Worcester street names: Where were Goosethrottle Lane, Wooden Stair Street and Clap Gate?

We all know how much developers are keen to show they care, allegedly scouring the record books for appropriate historical reference points, but there comes a time when you can’t keep naming everything after Sir Edward Elgar, worthy chap though he may have been.

In an effort to give them a few helpful steers, they might like to scan their beadies down a list I happened across the other day. Not sure when it was compiled, but I guess its contents covered the work of civic officials over several centuries.

Pump Street was once known as Baynham’s Vine. This image shows the Methodist chapel which was demolished in 1901 to make way for the present church

Hence you learn that today’s Lansdown Road was originally called Cut Throat Lane, Sansome Street was Town Ditch, Quay Street was Wooden Stair Street and Church Street was Dishmarket. All of which would beat WR whatever into a cocked hat.

In the early days there were two main types of thoroughfare in the city. There were the paved “streets”, usually set with round cobblestones, and “lanes” with their natural earth surface hardened through use. When the lanes were paved their names were often changed.

 There were also changes when the city boundaries were expanded. Originally the old city of Worcester, bounded by the city walls, was only 318 acres, but now its municipal area is more than 8,000 acres following outwards creeping.

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This became a steady trend in the 20th century. In 1914, 500 acres were added to the city, chiefly to the south west in the Bromwich Road area, then in 1931 Lower Wick, Dines Green, part of Nunnery Wood and Perry Wood were absorbed and in 1951 the city boundaries were extended to include the rest of Nunnery Wood and Astwood, making the area then 15 times larger than the old walled city.

But even before that, thoroughfares were having their names altered. Somewhere along the line Clap Gate became St Martin’s Gate, Bedlam Lane was changed to Thorneloe Road, Oxford Road to London Road and Salt Lane to Castle Street.

Newport Street in the 1960s, formerly Eport

Yet while you can maybe see the reasoning behind most of those, what do you make of Eport to Newport Street, Incle Lane to Hylton Road, Todmorden Knoll to Edgar Street and, wait for it, Goosethrottle Lane to St Swithin’s Street?

So here we are town planners. In an effort to recapture some of Worcester’s rich character and golden heritage, how about a Cut Throat Lane or a Goosethrottle Lane somewhere?