Mallard Close, Harnham

Mallard Close is in Harnham, just off from Lower Street

The origin of the name is fairly clear – it’s named after the species of duck. This is entirely appropriate given that Mallard Close is very close to the River Avon.

The Mallard – Anas platyrhynchos

The mallard is the familiar British wild duck. The male has a bright green head and a yellow beak. The female is brown.
The mallard is described as a ‘dabbling duck’(¹). ‘Dabbling’ in this context means to ‘bob forward and under in shallow water so as to feed off the bottom’ (²).

Perhaps surprisingly the mallard is classified as being of an ‘amber’ conservation status by the RSPB (³).

The LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard

‘Mallard’ was the name given to a famous train – the LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard. The train is famous because it holds the speed record for a steam train. It was recorded as travelling at 125.88 mph (202.58 km/h) in 1938. It was retired from service in 1963, but restored in the 1980s. (⁴)

I’m not entirely sure why it was called the Mallard – perhaps the front of the engine is reminiscent of the bill of a duck?

Etymology of ‘mallard’

A ‘mallard’ was originally any sort of male duck. The word was equivalent in meaning to the word ‘drake’ today. (⁵). It has the same linguistic route as ‘male’.

Footnotes

1. The RSPB: Mallard [↩]
2. dabbling – definition of dabbling by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia. [↩]
3. The RSPB: Mallard [↩]
4. LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [↩]
5. Mallard – Online Etymology Dictionary [↩]