Place Names of Calne: Honeymead and Honey Garston

Honey Garston, known as hunnygarston in 1649, was a 28 acre commonable meadow or grassland, until with was enclosed by Act in 1818[1]. Honeymead and Honey Garson are both field 360 in the 1840s tithe map and owned by James Bewley for the use of arable and have the name Honey Garston by this time. Fields called 'honey' can relate to many ideas, such as a supply of honey from hives, or sweet land, however the usual use of 'honey' alludes to sticky soil. This would make sense as the Honey Garston fields are on a boundary of limestone and Kimmeridge clay mudstone, which is a mixture of clay and silt-sized particles, which didn't apparently prevent using the field for craps in the 1840s.

Mead means grassland or meadow.
Garston possibly refers to a great stone, it is also a surname brought by the Normans, or more likely in our situation it would mean grass enclosure from the Anglo-Saxon gaerstun[2].

Honeymead
I first find Honey mead mentioned in the Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser edition for February 1943, during a discussion regarding the post-war housing scheme for Abberd.  The surveyor talks of buying a 'short spur road', which would end up being Honey Garston, which when developed would make a compact estate of around 200 houses, "with the existing 20 houses at Honeymead"[3].

So, Honeymead existed prior to WWII as houses. These days this street is made up of a lovely set of bungalows as social housing, which were improved in 1989 by North Wiltshire District Council. At which point the idea was floated to rename the bungalows after former mayor, town and Wiltshire County Council councillor, Ethel Hornby (1921-1989) for her dedication to effectively and sympathetically improve the lives of people in the community. In the end the bungalows remained as Honeymead, however a lovely plaque with a dedication to Ethel Hornby is set within the front wall joining two of the bungalows. The plaque reads:
"This plaque commemorates / Councillor Mrs. Ethel Hornby (1921-1989) / Appreciation of her work and commitment on behalf of / the people of Calne and her particular interest in the / environmental improvements at Honeymead / North Wiltshire District Council 4 June 1990"

Plaque at Honeymead dedicated to Ethel Hornby.

Honey Garston

Honey Garston
Honey Garston was part of the Post-war Housing Scheme, which started at Abberd. In May 1944, the surveyors previous recommendation about buying a spur of land in 1943 (see Honeymead) had been progressed and Calne Town Council had decided to join the North Wilts Group for the advance preparation of housing sites. They had discoverd that it would cost £55 per house on the 3 and a half acre site to prepare for building. This would include roads and sewers, but didn't include gas, water, or electricity services[4]. Another newspaper report suggests that the owner of that land at the time, a Mr. Pocok was not a willing seller, so the council had decided to aquire the land via a compulsory purchase[5]. Eight of the houses were built by H Weston and Son who had premises on Oxford Road[6].


References:
[1] Calne: Economic history | British History Online. 2019. Calne: Economic history | British History Online. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol17/pp79-94. [Accessed 04 September 2019]. 
[2] Clark, J., 1984. A Concise Anglo-saxon Dictionary (mart: The Medieval Academy Reprints For Teaching). University Of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division.
[3] n.n (1943) 'Post-war housing' Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, 13 February 1943. Available at: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0001557/19430213/092/0005 [Accessed on 04 September 2019]
[4] n.n (1944) 'Post-war housing' Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, 13 May 1944. Available at: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0001557/19440513/174/0008?browse=False [Accessed on 04 September 2019]
[5] n.n (1944) 'Post-war housing' Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, 15 July 1944. Available at: https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/BL/0001557/19440715/152/0005?browse=False [Accessed on 04 September 2019]
[6] Whiles, J., 1995. Calne at War. 1st ed. Chippenham: Antony Rowe.