Penning Road is on the edge of Bemerton Heath, to the North West of Salisbury.
There are two possible derivations of Penning Road, as far as I can see. It’s either:
- derived from the surname ‘Penning’ or
- derived from the activity of ‘penning’ livestock
The surname Penning
According to ancestry.com 1, Penning is either derived from:
- the name of a field or
- the word ‘Penny’, as in the coin, or
- from the German word Panno meaning something like ‘ban’, or ‘command’
The activity of ‘penning’ livestock
The other sense of ‘penning’ could be the penning of livestock i.e. getting the animals to go into a pen.
Conclusion
I don’t know which is the most likely derivation.
The sense of penning livestock is quite tempting. There is a ‘Penning Field’ in the Salisbury area, out near Bowerchalke 2. The Bowerchalke ‘Penning Field’ is visible on the internet because it has a trignometry (mapping) point – it’s possible there is a ‘Penning Field’ near Penning Road, but it wouldn’t be visible on the internet.
On the other hand, given that ‘Penny’ is a common-ish surname in the Salisbury area, it could be that there are Penning families too. Further, it could be that the field in Bowerchalke is named after a ‘Penning’ family, given there is a Penn(e)y family in the chalk valley.
Visiting the Salisbury area?
For accommodation, see the Hotels in Salisbury page.
Footnotes
- penning Family History Facts 1920 – Ancestry.com [↩]
- http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=403550&y=123144&z=3&dn=823 [↩]
