Bentley Street Names

Some of Bentley's street names over a line drawing aerial view of Bentley in 1925

The Forgotten Origins Of Bentley's Street Names

As with all towns and villages up and down the land, Bentley has a mix of eclectic street names, some quite common and straightforward, like High Street and Bentley Road, but then there are those which have less obvious origins, such as Watch House Lane and Playfair's Corner. 

Here we look at all those older Bentley street names which fall into various categories of meaning or origin. New estates are not included in this article. 

Contents

• Street Name Etymology
• Street Maps
• Locational Names
• Little London And Piccadilly
• Local Places
• Changing Roads
• Popular Street Names
• Unique To Bentley
• Directional Names
• Local Personal Or Family Names
• Jossey Lane
• Playfair's Corner
• Cooke Street
• Yarborough Terrace
• Wrightson Terrace
• Broughton Avenue
• Streets Named After The Famous
• Asquith Road
• Balfour Street
• Beresford Street
• Cawdor Street
• Other Street Names
• Botanical Names
• Miscellaneous Names

Street Name Etymology

Throughout history names have been given to streets to identify them. Some street and road names have obvious origins and often relate to their locations. Others are named after historical features or buildings. Some are named after prominent people, either locally, nationally or even internationally. Other street names are possibly less obvious or their origins have been all but forgotten.

Some street names have been changed over the centuries too and it is interesting to look back at the original names and see where they came from and why they were changed.

Street Maps

Central Bentley 1966

Bentley New Village 1966

Locational Names

Locational names are all named after a place, either local or further afield. Some even point to international locations such as Winnipeg Road, which suggests a link to Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada. If this is true then it seems to be the only street in Bentley with a name linked to a foreign location.

Winnipeg Road, Bentley
Photo courtesy of Dennis Canning

Little London And Piccadilly

Quite a lot of locational names in Bentley seem to refer to places in the UK, but as some locational names can also be surnames, it is difficult to pin down the truth behind them. However, there are two place names that do deserve a mention, Little London and Piccadilly. Little London was a residential yard off Church Street and Piccadilly was the name of the road into it. These names are quite obvious in their connection with our capital city, and while the name Little London has now disappeared and the yard replaced by industrial units, there is still a short road named Piccadilly.

'Little London' on a map of 1948

Local Places

Some street names we can more certain of the origins of are those named after local places, such as Austerfield Avenue, Braithwell Road, and Cusworth Road. 

Other locational names refer to places in Bentley itself, and these include, Daw Lane, which is named after Daw Wood. Ings Road, which is named after Bentley Ings, an area of common land. Then there is Old Hall Road in the centre of Bentley; this refers to a house which once stood off Mill Gate. Named Bentley Hall, this 17th century house was owned by Sir Godfrey Copley of Sprotborough Hall. It later became a workhouse for the poor, and was latterly owned by Mr William Marsh. It was demolished in the mid twentieth century and all that remains of it now are the street names Old Hall Road, Place and Crescent.

For more on Bentley Hall and the workhouse go to Bentley Workhouse.

1854 map with Bentley Hall highlighted in red and labelled as the Old Workhouse

  

Changing Roads

Another set of locational names are derived from places or buildings they are near. For instance - Chapel Street is named after the Wesleyan chapel which used to occupy the corner of High Street and Chapel Street.

The chapel on the corner of High Street and Chapel Street

At the time of Enclosure in 1827 the whole of the road from today's Bentley Road in the south, to the stone bridge on Cooke Street was a continuation of Askern Road; it was only later that the names were changed to High Street, Chapel Street, and Cooke Street. The Enclosure map below shows the original layout of the main road through Bentley which turned in a dog-leg to pass the Bay Horse public house.

1827 map of Bentley. The red highlighted road was the main thoroughfare from Doncaster to Askern and beyond.

