Place names of Calne: Church Street

St. Mary's Church, Church Street

In most cases a place with a Church Street is very easy to answer, it relates to the church that resides (or did reside) on that street. In Calne, we have two churches on Church Street, the Free Church and St Mary's Church. So which is the street named for?

The sign for Church Street, one of the oldest streets
in town, in front of the sign for Beach Terrace,
one of the newest.

To discover the answer we need to know a bit about the churches and find an early map or document that mentions Church Street itself.

As both churches are listed buildings, one of the most reliable sources is Historic England. Using the descriptions within their records of the churches, we can see that the Free Church was built in 1867[1] while St. Mary's Church has a nave dated to between c1160-70[2]. St. Mary's is also most likely the church mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, although there is little physical evidence of this church from that time period (although I'll discuss this further in a future post).

From the building records, it's looking like it would be Church Street for St. Mary's, but let's look at the maps and see if we can find Church Street prior to 1867.


The earliest map I can find is the 1728 'Map of the Burrough(sic) Tything'. This map clearly shows Church Street in the correct place and flowing past a building representing the floor plan of St. Mary's.

1728 Map of Borough Tithings.

So, I think we can safely say that both the building records and the maps point to St. Mary's Church being the 'Church' in Church Street, Calne.

Interestingly, the southern end of Church Street was known as Rotton Row in the 1700s, and Back Street in the 1800s, however by the late 19th Century, the entire street was known at Church Street[2].

 

To discover more about the place names of Calne, buy the book:

References:
[1] CALNE FREE CHURCH, Calne - 1247331 | Historic England. 2019. CALNE FREE CHURCH, Calne - 1247331 | Historic England. [ONLINE] Available at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1247331. [Accessed 05 January 2019].
[2] Calne: The town to c.1800 | British History Online. 2019. Calne: The town to c.1800 | British History Online. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol17/pp34-41#anchorn46. [Accessed 26 February 2019].
[2] CHURCH OF ST MARY, Calne - 1271365 | Historic England. 2019. CHURCH OF ST MARY, Calne - 1271365 | Historic England. [ONLINE] Available at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1271365. [Accessed 05 January 2019].