Money in the Bank

I thought that I was being clever.

After all, I have been involved with the built environment for all of my working life.

Get me talking on any related subject from chimney pot types to corbelled coursing, mullions and transoms, different forms of materials for damp proofing, the most likely place in a house to find woodworm, the seeking out of lead pipework and I could take up a good few hours of your time.

Add in a few historical and environmental facts and I am in my element.

So when it came to answering a simple enquiry about the origins of a particular street name I jumped at the opportunity.

Scorer Street is in the City of Lincoln, UK.

It has a long ,broadly east to west orientation and at its mid point crosses an established land drain. In the latter years of the 19th Century the local area was very much on the fringes of that historic County Town/City. Archive Maps showed such long defunct practices as a Skin Yard and with further acres under glass in horticultural nursery use.

The demand for better housing in the first decade of the then new 20th Century saw The Lincoln Equitable Co-Operative Industrial Society Limited throw off the fetters of its very long title and set about constructing row upon row of red brick built terraces. 1912 was a busy year for house building on what was to be the aforementioned Scorer Street.

The accommodation, a bit better than the older two up two down format, was initially for rental rather than outright purchase. Tenancies were taken up by a growing population of workers in the main City activities which included heavy engineering and railways. A few years later what had been referred to in the interests of secrecy as Water Tanks for Mesopotamia  would roll off the production lines just up the road and help to turn the course of the First World War in the favour of the Allies. It would be the first use of armoured vehicles in a wider theatre of conflict.

At some time during the development of that street it will have been necessary to give it a name.

In similar circumstances a local landmark may have been adopted or if the road led to a specific place then that could figure in the naming ritual.

I have in the course of my work in the property sector come across some great street names. These always have an interesting back story, sometimes steeped in the mists of time or folk lore. I like to find out about such things. I wrote a few weeks ago about the dodgy dealings, misrepresentations and downright lies that caused one land purchaser to give its location the name Bad Bargain Lane as a warning in perpetuity for others not to be hoodwinked and swindled. The intriguing and poetic Whip Ma Whop Ma Gate in the City of York comes from Old English and means "neither one thing nor the other". Mad Alice Lane appears self explanatory although has been given a more socially aware name to spare the public form potential insult and upset.

So, back to Scorer Street in Lincoln. A unusual name.

Did it refer to an ancient trade or practice carried out in those parts?  It could be perceived  to be referring to a process in the leather tanning or clothing industries for example.

Given the deep rooted history of Lincoln including sometime occupation by Roman Legions and even earlier indigenous tribes, Scorer could be a bastardisation of the name of some leader or even a prominent invader or defender.

I didn't have to look too far for what I felt was a convincing explanation for its origins.

That land drain bisecting the street is called Sincil Bank. For any fans and supporters of English Football that name is very familiar being the same as the ground of Lincoln City. The team was founded in 1894 and unless anyone tells me differently I assume that they took up residence in that location shortly after being established. That would have meant a gap of around 18 years until The Lincoln Equitable Co-Operative Industrial Society Limited finished printing their expansive letterheads and started to put up the houses within earshot of the football ground.

As they say, "Dah, Dah", naming riddle solved. To get to and from the match many of the supporters would walk down, yes, Scorer Street. Apt, stylish and definitely a good marketing ploy for the Lincoln Equitable......etc, etc.

However, I am wrong. So very far off the truth. Scorer refers to a Lincoln based Architect, William Scorer (1843 to 1934) obviously very well thought of and also attaining the position for some time as Lincoln Diocesan Surveyor.

I can't be right all of the time. Interesting though.