18 November 2003 - Roy Underdown Pavilion

Our meeting in April was the fifth AGM of the Society and, when business was over, Tony Sedgwick talked about Hamble Street names and their origins. Suppose that you had to name roads in the village, how would you go about it? If there was a well in it, you could call it Well Lane, and if there were lots of beech trees and hedges, it could be Beech Gardens or Beech Close. A nearby farm could make you decide on Farm Close, and you could use the local history of aviation to find names. Spitfire Way, Ensign Way, and Baron Road - the Beech Baron was a twin-engined aircraft used by the College of Air Training, and was reportedly very noisy. The names of people in aviation could suggest more, like Mitchell who designed the Spitfire, or Barton who was the original Commandant of AST. The Hamble Official Guide lists more than sixty roads, and a quarter of them are named after people. They include The Bartletts who owned the farm, Fry Close after C B Fry who was Commander of TS Mercury, Yorke and Hardwicke Way which are associated with Sydney Lodge, family seat of the Earls of Hardwicke. And what about Cerdic Mews? Cerdic was a Saxon invader in AD 495!

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