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| St. Catherine's Close |
Maxentius first had 50 philosophers and orators debate her into giving up her belief. However, Catherine's words were so inspiring that some of the pagans that heard her converted to Christianity, only to be executed. At this point she was improsoned and tortured, but never left her faith. Maxentius made a final attempt to persuade Catherine to abandon her faith by asking her to marry him, making her a powerful empress. Her reply was that she was married to Jesus Christ. The angered emperer ordered her to be executed by breaking wheel.
A breaking wheel requires a person's limbs to be threaded through the spokes, after which the bones are shattered by heavy rod. Catherine touched the wheel, which apparently then shattered, leading the emperor to have her beheaded. This horrid, painful, and undoubtedly slow form of execution is also known as the Catherine Wheel, after St. Catherine.
The Catherine Wheel is also the first name of what we know now as The Lansdowne Strand hotel. The earliest mention of the Catherine Wheel was in 1660 and was known by this name until the 1820s[2]. This is a possible connection as to why the street was named for St. Catherine when it was built in the 1980s as a collection of terraced houses.
References:
[1] Catholic Online. 2019. St. Catherine of Alexandria - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=341. [Accessed 03 September 2019].
[2] Calne: The town in the 20th century | British History Online. 2019. Calne: The town in the 20th century | British History Online. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol17/pp44-51. [Accessed 03 September 2019].
