Cockrams Yard before redevelopment

    Yet in a sense, it all still exists, the people who built the early town are distant relatives of the present town folk.  We may not know much about our eighteenth, fifteenth or even thirteenth century predecessors on this patch of land in the Medina Valley, but their ideas and actions shaped the town and hence our attitudes as well.
    In the pulverised rubble lying below Newport’s modern constructions, such as the South Street Bus Station or multi-storey carpark, lies the sediment of medieval and pre-medieval brick and stone.
    The ghosts of these old buildings haunt the present streets and the weight of  860 years of human existence in the town presses on one’s awareness.  The whole tapestry of daily life in Newport’s; all those yesterdays, the fears, hopes and dreams of the townsfolk who have lived and died, permeate the modern present.
     Perhaps it is because Newport has avoided complex social upheavals and physical dislocation due to its island location that has lent it this feeling of continuity and familiarity.  Many of the surnames from historical town documents appear in the local telephone directory.
     However, there have been some changes.  John Speed’s map of 1611 lists the early names of the towns streets.  His map was one of a national series and was actually based on an earlier map drawn up by William White some years before.  Interestingly the houses drawn on the map are not just an artistic flourish.  An estimation of the town’s population divided into families tallies with the number of dwellings featured.

 

John Speed's famous map of 1611 supposedly transposing Crocker Street and Lugley Street

Speed’s map supposedly contains the famous mistake in transposing Crocker Street and Lugley Street.  But was it really an error?
     Bill Shepard, the well know Newport historian, has researched this anomaly for many years and has reached the conclusion that John Speed got it right and the street names were subsequently changed for some interesting reasons.  Here is some of his analysis.

       “Like all medieval towns, Newport contained the four streets named after the main points of the compass.  Even a predominately illiterate population knew where the sun rose and set and from which direction the wind was blowing.   “North Street” died early in Newport’s history.
        In considering our street names, “Lugley” and “Crocker” are transposed on Speed’s map of 1611, yet one would expect Lugley Street to be closest to the Luckley Stream.  It is reasonable to believe that in the early days of the development of the town, Lugley Street was the nearest to the Luckley.  The area now occupied by Crocker Street being undrained marshland.
     With almost all buildings in the town timber framed and thatched roofed, the fire hazard was ever present.  So much in fact that by-laws banned Crocker’s (makers of earthenware) from the town to its periphery and a copious supply of water; hence Crocker Street.
    When the name was changed to Crocker Street I have found no evidence, but Deeds deposited in the Isle of Wight Country Record office relating to the former Mew Langton Brewery properties throw some light on the subject.

Mew Langton Deeds 29th September 1657
Further security by way of installments on the Dolphin, on north side of North Street, Newport I.W.
(1) Richard Sweete of Newport, weaver, Joan his wife.
(2) William Lambs of Newport, Blacksmith
      Mew Langton Deeds 13th December 1736
Counter part of Lease of one messuage or tenement, backside and garden on north side of Crocker Street, Newport I.W. having the land of Stephen Sanders on east, the river on the north, certain lands in possession of Thomas Redstone, gentleman, on the west, and said street on the south, for five years at annual rent of £5.
(1) Whitehead Rutter of Newport, * chirigeon
(2) John Stephen’s of Newport, pipe maker

(* chirigeon - medieval surgeon)

Mew Langton Deed 1st/2nd July 1766
This refers to the stream as Summersbrooke, Crocker Street alias North Street.

      It would appear that in the 17th century both names were in use and the Summersbrooke brought waters from the Gunville area to Town Gate.
     The theory of early historians that streets such as Lugley and Crocker were named after prominent citizens cannot be entirely dismissed, but a survey of names suggests that people were named according to where they lived, i.e. Woodford, the wood but the ford or according to their trade or calling.
      After many years research into the history of Newport, I have come to the conclusion that it was paramount to mark the boundary of the town by marking the relevant streets by the main points of the compass.  That North Street, now Crocker Street marked the northern boundary cannot be disputed.  This leaves us with the disputed origin of Lugley Street.  Some historians have suggested it was named after a family, the de Lugley’s, metaphorically speaking,  I believe it was paramount to mark the northern boundary by that particular point of the compass and an obvious choice for an early
street, the Luckley, had to take second place.

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