If you live in Merdon Avenue, did you know that it used to be called The Crescent? And that Twyford Road, Eastleigh, was once Winchester Road, Eastleigh? And that Consort Road, Eastleigh used to be Park Road?
I expect you have detected a pattern here. When Eastleigh became a borough that included Chandler’s Ford, it was found that some road names were duplicated between the two towns and, presumably so as not to confuse the postman, some were renamed so that there was only one of each.
It is interesting to spot some logic in the renaming. Winchester Road, Chandler’s Ford, is the old turnpike main road between Southampton and Winchester so quite rightly retained the name. In Eastleigh the road does go to Twyford before it reaches Winchester, so that makes sense.
Interestingly, Consort Road in Eastleigh lies between Victoria Road and Albert Road. And in Chandler’s Ford Merdon Avenue is indeed a crescent shape so that was not a surprising first name. I had always wondered why it is called Merdon Avenue as the now ruined Merdon Manor is not in Chandler’s Ford, but the other side of Hursley. Perhaps the land once belonged to the manor and so they took the name when it needed to change.
Does anyone know of any other road name changes in Chandler’s Ford? It adds a fascinating angle to our local history knowledge, if you’d care to share it.
However, I am told this is a little inaccurate as Geoff Dobson tells me:
“Merdon Avenue in Chandler’s Ford, I think you will find, was named for Merdon Manor which stood at the Southern end of what are now called Hiltingbury Lakes. The lakes and gardens which surround them were once the garden of Merdon Manor. The building was demolished many years ago.
The building to the north of the village of Hursley – now in ruins – was Merdon Castle after which Merdon Manor was named. Merdon Castle was built in the 12th Century by the Bishop of Winchester, Henri de Blois, and was his “palace” for about 200 years, and continued to be used by the Bishop’s staff for another couple of hundreds of years.
My Masonic Lodge, which meets in Hursley, is named after the Castle and our banner depicts a castle and a Bishop’s Mitre and Crook.
The “territory” known in bygone times as Merdon Manor covered many square miles and included the village of Hursley. But why someone in the 19th Century or earlier built a magnificent house in Hiltingbury which he called Merdon Manor is lost in the clouds of history.”
Note: The original article was published in the Parish Magazine, August 2016. Editor: Christine Clark.
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Related posts:
Growing up in Chandler’s Ford: 1950s – 1960s: Breaking Free from North End School (Part 8)
Hiltingbury Summer PACT Meeting: Thursday 16th July 7pm Merdon School
Remembrance Sunday in Chandler’s Ford: 8 November 2015
Growing up in Chandler’s Ford: 1950s – 1960s: Witnessing My First Powerboat Race (Part 11)
Celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the Spitfire
I never knew that there was a Merdon Manor. Thanks for that post.
Areas with roads of a similar class name like the well known Flower Roads in Southampton are interesting. There are literary roads in other cities. i know Newport, Gwent, has Byron Close, Shakespeare Avenue, Tennyson Drive etc.
Perhaps we should call roads after cars. Marina Drive, Austen Road, Rolls Royce Boulevard, Cortina Close etc.
In Sri Lanka the road names keep changing. Politicians like to have roads named after them so from time to time they change the names. The signs change but people still call them by their original names. Only a certain type of person would want to buy a house on Milliband Parkway or Thatcher Avenue.
I believe the spelling (and sometimes, consequently, pronunciation) of some roads changed after WW2. Road signs were removed during the war and when replaced, the new sign writers didn’t always know how the names had been originally spelled.
When I was very young, I lived in an area where roads were Ambleside, Bowness, Coniston, Derwent and Eden. My father claimed this was deliberate, to make them alphabetical.
Does anyone know when Winchester Road, Eastleigh was renamed to Twyford Road, Eastleigh? This information might really help my genealogy search.