Salisbury and Stonehenge » lost_road_names

Melemonger Street, Salisbury

mattypenny — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:08:46 +0000

The name ‘Melemonger Street’ is no longer used. What was Melemonger Street is now ‘Greencroft Street’.

The road is on the eastern edge of the city centre.

I was puzzled by the meaning of ‘Melemonger’ for some time. ‘Monger’ is fairly clear – it means dealer or seller, as in the current words fishmonger or ironmonger.

I did wonder whether ‘mele’ might be connected with the French word ‘mel’ meaning ‘honey’, but it seems that the meaning is slightly more prosaic. I found a reference to the road on Google Book Search, where the quoted book said that ‘Melemonger’ means ‘seller of meal’.(¹).

I’ve not been able to retrieve the reference from Google book search again, I’m afraid.

Visiting Salisbury?

For a selection of Salisbury hotels, see the Hotels in Salisbury page.

Footnotes

Education and the Historic Environment – Google Book Search

Mill Road, Salisbury

mattypenny — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:41:59 +0000

Mill Road is in central Salisbury. It runs along the northern side of Queen Elizabeth Gardens.

I think it’s named in reference to the ‘original’ Fisherton Mill.

I believe that the name ‘Fisherton Mill’ has been applied to two different buildings – the current Fisherton Mill, just off of Fisherton Street, and the ‘old’ Fisherton Mill which was close to the Fisherton end of Queen Elizabeth Gardens.

The first Fisherton Mill

The first chronologically was on the river Nadder, on or near Fisherton Island.

There was a mill at Fisherton in 1086. Mills in Fisherton are mentioned in a dowry in 1273, in conveyancing documents in 1589, and again in 1653 (when three grist mills are specified), and then in various documents through the 18th and 19th Centuries. ¹

In the 20th Century Fisherton Mill was first owned by Messrs. F. Bowle & Sons.

In 1935, ownership was taken by J. H. Bartlett and then, in 1956, by Messrs. H. R. & S. Sainsbury & Co., Ltd.

The picture below was taken from the Long Bridge, in 1955.

Reproduced courtesy of Francis Frith. Click on the photo if you would like to buy a copy!

The second Fisherton Mill

The second Fisherton Mill is the mill that currently stands at the Fisherton end of Fisherton Street, on the right as you look away from the town.

This was built as a grain mill in 1880 ² by W.Main & Sons Ltd. The mill was a grain mill, serving the Corn Exchange (which is now the library) and Main’s shop, which was in the Nationwide building opposite the library. The mill employed up to 25 people, but closed in 1984.

It was subsequently a carpet warehouse, and store-rooms for Salisbury playhouse.

In 1993-4, Michael and Leonard Main, the great grandsons of the original founder, converted the building into a workshops, a shop, a gallery and cafe. It’s well worth a visit – both for the building and the artwork.

Fisherton Mill - Mains mill, Salisbury

Which Fisherton Mill was Mill Road named after?

As I said, I believe that Mill Road is probably named after the older Fisherton Mill.

There are two reasons for this:

The chronology – this isn’t conclusive, but given that the road was called Mill Road ‘subsequently’ to 1860 and Main’s Mill wasn’t built until 1880, it seems more likely to have been named after the original mill
The location – the original Fisherton Mill was more or less at the end of Mill Road. The road does curve away, towards the railway station, but the road ‘leads’ to the location of the old mill rather than the newer one

Mill Road was Church Street

As late as 1860, most of Mill Road was actually known as ‘Church Street’ ³.

This would, I think, have been a reference to the Church of Saint Clements, which stood at the ‘Churchfields end’ of what is now Mill Road. The church was re-built as Saint Pauls on the other side of the railway station in the early 1850s.

Part of Mill Road was known as Harcourt Bridge Road in 1879 – I think this was the section between Crane Bridge and Water Lane, but I’m not sure ⁴.

Going to Salisbury Races?

For accommodation, see the Hotels in Salisbury page.

Footnotes

Fisherton Anger | British History Online
Fisherton Mill, Salisbury, Wiltshire | Art Gallery, Cafe and Mill
‘Fisherton Anger’, A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 6 (1962), pp. 180-194. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41809 Date accessed: 14 September 2009.
‘Fisherton Anger’, A History of the County of Wiltshire: Volume 6 (1962), pp. 180-194. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41809 Date accessed: 14 September 2009.

Mizmaze Hill, Salisbury

mattypenny — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:02:21 +0000

Mizmaze Hill is a name that is no longer much used. As far as I’m aware it has never been used as the name of a road, but it was the name of the hill at the Salisbury end of Bishopdown, where roads such as Ridgeway Road, Wordsworth Road and Moberly Road are now.

