WHY IS IT GOLD STREET ? form the "Ring" 1991
Can anyone tell me why Gold Street is called Gold Street? Most of our street names in this village are obvious - Church Hill, Ring Street, Station Road (oh, ha ha) and Thornhill Road all speak for themselves. So does Lower Road, I mean it's lower on that side of The Ring than it is on the other side, and Grosvenor Road is named after the Westminster family who once owned the land.
When it comes to Gold Street though I'm flummoxed. I'm not quite sure what being flummoxed is but I'm sure it
doesn't improve the complexion. However, somebody once told me when I was about seven that it was because gold had been found there. But you know what grown ups are like when you're seven. They'll tell you anything then laugh their heads off when you believe them. So to this day I'm not quite sure.
All the same, I have a dim memory of coming upon some drainage works at the top of Gold Street in company with Joan Bryan, in about 1937, and we picked up some stones with shiny yellowish flecks in them. "There you are" said the chap digging out the drain "That's gold. That's why they call it Gold Street". I didn't believe him either but as the incident took place the best part of sixty years ago I can't ask him, even if I could remember who he was, which I can't. There is certain self-interest in all this. I've been asked by an editor to write about the history and development of Gold Street. It's one of the prettiest and architecturally most interesting streets anywhere around, so I was pleased to be asked, but all I know about Gold Street is that the Old House is 18th century, the pair of cottages known as The Old Drapery and Stanton Cottage were built in 1800, there used to be a farm on the left, Ashmount was a girls' school when my aunt went to it in the 1880s and it was through my uncle being the Congregational Minister at the Manse in 1916 that my parents met. Oh and I remember once before the war being allowed to sample the glorious ice cold milk as it came through the cooler at the milk factory, but I need much more information than this. Help please.
J.R.
GOULD STREET OR GOLD STREET
The name "Gold Street" in various towns has given rise to several interpretations as to why streets should be so called. Gold is naturally associated with money, money exchange, bargaining, depositing, marketing, gilding and goldsmiths.
It may be that there is an old association from the Middle Ages, which, in the naming of Stalbridge's Gold Street, has so far been untraceable.
From Stalbridge's one street in the 1530's, "meately well buildyd", according to Leland, the expansion of the town by 1705 included several inhabited areas leading out of the "great street", which were named in a Survey of tenants taken for the Lord of the Manor, Peter Walter, in 1705 .One of these was Gould Street, the others being Church Hill, Drew's Lane, Barrow Hill, Back Lane, Guggleton Street (now Station Road) and Guggleton Lane.
Dwellings were also held by tenants "near the Parsonage", (a new house built near the Market Cross at the end of the seventeenth century), and "near the Ring" but there did not appear to be any necessity at this period to give a name to the most important street, now the High Street; the dwellings were simply described as being "in the middle of the town".
The naming of Gould Street, not Gold Street, with spelling consistent throughout the 1705 Survey, would tend to dispel the contention that it was a matter of an interpretation of Stalbridge pronunciation. The "ou" combination suggests
some literacy in a writer who knew the difference between the spelling of "ould" as in Gould, and the combination of o-l-d as in "holds", a word frequently used in the Survey, and therefore in the word "Gold".
In a later Survey for Peter Walter, undertaken in 1719, the spellings of Gould and Gold alternate with the whim of the recorder, suggesting some uncertainty in the written word.
The names of the tenants were as follows:-
1705 GOULD STREET: Thomas Coombe, William Duffet, Jane Foot, Elizabeth Green, Thom/s Hunt, William Hunt,
Mary Murray, Elizabeth Rookcliffe, Hannah Snooke, Willm Snooke, Jonathan Snooke, James Tyte, Mary Young, Dorothy Young.
1719 GOULD/GOLD STREET: Robert Dowding, Wllm Duffett, John Foot, Elizabeth Green, John Hunt, Wllm Hunt, Widow Hobbs, John Hunt, Bernard Jeanes, John Rial, Widow Snooke, William Snooke, Jonathan Snooke, James Tyte, Mary Watts, Sarah Young.
(The names of private owners are not included in the Surveys).
