I used to think being creative meant composing a piano concerto or painting a masterpiece. Not anymore. For on my travels round Wycombe I’ve picked up quite an unusual hobby; road name spotting. No, don’t worry- I’m not being daft. I actually think it’s quite interesting!

Before I’m branded with that awful word ‘sad’ let me explain. Since I’ve been driving I’ve taken a lot more notice of the names of the roads I’m driving down. Then I started to notice patterns. Here I’d like to share two groups of quite clever road names which follow certain themes.

The first is most appropriate for High Wycombe. These roads are on the north side of the valley towards Downley to the south of The Pastures hill. The planners of the day could have just named the roads after local councillors or other boring things. Instead they decided to name them after hill ranges in the UK:

• Mendip Way

• Cumbrian Way

• Brecon Way

• Cotswold Way

• Malvern Close

• Cheviot Close

I think that’s a very nice set of names and very befitting to the roads themselves which are extremely steep.

Another set is very close to the first. These ones aren’t named after hills but, for some reason, famous engineers:

• Telford Way, after Thomas Telford

• Brunel Road, after Isambard Kingdom Brunel

• Brindley Avenue, after James Brindley

• Kelvin Close, after Lord Kelvin

• Rennie Close, after the Rennie family of engineers

• Stephenson Close, after George and Robert Stephenson

I think it’s rather wonderful that these famous engineers who made such an impact on our lives (for instance- Brunel and the Stephenson designed much of our present railway network) are remembered here in Wycombe. I would be interested to know if there is any special connection, or if maybe it was done purely by the town planners because they were feeling inventive.

If you know any interesting sets of road names in Wycombe or the district, please do share!

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