1851, with a peak of 2,205
in 1881. The biggest growth was in the south, in
St. Michael's parish, where the population tripled from 1,037 to 3,308. (fn. 40) The decline in the
north and centre after 1881 and a slowing then
in the rate of growth in the south were largely
the result of the closing of two foundries, a
brewery, and a barracks. (fn. 41)
During the 20th century the population has
more than tripled. It had reached 8,616 by 1911,
and although dropping to 8,393 by 1921, it had
risen to 8,507 by 1931. It was 10,619 in 1951,
14,087 in 1961, and 22,660 in 1971. In 1987 it
was estimated as 28,310. (fn. 42)
BOUNDARIES AND GATES
The limits of the medieval town were marked
by a ditch, presumably dug when the town was
established in the mid 12th century: Bishop
Clinton, 1129–48, is credited with having fortified the town by surrounding it with an embankment. A ditch was recorded in 1208 and
probably earlier. (fn. 43) On the east of the town the
ditch ran from Stowe Pool to the junction of
Lombard Street and Stowe Street. (fn. 44) From that
point it ran south across the end of Stowe Street,
along what later became George Lane, across
Tamworth Street, and then along the later
Gresley Row south-west to St. John Street. It
crossed that street at a point north of St. John's
hospital and ran north-west to the present Friars
Alley. (fn. 45) It then turned north to Trunkfield
brook, following it downstream across Sandford
Street and continuing north presumably in the
form, once more, of a ditch. 'Gneybon' ditch
was recorded in that area in the earlier 13th
century, (fn. 46) and further north 'le Ellerendych' ran
east to a point in Beacon Street where Dr.
Milley's hospital was later built opposite the
north-west corner of the Close. (fn. 47) Land on the
north side of Upper Pool certainly lay within the
town: a cross by the Beacon Street gate, described in 1360 as lately erected, marked 'the
end of the town', (fn. 48) and the archdeacon of
Chester's house on the corner of Beacon Street
and Shaw Lane was described in 1448 as being
outside the Close but in the town. (fn. 49) The Close
itself formed the north-east part of the town,
and the Close ditch on the north and east
presumably served as the town boundary.
The line of the ditch between Tamworth
Street and St. John Street became known as
Castle ditch, probably taking its name from an
Anglo-Saxon fortification on Borrowcop Hill to
the south-east. (fn. 50) By the earlier 1340s the eastern
part of Castle ditch was used as a lane. (fn. 51) In 1781
there were houses along the lane. (fn. 52) What remained of Castle ditch survived apparently until
1849. (fn. 53) The stretch of ditch north-east of Tamworth Street as far as Stowe Street had been
converted into George Lane by the later 16th
century. (fn. 54)
Gates were set up where roads crossed the
ditch. Tamworth Street gate and Sandford
Street gate were recorded c. 1200; (fn. 55) St. John
Street gate in 1208, when it was called Culstubbe gate after the name of the nearby
marsh; (fn. 56) Beacon Street gate in the mid 13th
century; (fn. 57) and Stowe Street gate in the later 13th
century. (fn. 58) Geoffrey de porta, who made a grant
of land in the Beacon Street area in the mid 13th
century, may have been a gatekeeper. (fn. 59) The
gateways were probably of simple wooden construction, intended chiefly to control the entry
into the town of goods liable to pay toll rather
than for defence. No substantial structures are
shown on Speed's 1610 plan of Lichfield, and
stone gateways would have made defensive
sense only if there was also a stone wall between
them.
The ditch presumably marked the extent of
the town when established in the mid 12th
century, but a burgage outside the Sandford
Street gate was recorded in a charter of Bishop
Muschamp, 1198–1208, and there were burgages outside three other gates in the later 13th
century. (fn. 60) The townspeople evidently had some
rights in the agricultural land which surrounded
the town and which in the early 14th century
was known as the territory of Lichfield. (fn. 61) The
jurisdiction of the town court, however, did not
extend to that land, and in 1330 presentments
relating to a settlement at Gaia beyond the
Beacon Street gate were made at Longdon
manor court. (fn. 62) The corporation established for
the town in 1548 probably acquired legal rights
to the surrounding land, but the line of the
boundary at that date is uncertain: the charter of
incorporation states merely that the limits of the
city and its suburbs 'should extend as far as in
times past they have been reputed and considered to extend'. Mary I's charter of 1553
repeated the formula.
The first known statement of the boundary
which included the surrounding land is in a
perambulation of the later 18th century. (fn. 63) Perambulations of townships adjoining the city
made in 1597 (fn. 64) show that on the east and south
Lichfield's boundary was much as it was in the
18th century but that on the north and west the
area of the city was less extensive. An increase in
area at the expense of Curborough and Elmhurst
township on the north and of Pipehill township
on the west probably resulted from a dispute
with Lord Paget over the city's boundary, apparently settled in 1657. (fn. 65) In the 20th century
small adjustments have been made to the eastern
boundary. (fn. 66)
STREET NAMES
The streets listed below are those within the
gates of the medieval town. Surviving streets are
given under their modern names. Derivations
are taken from English Place-Name Elements
(E.P.N.S.) and Middle English Dictionary, ed.