In 1738, Edward Curray, the writing-master of Stalbridge, entered "Gold Street" on his Map of the town and thus it has remained. (He also added to his map "Duck Street", which being "near the Parsonage", probably did not receive its
name until after the Survey of 1719)
Interesting speculations spring to mind as to whether Gould was a mis-spelling of Gold, or Gold a mis-spelling of Gould. Or was Gould the name of an old inhabitant who gave his or her name to the Street? Perhaps David le Gilden of
Stalbridge in the Dorset Lay Subsidy Roll of 1327 could provide us with an answer? Was he a member of a craft or religious gild, or was he a worker in gilding or gold? Irene Jones
THE RING, January 1992 GOULD STREET OR GOLD STREET?
Further to the discussion in The Ring (December issue) on the spelling of Stalbridge's illustrious Gold Street, a Survey of 1749, which has since come to my notice, very definitely includes the name, with no variation, as Gould Street. Names of Leaseholders or Copyholders of dwellings and properties in Gould Street in 1749 are listed:
Wm. Bishop; Tho Turner Bastable; Widow of James Cave; Elias Duffett; James Dober; Richard ffezard, leasehold of
three dwellings near the Horse Pond in Gould Street; Tho ffoot; John Jeanes; Phillip Plowman; Benjamin Prankard; Widow Ryall; Michael Snooke; Richard Strong; Anne Snooke; Mary Watts.
It would be a matter of interest to note the recording of the name during the hundred years following the Survey, but by the time of the mid-nineteenth century Census Returns, the spelling was established as Gold Street.
Other points of Interest: The 1749 Survey confirms that the Horse Pond was in Gould Street, but it only allows conjecture as to the actual site. The Horse Pond is the only pond named in these early eighteenth century Surveys, but there would have been numerous ponds and watering places for animals around Stalbridge. That it was a specified focal point is shown by the entry in the Parish Register on Feb 12, 1713, when there was buried Elizaabeth Tyte wife of Thomas Tyte at the Horse Pond
In 1705, the following Tytes were on' the Stalbridge Manorial Rent Roll, so some identifying address was necessary for bearers of the same name:-
James Tyte. George Tyte. Robert Tyte. Widow Tyte. Thomas Tyte of Horsepond. Thomas Tyte of Broad Stone. (this was within the Manor of Stalbridge). John Tyte. Richard Tyte. William Tyte.
(In 1719, there were still nine tenants, including two Thomases, with the surname of Tyte). The Surveys give no indication as to siting or identifying of houses in Gould Street, except those by the Horse Pond, so it is, unfortunately, not possible to know the density of housing nor manner of occupation. I.J.
Further to the discussion in The Ring (December issue) on the spelling of Stalbridge's illustrious Gold Street, a Survey of 1749, which has since come to my notice, very definitely includes the name, with no variation, as Gould Street. Names of Leaseholders or Copyholders of dwellings and properties in Gould Street in 1749 are listed:
Wm. Bishop; Tho Turner Bastable; Widow of James Cave; Elias Duffett; James Dober; Richard ffezard, leasehold of
three dwellings near the Horse Pond in Gould Street; Tho ffoot; John Jeanes; Phillip Plowman; Benjamin Prankard; Widow Ryall; Michael Snooke; Richard Strong; Anne Snooke; Mary Watts.
It would be a matter of interest to note the recording of the name during the hundred years following the Survey, but by the time of the mid-nineteenth century Census Returns, the spelling was established as Gold Street.
Other points of Interest: The 1749 Survey confirms that the Horse Pond was in Gould Street, but it only allows conjecture as to the actual site. The Horse Pond is the only pond named in these early eighteenth century Surveys, but there would have been numerous ponds and watering places for animals around Stalbridge. That it was a specified focal point is shown by the entry in the Parish Register on Feb 12, 1713, when there was buried Elizaabeth Tyte wife of Thomas Tyte at the Horse Pond
In 1705, the following Tytes were on' the Stalbridge Manorial Rent Roll, so some identifying address was necessary for bearers of the same name:-
James Tyte. George Tyte. Robert Tyte. Widow Tyte. Thomas Tyte of Horsepond. Thomas Tyte of Broad Stone. (this was within the Manor of Stalbridge). John Tyte. Richard Tyte. William Tyte.
(In 1719, there were still nine tenants, including two Thomases, with the surname of Tyte). The Surveys give no indication as to siting or identifying of houses in Gould Street, except those by the Horse Pond, so it is, unfortunately, not possible to know the density of housing nor manner of occupation. I.J.
