Secret streets of Loughborough
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| Beaumanor Hall, Woodhouse, summer 2015 |
Case study:
Secrets of Beaumanor revealed in Loughborough street names
There are numerous thematically named groups of streets in Loughborough that are named after trees, plants, birds etc.. Along with these, there are some rather more obscure, and complex ones: an understanding of these less obvious names really does point to some interesting history.
A relatively recent example of one such theme is that to be found on a newish housing estate, on the edge of Loughborough, close to the hamlet of Woodthorpe and Beaumanor Hall, and which was once part of the Beaumanor estate. In this development one can find road names like Hugh Foss Drive, Leslie Yoxall Drive; Knox Drive; Boyle Drive; Aitken Way; Peter Twinn Drive; Peter Laslett Close; John Tiltman Drive; Watkin Drive; Wilson Drive, and finally, and the one that really cracks the code for us, Alan Turing Road.
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| Map co-ordinates G9 |
These roads
are named for people who were associated with the intelligence operations at
Bletchley Park during the Second World War, but knowing this still might not explain why they have been so named. During the war, Beaumanor Hall, in Woodhouse, close to Quorn and also to Loughborough was a “Y” listening
station, and had regular contact with Bletchley Park: this is the reason these Loughborough streets are named after people who worked at Bletchley Park.
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| Bletchley Park in 2014 |
Let's have a look at some of these people in a little more detail - and it is only a little more detail: there are extensive biographies and information available, and you are encouraged to seek these out.
Peter Laslett Close: After working for Bletchley Park, Peter Laslett went on to lecture at
Cambridge University, reaching the position of Reader in Politics and History
of Social Structure, before retiring in 1983. He was a founder member of the
University of the Third Age (U3A).
Hugh Foss Drive: Hugh Foss
worked at Bletchley Park as a cryptographer, retiring from GCHQ in 1953.
Leslie Yoxall Drive: During the
Second World War, Leslie Yoxall was a codebreaker, before joining GCHQ, and
retiring in 1974.
Knox Drive: Dilly Knox,
a graduate of King’s College Cambridge, had been a codebreaker during the First
World War, and worked at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. Although
he died in 1943, when the war was still raging, he was instrumental in
decrypting a number of codes, becoming chief cryptographer.
Boyle Drive: During the
Second World War, Edward Boyle worked at Bletchley Park in intelligence, and it
wasn’t until the war had ended that he studied at Christ Church Oxford,
graduating in 1949. When his father died in 1945, Edward inherited the
baronetage, becoming Baron Boyle of Handsworth. He later became an MP, and died
in 1981.
Peter Twinn Drive: The first
person to read a German military Enigma message was Peter Twinn, just before
the secret operations moved from London to Bletchley Park in July 1939. After
the war he became associated with various institutions, including the Royal
Aircraft Establishment and the Natural Environment Research Council. In 1980 he
was appointed a CBE and died in 2004.
John Tiltman Drive: In the First World War, John Tiltman was an officer in the British Army, during which he was wounded, and for which he received the Military Cross. As an experienced cryptanalyst his services were engaged at Bletchley Park during the Second World War, where he was considered to be one of the best at his job, and in 1944 he was promoted to Brigadier, a position from which he earned his nickname – The Brig.. He died in 1982.
The above names have been fairly easy to research, but the inspiration for some of the other road names on this estate isn't quite so clear.
Watkin Drive: Was Watkin Drive named for Vernon Watkins, a Welsh poet who was a friend of Dylan Thomas? Watkins attended Repton School in Derbyshire before going on to Cambridge to study for a degree in modern languages, although he left before he completed this. During the Second World War, Watkins worked as a cryptographer at Bletchley Park and it was here that he met his future wife, with whom he had five children. At the time of his death in 1967 he was seriously in the running to become Poet Laureate. Is it possible that the name Watkin Drive was chosen in order to simplify what would otherwise have been a bit of an awkward name to spell – Watkins’ Drive?
Wilson Drive: For a similar grammatical reason, it could be that Wilson Drive is named for Angus Johnstone-Wilson, rather than Bernard Willson, the former being a graduate of Merton College Oxford, who worked as a code-breaker in the Naval section at Bletchley Park. Harold Bernard Willson graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in modern languages, and during the Second World War worked at Bletchley Park, and was the first person to decrypt the Italian Navy Hagelin C-38 code machine. But why not Johnstone-Wilson, or Wilson? Or perhaps this has nothing to do with staff who worked at Bletchley Park, but is instead a nod to the house building firm?
Aitken Way: Aitken Way
could refer to either: James Macrae Aitken, a Scottish chess player, who worked
at solving German Enigma machines out of Hut 6 at Bletchley Park, and seems to
have spent much of his life playing (and winning) championship chess; or to the
New Zealand mathematician, Alexander Craig Aitken, who also worked from Hut 6
during the Second World War, also decrypting the Enigma code.
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| Hut 6 at Bletchley Park in 2014 |
Alan Turing Road: Perhaps the most well-known of the Bletchley staff is Alan Turing, whose story was recently told in the film, 'The Imitation Game', and his name, like those of his colleagues mentioned above, is given to a road on this one of Loughborough’s newest estates. Turing is perhaps best known for being a cryptanalyst and designer of the Bombe (a mechanical device to help decipher Enigma messages) as well as being the head of Hut 8. Turing died a few days before his forty-second birthday.
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| The Bombe |
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| Alan Turing Road |
Posted by lynneaboutloughborough, 22 November 2020
You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follows: Dyer, Lynne (2020). Secret streets of Loughborough. Available from: https://lynneaboutthestreetsofloughborough.blogspot.com/2020/11/secret-streets-of-loughborough.html [Accessed 22 November 2020]
Lynne
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