Middleton Road, Salisbury

Middleton Road is on the northern side of Salisbury, close to Saint Paul’s Church.

Middleton Road is by no means in the ‘middle of town’. At the time it was built, ‘by the 1890s’ (1), it would have been on Salisbury’s outskirts.

It could be that ‘Middleton’ is the name of the one of . . . → Read More: Middleton Road, Salisbury

Mitchell Road, Salisbury

Mitchell Road is on the Churchfields Industrial Estate, which is to the West of the centre of Salisbury.

Most of the roads on the Churchfields estate are named after scientists or enigineers, of varying levels of fame (e.g. Smeaton Road, Watt Road and Telford Road).

I’m not entirely sure who Mitchell Road is named after. . . . → Read More: Mitchell Road, Salisbury

Napier Crescent, Laverstock

Napier Crescent is in Laverstock, which is a village a mile to the west of Salisbury city centre. It’s on an estate built by a developer called Ford, or perhaps Fforde, in about 1964. It’s often referred to as ‘the pebbledash estate’.

I have no idea why it’s called Napier Crescent. This is particularly irritating . . . → Read More: Napier Crescent, Laverstock

Newton Road, Salisbury

Sir Isaac Newton

Newton Road is on the Churchfields industrial estate, on the west side of Salisbury. It is named after Isaac Newton, the scientist. This follows the theme of the other roads on the industrial estate, which are named after scientists or engineers. For example:

Smeaton Road Watt Road

According to the . . . → Read More: Newton Road, Salisbury

Smeaton Road SP2

Bust of John Smeaton

Smeaton Road is named, as are most of the roads on the Churchfields Estate, after a famous engineer. John Smeaton (1724-1792) designed Eddystone Lighthouse, Aberdeen bridge and Charlestown Harbour in St Austell.

Update: There is podcast (downloadable MP3) of a lecture about John Smeaton called ‘Surveying the scene, engineering the . . . → Read More: Smeaton Road SP2

Telford Road SP2

Telford Road is on the Churchfields industrial estate, and like most of the roads on the estate it is named after an engineer, in this case Thomas Telford, who was what we would now call a ‘civil engineer’, building canals, roads and bridges.

The new town of Telford was named after Thomas Telford.

Watt Road SP2

One of the Churchfields Industrial roads, named after a scientist or engineer, in this case James Watt, who invented the condensing steam engine among other things