H. Kurath and S. M. Kuhn. (fn. 67)
Backcester Lane.
Back Lane (1861); (fn. 68) Backcester
Lane (1900). (fn. 69) Originally part of Wade Street,
the street presumably derives its modern name
from association with the adjacent Bakers Lane.
Bakers Lane. Baxter Street (1295), Baxter Lane
(1413); (fn. 70) Bakers Lane (1610); (fn. 71) Peas Porridge
Lane (1698). (fn. 72) The original name is derived
from Old English baecestre, a baker. The name
Peas Porridge Lane was still used in 1812, (fn. 73) but
Bakers Lane was preferred as an alternative in
1761 and was the name given on Snape's plan of
1766. (fn. 74)
Beacon Street.
Bacoune, Bacunne, Baucune
Street (later 13th century); (fn. 75) Bacone Street
(1307); (fn. 76) Beacon Street (1806). (fn. 77) The original
name, still in use as Bacon Street in 1836, (fn. 78) is
presumably derived from the word for pig meat.
The early 19th-century change to Beacon Street
is evidently a polite emendation.
Bird Street.
Newebrugge Street (1368); (fn. 79) Brigge
Street (1400); (fn. 80) Brugge Street (1411); (fn. 81) Byrd
Street (1506); (fn. 82) Bryd Street (1518); (fn. 83) Bird Street
(1669). (fn. 84) The earliest recorded name refers to a
new bridge built c. 1312 at the west end of
Minster Pool. (fn. 85) The bridge probably replaced
an earlier one: a messuage in a street towards the
bridge end was recorded in 1281. (fn. 86) The spelling
Byrd (later Bird) may have been a family name.
Bore Street. Bord Street (1331); (fn. 87) Bor Street
(1414); (fn. 88) Bore Street (1506); (fn. 89) Boar Street
(1707). (fn. 90) The spelling Bore Street was again
favoured in 1800. (fn. 91) Presumably the name is
derived from Middle English bord and refers to
the boards used for the sale of goods in the
market place.
Breadmarket Street.
Wommones Chepyng
(1388); (fn. 92) Breadmarket Street otherwise Womens
Cheaping (1689). (fn. 93) The earlier name means
women's market, evidently a part of the market
place where women sold goods. Womens
Cheaping was the standard name in 1781, but
since the early 19th century the name Breadmarket Street has been preferred. (fn. 94)
Butcher Row, see Cook Row.
Cardons Lane.
Kardones Lane (1367); (fn. 95) Cardons
Lane (1498). (fn. 96) Named after the Cardon family
which held land in the area in the late 13th
century, (fn. 97) the lane ran west off Beacon Street on
the north side of the later Angel Croft hotel. (fn. 98) It
was known as Guard Lane in 1770. (fn. 99) As Cardons Lane once again, it was closed in 1805
when the land was granted by the corporation to
Samuel Barker, a Lichfield banker who lived in
the house which later became the hotel. (fn. 100)
Chapel Lane.
Gutter Lane (1498); (fn. 101) Chapell
Lane (early 16th century); (fn. 102) Gutter Lane otherwise Chappell Lane (1649). (fn. 103) The lane lay on the
south side of St. Mary's church and was presumably created by the encroachment of buildings on the market place. In the early 19th
century Gutter Lane ran between Chapel Lane
and Bore Street. (fn. 104) The name Gutter Lane is
evidently an alternative for le pendes or le pendis,
names recorded in 1316–17 and 1414 as the
boundary of land in the Chapel Lane area, (fn. 105) and
'the little lane called the Pentes' was recorded in
1476–7. (fn. 106) The word means the projecting eaves
of a row of buildings.
Cock Alley.
Wroo Lane (1335); (fn. 107) Slurkockes
Lane (1372); (fn. 108) Slorecokes Lane otherwise Wroo
Lane (early 16th century); (fn. 109) Cokke Lane
(1522); (fn. 110) Cocke Lane (1645); (fn. 111) Cock Alley
(1882). (fn. 112) The lane probably existed in 1308
when Henry and Nicholas de le Wroo witnessed
a Lichfield charter. (fn. 113) The lane ran east from
Bird Street on the north side of the George
hotel. Its original name is presumably derived
from Middle English wro, meaning a corner and
referring to the sharp angle in the lane as it
turned towards Minster Pool. The alternative
name is probably derived from a personal byname: Reynold Schirloc held land in the area in
1313. (fn. 114)
Conduit Street.
Cundu' Street (1365–6); (fn. 115) Cundyth Street (1386). (fn. 116) A conduit stood at the
junction of Bore Street and Conduit Street in
1482. (fn. 117) In 1386 and 1407 Conduit Street
stretched from Bore Street to the dam over
Minster Pool. (fn. 118) Part of the southern stretch was
then known also as Cook Row. In the late 18th
century all of the street from Bore Street to the
north side of the market place was known as
Butcher Row, itself a later name of Cook Row,
and the stretch further north was regarded as
part of Dam Street. (fn. 119) The southern stretch was
still known as Butcher Row in 1836, but the
name had reverted to Conduit Street by 1851. (fn. 120)
Cook Row.
