How can we help you?

Marchamley Street and Marchamley Place

Marchamley Street (and Marchamley Place) in the Perth suburb of Carlisle has appeared on maps since the early days of land development in the area, at which time it was part of the estate known as “Bickford Gardens” that was being developed and sold by Peet and Co.

Many streets in Carlisle are named for British counties and towns. Marchamley Street in Carlisle was named for the hamlet of the same name in Shropshire, England in the United Kingdom (Longitude and Latitude of the British Marchamley: 52.86069638006206, -2.597341689516096).

In other research it was discovered that Hawkestone Street (the original name of Orrong Road) was named for the Perth home of property developer James Thomas Peet. Further research, has uncovered that James Thomas Peet was born in Nottingham England and attended Lord Rowland Hill’s Tenantry School, Hawkestone, Shropshire. The Hill family being the long standing owners of Hawkestone Hall, and were also benefactors of a local school at the nearby hamlet of Marchamley.

The name of Marcemeslei first appeared in written records in the Doomsday book of 1086, which was the first official census type record of England. The name Marchamley comes from the Anglo-Saxon ‘Merchelm’ and ‘-leah’. As ‘Leah’ means a wood or clearing in the wood and ‘Merchelm’ is an Old English personal name derived from ‘Merc, Mierce, Miercum (plural)’ which means Mercian. From which we can derive that Marchamley is either a ‘woodland clearing of a man called Marchelm’ or a ‘woodland clearing at (the territory of) the Mercians’ (1). Thus the name goes back to the days before England existed as a nation state, when it was a country of many different kingdoms including the Kingdom of Mercia.

In Doomsday times it was recorded that there was a chapel at Marchamley which was under the diocese of Hodnet and there was also a mill and a wood for “fattening pigs”. By the 12th Century local farming tenants took their name from the village of Marchamley. “In around 1200, John de Marchamley died and his elder daughter inherited the manor. She sold it to Henry de Audley. With Hawkestone, Marchamley passed to the Hills and was later sold again. In 1841 there were 84 houses and 441 inhabitants. At this time, Viscount Hill was the principal land owner. In the directory of 1851, local residents include farmers, a shopkeeper, an architect and builder (also a farmer), a police constable and a blacksmith” (2). The township according to Bagshaw’s ‘History, Gazetteer and Directory of Shropshire’ (3) was 1,424 acres in size and contained 29 parcels of land, with Viscount Hill being the principal landowner in the township, who’s residence was Hawkestone Hall.

The name Marchamley was also perpetuated in the Peerage of the United Kingdom by the 1908 creation of the title of Baron Marchamley (5).

 

References:
(1) Mills, A. D. 2011, A Dictionary of British Place Names, Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom, 1st edn rev., p. 317.

(2) Hodnet Parish Council 2021, ‘Marchamley and Hawkstone’, Hodnet.org.uk, accessed online: https://hodnet.org.uk/main/index.php/local-history/local-villages/marchamley-and-hawkstone/.

(3) Bagshaw, Samuel [1851], History, Gazetteer and Directory of Shropshire, The Project Gutenberg, online: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/62250/62250-h/62250-h.htm#page290.

(4) Map of Marchamley 1880, Ordinance Survey County Series, The Francis Frith Collection: https://www.francisfrith.com/marchamley/marchamley-1880_hosm53133.

(5) Wikipedia contributors. (2022, April 30). Baron Marchamley. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 07:11, May 18, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Baron_Marchamley&oldid=1085473675

Marchamley Street, Carlisle Former name: Not applicable Official date of naming: circa 1910 Naming method: By original property developer Peet & Co.