What’s in a (street) name?

Bob Dobson got in touch with our Preston History Facebook group to suggest that we post information about how Preston streets got their names. Here’s what we posted there:

So, let’s start with Main Sprit Weind And the starting place for anyone interested in the subject is a book long out of print by a Preston window cleaner who was also a very perceptive local historian. It’s now on line on this website.

Here’s his story:

Back in 1992 in faraway New Zealand a professor of botany published a guide to Preston entitled The Street Names of Preston. Prof Peter Bannister published the book to mark the 80th birthday of the author of the book, his father, John Bannister.

John Bannister was born in Preston and lived as a child in East Street, Deepdale. In the book he describes playing in the vast Corporation depot between St Paul’s Road and Deepdale Road (Deepdale youngsters, including me, were still playing there forty years later).

His father had a window cleaning business based round the corner in Hopwood Street and Mr Bannister and his four brothers were employed in the firm. Mr Bannister later lived in Hoyles Lane Cottam, continuing to work as a window cleaner. (Biographical information supplied by his son, Eric Bannister, of Woodplumpton.)

Here’s John Bannister’s explanation of the street name that has puzzled many Prestonians.

‘There were several cockpits in the town, two of which can still be identified in the names of the Old Cock Yard in Church Street and the New Cock Yard in Fishergate.

‘The individual contests or bouts were known as ‘mains’ and the lane or wynd that led to the cockpit is now known as Main Sprit Weind. The spelling on the 1685 plan is Mins Pitt Wynd, other spellings are Mainspritt Wynd (1655), Minspit Weend (1702) and Main Spit Weind (1830).

‘It is the intrusive ‘r’ that has misled many researchers as to the meaning of the name, which is merely a misinterpretation of Mains Pit Weind, literally Cock Pit Lane. In the 17th century, it was alternatively known as Dundee Lane after John Graham, Viscount Dundee, a Royalist who was honoured for his efforts in the suppression of the Covenanters.’

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Bob Dobson, a local history specialist bookseller and publisher, is winding down his business. He’s selling off his stock at a discount. You’ll find him this Saturday at the annual second-hand book fair in Longridge Village Hall.