Cocus Row (1365–6); (fn. 121) Coke Row
(later 14th century); (fn. 122) Bocherrowend (1549). (fn. 123)
The row was that stretch of Conduit Street on
the east side of St. Mary's church.
Culstubbe Street, see St. John Street
Dam Street.
Dom Street (1344); (fn. 124) Dam Street
(1362). (fn. 125) The name is derived from a dam or
causeway which gave access from the Close to
the town at the east end of Minster Pool. (fn. 126) By
the late 18th century the name was used for the
whole of the street running north from the
market place, part of which had formerly been
known as Conduit Street.
Friars Alley.
Friers Lane (1610); (fn. 127) Friers Alley
(1781). (fn. 128) The alley runs along the north side of
the site of the Franciscan friary.
Frog Lane.
Frogemerc Street (1297); (fn. 129) Frogemere Street (1315); (fn. 130) Frog Lane (1439); (fn. 131)
Throgmorton Street otherwise Throgge Lane
(1596); (fn. 132) Frogg Lane otherwise Froggmorton
Lane (1664). (fn. 133) The earliest names incorporate
the Middle English words for frog and for
marsh or mere and suggest an area of waterlogged land.
George Lane.
Yolls Lane (1575); (fn. 134) Joles Lane
(1599); (fn. 135) Joyles Lane (1610); (fn. 136) George Lane
(1730). (fn. 137) The lane follows the line of the town
ditch. Its earlier name is probably derived from
the Christian name Joel or Juel; it was renamed
presumably after George I or II. The earlier
name persisted, as Joyles Lane, in the early 19th
century. (fn. 138)
Guard Lane, see Cardons Lane.
Gutter Lane, see Chapel Lane.
Joles Lane, see George Lane.
Lombard Street.
Lumbard otherwise Stowe
Street (1633); (fn. 139) Lumber, Lumberd Street (later
1640s, 1650s); (fn. 140) Lombard Street (1707). (fn. 141) The
street was formerly that part of Stowe Street
which lay within the town gate. The present
name is evidently derived by analogy from
Lombard Street in London.
Market Street.
Robe Street (1336); (fn. 142) Saddler
Street (1439); (fn. 143) Robe Street otherwise Saddler
Street (1487); (fn. 144) Market Street (1766). (fn. 145) The
word robe presumably refers to cloth working or
selling, as saddler refers to leather working. See
also Rope Street.
Pentes Lane, see Chapel Lane.
Quonians Lane.
Quoniames Lane (1327); (fn. 146) Konyames Lane (1362); (fn. 147) Quonyans Lane (1654). (fn. 148)
The name Quoniames is recorded in 1283 in
Quoniames well (fn. 149) and is possibly derived from
the Latin word quoniam.
Robe Street, see Market Street.
Rope Street.
So recorded in 1382–3; (fn. 150) last recorded in 1502. (fn. 151) The street lay off Bird Street (fn. 152)
and was possibly a corruption of or an alternative name for Robe Street, or part of it: tithingmen for Rope Street presented at the manor
court in 1414, but in the later 15th century their
place was taken by tithingmen for Saddler
Street (the later name of Robe Street). (fn. 153)
Saddler Street, see Market Street.
St. John Street.
Culstubbe Street (1297); (fn. 154)
Seyntiones Street (1411); (fn. 155) St. John Street
(1695). (fn. 156) The original name was taken from the
nearby Culstubbe marsh (fn. 157) and was derived from
Middle English words collen, to pull, and stubbe,
a tree-stump. The later name refers to the
hospital of St. John the Baptist established by
the early 13th century. (fn. 158) In the early 18th century it was normal to distinguish the parts of the
street on either side of the town gate as St. John
Street within the bars and St. John Street
without the bars. (fn. 159) The name Upper St. John
Street for the latter was in use by the earlier 19th
century. (fn. 160)
Sandford Street.
Sondford Street (1294); (fn. 161)
Sandford Street (1405). (fn. 162) The street was named
after a ford over Trunkfield (formerly Sandford)
brook. The description Sandford Street beyond
the water (ultra aquam) was in use by 1485 for
the western continuation. (fn. 163)
Stowe Street.
So recorded in the later 13th
century, (fn. 164) and a burgage in vico de Stowe was
recorded in 1258. (fn. 165) The street leads to St.
Chad's church at Stowe. It originally stretched
on either side of the town gate, (fn. 166) but that part
within the gate was known as Lombard Street in
the earlier 17th century.
Tamworth Street.
So recorded in 1311. (fn. 167) The
street is part of the road to Tamworth.
Throgge Lane, Throgmorton Street, see Frog
Lane.
Wade Street.
So recorded in 1297. (fn. 168) The name is
presumably derived from Old English waed, a
ford, suggesting an area of waterlogged land.
Women's Cheaping, see Breadmarket Street.
Wroo Lane, see Cock Lane.
Yolls Lane, see George Lane.