The name ‘Mizmaze Hill’

The name ‘Mizmaze Hill’ appears in a few documents:

An archaelogical article from 1865 says that ‘Milford Hill proper [is] a continuation of Mizmaze Hill’¹
There is a pdf which I don’t have access to, on the Antiquity Journal website. The description in Google search tells us that ‘the name Mizmaze Hill occurs there on the Ordnance map of. 1806-8′
The Victoria County History of Wiltshire says that, in the 1850s, ‘Waterworks were to be built on Mizmaze Hill to the north of the city’²

You can see the name Mizmaze Hill on the 1810 map below, which I’m using with the kind permission of Wiltshire Council Libraries, Heritage & Arts:

1810 map of Salisbury, showing Mizmaze Hill

What is a Mizmaze?

Possible spoiler: I haven’t had to do a spoiler alert on one of these pages before – it perhaps makes it seem more exciting than it actually is!

Anyhow the word ‘spoiler’, if you don’t it, is generally used in reviews or discussions of books or films where the writer is going to ‘give away’ the ending.

Why does my page on ‘Mizmaze Hill’ need a spoiler alert?

Well, the first time I visited the Breamore Mizmaze, as a child, I wasn’t told what ‘a Mizmaze’ was. This made it more fun at the time, and curiousity probably encouraged me to keep walking.

Whilst this doesn’t really compare with the tradition of entering Saint Mark’s Square in Venice for the first time blindfolded, it is quite a nice idea, so if you would prefer to see your first mizmaze before reading about it….stop reading here.

Weekend breaks in Salisbury?

For accommodation, see the Hotels in Salisbury page.

A mizmaze is a maze cut out of turf. There are surviving Mizmazes at Breamore, which is on the road from Salisbury to Bournemouth, and at Saint Catherine’s Hill, near Winchester.³

In other parts of the country the same sort of maze are known as Troy-towns or the Walls of Troy.⁴

As far as I am aware nobody knows who built the mizmazes or why.

As a child, I remember being told that monks did penance by crawling around them, but I’ve never read anything that corroborates this.

Etymology of the word ‘Mizmaze’

The derivation of the word ‘maze’ itself is uncertain.

The Online Etymological Dictionary says that it is possibly from:

O.E. *mæs, which is suggested by the compound amasod “amazed” (see amaze). Perhaps related to Norw. dial. mas “exhausting labor.”⁵

A 1922 book ‘Mazes and Labyrinths’ by W.H. Matthews has a longer discussion, but broadly concurs:

The word maze is probably of Scandinavian origin. Its oldest significance seems to be that of a state of bewilderment or confusion, or of being wrapped in thought¿a use which we nowadays regard as metaphorical ⁶

I’ve found no derivation of ‘Mizmaze’. I’d assume the ‘Miz’ is another version of the word ‘Maze’ – so a Mizmaze is doubly complicated!

Where is the Salisbury Mizmaze?

I don’t know where the mizmaze on Salisbury’s Mizmaze Hill was.

As you can see from the old map above, although the hill is marked, the Mizmaze itself isn’t.

I’ve spent a few minute’s using the ‘satellite view’ on Google Maps to see whether there is some faint outline visible from the air, but sadly there’s nothing as far as I can see.

If you have any ideas, please leave a comment.

Footnotes

Nuggeston, Salisbury

mattypenny — Sun, 24 May 2009 21:35:47 +0000

Nuggs, Salisbury

This name is no longer used, and I’m not sure exactly where in Salisbury the road or area was, but ‘A History of the County of Wiltshire says that, as with Rollestone

another group of houses nearby, probably built or owned by the Nug or le Nugghe family, had become known as Nuggeston by 1350, although it did not give its name permanently to any street.

Given that it is ‘nearby’ to Rollestone Street, perhaps the new-ish ‘Oil and Vinegar’ shop, Nuggs was named in reference to Nuggeston.

Update: Since I wrote this Nuggs has, sadly, closed down. It was an interesting shop, and I would have liked to have asked where they got the name.

I have though found a further couple of references to Nuggeston.

In ‘A History of Salisbury’ by E.E. Dorling, the author writes:

Freren Street, which of course is Friars’ Street, led to the Friary in Bugmore, but where, one wonders, were Tottlebells Street and Nuggeston ? Full text of “A history of Salisbury”

The answer is provided in a list of the deeds of the ‘Baskerville Family of Richardson in Winterbourne Bassett’ there is a reference dating from 1570 to a

Deed of gift of a cottage and garden in Nuggeston Street alias Salt Lane. The National Archives | Access to Archives

….so Nuggeston Street was what is now Salt Lane, but ‘Tottlebells Street’ is a new puzzle.