Similar to Chapel Street, Church Street is another street named after a religious building. St Peter's Church, which lies opposite this street was built in the early 1890's, so it is possible the street was named around that time. Records do not show what the original name of that street was.

For more on Bentley's churches and chapels go to A Place of Worship.

Popular Street Names

Other locational names are more widely used in many towns and villages throughout the country. These include High Street and Finkle Street in Bentley.

High Street is a name to show where the principle area for business is. It denotes high quality and where the best shops can be found. In Bentley the High Street name probably came into being after the extension was built from Mill Gate to Finkle Street, between 1827 and 1850. 

High Street Bentley

The name Finkle Street, which is found in almost every town in England is derived from 'finkle' or 'vincle', the old Norse for a corner or bend on a narrow street. The name also has ancient links to markets suggesting that many Finkle Streets began as market places, either as a regular market or a specialized one such as a fish market. To my knowledge Bentley has never had a market, so its narrow, bending nature may have led to it being given this name. 

Finkle Street Bentley

Unique To Bentley

The final locational street names we will look at are those which seem unique to Bentley. The names in question are Watch House Lane and Pipering Lane, and these lanes are very old indeed and appear on the earliest Bentley maps.

In the case of Watch House Lane, the popular thinking here is that this name refers to a Roman watch tower which may have existed on the nearby Great North Road, however, there is another meaning to consider. A watch house used to be a place of temporary detention until a policeman could come along to take the criminal to a police station. There doesn't seem to be any evidence to back the theory that such a building existed in this part of Bentley, but it is worth considering until the correct answer can be found.

Watch House Lane and the 'Drum', Bentley

Pipering Lane was named after a parcel of land called 'Pipers Ings' in the sixteenth century. Pipers Ings may have come from an earlier version 'Piperinges', as found in place names of the twelfth century. The name 'Piper' comes from a personal name, variations being 'Pipere' and 'Pyper'; 'Ings' is the old Norse word for water meadow or a marsh. By 1827 the name 'Piper Lane' had been established, but by 1849 it was appearing on maps as 'Pipering Lane'. 

Directional Names

Unlike locational names which describe a place or building, directional names are often used as an indicator of which road you should take to get to a place. For example - Arksey Lane is the road to Arksey from Bentley; similarly Askern Road also describes the route to Askern, and Bentley Road is the name given to the main road to Bentley from Doncaster, although it mostly runs through a part of  Bentley itself these days, from the flood arches in the south, to the railway bridge in the north.

Bentley Road in 1912

Local Personal Or Family Names

Very often streets are named after local people or families of note and Bentley has a few that we should look at. 

Two areas in Bentley are named after local people, Jossey Lane is one, while the other is Playfair's Corner, which is more of a junction than a street really.

Another four streets are named after prominent families in the area, Cooke Street, Yarborough Terrace, Broughton Avenue and Wrightson Terrace.

Jossey Lane

Starting at Cooke Street in Bentley and stretching all the way to the A638 Great North Road in Scawthorpe, Jossey Lane is probably one of the oldest thoroughfares in Bentley. Originally named Brushingholme as early as 1759, this evolved into Bruslinghome Road (1827), then Brusling Holme (1843), and Bruslingholme Lane from about 1854. The name may have been derived from a nearby close (parcel of land) named Rushing Holme, but there is no hard evidence to support this.

Jossey Lane, formerly Bruslingholme Lane in the 1940's, seen here snaking off into the distance before Scawthorpe was built.

As can be seen on the above photo, the lower end of the lane (bottom left on the photo) was mostly occupied by farms and housing, but higher up it snaked off into the distance across open fields, until the urban sprawl of Scawthorpe was built in the 1950's.

Just how it became known as Jossey Lane is down to one man, 'Bentley Josse', also known as 'Doncaster Josse or Jossy'. 

Bentley, or Doncaster Josse

This local character, who's real name is unknown, took seasonal work on farms around Bentley, and also worked as a 'knocker upper' in Doncaster. He charged a small fee to go around the streets knocking on doors and windows to get factory workers out of bed early in the mornings. He would charge double if two workers lived at the same address. Often dressed eccentrically (as in the above photo) and he would use a drumstick as his 'knocking up' tool.

Often referred to as a 'Gentleman of the road', he was rumoured to be the illegitimate son of a distant relative of the Battie-Wrightson (of Cusworth Hall) family. It is said that once a month Josse would meet up with one of the family in the street, and he would be paid an allowance.

'Rt Hon', probably part of his nickname

Josse lived in a ramshackle hut on Bruslingholme Lane and locals soon began referring to him when mentioning the lane, and before long it became known as 'Old Joss's Lane', which finally evolved into 'Jossey Lane'. It's not clear when the name was officially changed to Jossey Lane, but certainly by the 1960's it was beginning to appear on local maps. 

Playfairs Corner

Right in the centre of Bentley lies the junction of High Street, Askern Road, Finkle Street and Arksey Lane. This junction is popularly known as Playfairs Corner; the name even appears on the large road sign adjacent to Winnipeg Road (see below).

The Playfair's Corner sign

The corner itself appears to refer to the row of shops on Askern Road, which sweep around the corner into Arksey Lane, but why Playfairs?

It is actually named after Playfair & Co grocers which used to occupy one of the premises on this corner.

Entry for John Playfair's shop in a telephone directory of 1928

Information from old telephone directories tells us that John Playfair had a grocery store on Askern Road from at least 1928 until about 1933, when he moved to Tannery Buildings in Friendly Street, Doncaster. The 1927 edition of Kelly's Trade Directory lists Playfair's store on High Street, Bentley. Whether that part of the road was classed as High Street rather than Askern Road in 1927 I cannot say, but he certainly had a business in that part of Bentley from at least that date. Earlier editions of phone books and trade directories are not readily available online, so this is the earliest record I can find of him at present. 

Interestingly, the corner has also been known as 'Gallon's Corner' in the past, again, this seems to be a direct reference to the Gallon's grocery store which is listed for High Street in the 1927 trade directory.

Trolleybus at Playfair's Corner in the 1950's

I think John Playfair must have had a store on this corner for many years for the reference of it to survive so long. Probably used by locals as a reference point, 'I'll meet you at Playfair's corner', the term obviously stuck and has now become a signposted place. I think John Playfair would be very proud to know we are still using his name almost a hundred years later.

Cooke Street

Some streets are named after prominent local families rather than individuals, and one of the examples we have in Bentley is that of Cooke Street.

It shouldn't come as any surprise really that Cooke Street is named after the Cooke Baronets of Wheatley. As former Lords of the Manor, their influence in the area is well known, especially in Arksey. 

With roots traceable to Almholme in the fifteenth century, the family rose to prominence through land ownership, and even more so when Sir George Cooke became the 1st Baronet after the family was awarded the Baronetcy in 1661, for loyalty to the crown during the Civil War.

Bust of Sir George Cooke, 1st Baronet

The Cooke family proved themselves to be very benevolent towards the poor by not only building the Almshouses for the elderly, but also an endowed school for the children of Arksey.

The family built their family seat, Wheatley Hall on the south banks of the river Don in 1683, but remained in close touch with their charitable work in Arksey.

Cooke Street in Bentley runs from its junction with Askern Road in the north, to Church Street in the south, near to the entrance of Piccadilly. This road was formerly part of Askern Road (see enclosure map above), but following Enclosure in 1827, it was named Cooke Street in honour of the former Lords of the Manor.  

For more on the Cooke family see various articles on sister site, Arksey Village, A History, and especially the article Cooke Family History.

Cooke Street facing north

  

Yarborough Terrace

Similarly, as Cooke Street was named after the Cooke family, Yarborough Terrace was also named after a prominent family. This small street which branches off Bentley Road near the flood arches, was named after the Yarborough family of Campsall.

The Yarborough family were related to the Cooke family and lived at Campsmount Hall. A grandson of the 3rd Cooke baronet inherited the Campsmount estate from his maternal cousin Elizabeth Yarborough in 1801. Following this he added Yarborough to his name, and the family name became Cooke-Yarborough from then on.

Campsmount Hall

The Cooke-Yarborough family continued to live at Campsmount Hall until it was sold in the 1930's and demolished about 20 years later. 

Following the death of Sir David Cooke, the 12th Cooke baronet in 2017, the baronetcy passed to Sir David's distant cousin Anthony Edmund Cooke-Yarborough, as Sir David had no male heirs. Sir Anthony, who lives in Oxfordshire became the 13th Baronet Wheatley in December 2017.
  

Yarborough Terrace during the floods of 1932

Wrightson Terrace

The name of this small road near to Yarborough Terrace takes its name from the Wrightson family - original owners of the Cusworth estate and Hall. 

The name became the more familiar double barrelled 'Battie-Wrightson' when Isabella Wrightson married John Battie, heir to the Warmsworth estate, in the mid 1700's.

Cusworth Hall

Broughton Avenue

Broughton Avenue, which lies off Bentley Road, just before the railway bridge, takes its name from the prominent Broughton family, land owners and farmers of Bentley. 

Their family records can be traced back some four hundred years in the parish registers and they occupy the most memorials in Arksey church and churchyard.

In addition to Broughton Avenue, Broughton's Houses, one of the terraces on Bentley Road are also named after this family. The family are also remembered in St Peter's church where the wife of  the late Joshua Broughton gave a peal of bells.

Broughton Avenue partly under construction in about 1912

Streets Named After The Famous

In most towns around the country you will find streets named after famous people, be they monarchs, politicians, writers, actors or musicians. Bentley has quite a few streets which are named in this way. For instance, did you know that some streets in Bentley New Village were named after prominent politicians of the day? 

Asquith Road

Asquith road was named after Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, who was in office between 1908 and 1916. 

Asquith Road

Balfour Street 

Balfour Street was named after Prime Minister Arthur Balfour, who was in office between 1902 and 1905. Three streets also share the name 'Arthur', which may also relate to the same person; these are Arthur Avenue, Arthur Street and Arthur Place.

Balfour Road

Beresford Street

Beresford Street was named after cabinet minister Charles Beresford, who combined a political career with a Naval career between the 1870's to the early 1900's. 

Cawdor Street

Cawdor Street was named after the Earl of Cawdor, possibly Frederick Archibald Vaughan Campbell (1847-1911), who was a Conservative politician in the early 1900's.

Cawdor Street

Other streets in Bentley are possibly named after various Monarchs, such as Victoria Road, Edward Street and George Street, as well as the more generic Queen's Drive and Queen's Court.

Two streets are named after famous writers - Shakespeare Road, after William Shakespeare, and Tennyson Road, after Poet Laureat Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Other Street Names

Botanical Names

Of the remaining streets in Bentley quite a few are named after botanical species, such as, Beech Grove, Cherry Garth, Elm Crescent, Holly Drive etc. In all there are about eleven of these types of streets.

Elm Crescent during the 1932 floods

Miscellaneous Names

Finally there are those street names that seem to have no obvious origins. Some are made up of Christian names, such as, Alexander Street and Amy Road, while others seem to have been chosen at random, and there are many of those such as, Fairfield Road, Kirkby Avenue, French Street, Cross Gate, Hunt Lane, Washington Grove etc. All these names may have meant something to the town planners, but it is almost impossible to trace any origins for them now.

French Street in flood, 1932

And so ends our little exploration of Bentley's street names. As new streets are added to an ever growing Bentley lots of new names will continue to appear, but it is the old names which have the interesting stories behind them, and that is something we should never forget.

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Alison Vainlo 

First written 2016, updated 2020