Limavady street names from the past

LIMAVADY STREET NAMES FROM THE PAST:

Limavady was known as Newtownlimavady until 1870 when the council decided to officially shorten the name. 

The new town of Limavady was a plantation settlement built by the servitor Sit Thomas Phillips who was given a large estate in the Roe valley in 1610. Phillips had settled at the old O'Cahan stronghold at Limavady on the banks of the River Roe. He decided to build a new plantation town a mile further downstream, which he called Newtowne. Raven's map of 1622 shows 'Sir Thomas Phillips buildinge at Newtowne, a mile from Limna Vadde, a village of 18 small houses, at a cross roads, with a stone cross at the centre''. 

Up until the time of the famine Limavady remained a relatively small town with essentially four main streets. The town grew substantially with the post-famine influx and as a result new houses and streets were constructed to meet the growing demand. New streets and new names came into existence.

This is a survey of the names and places that I have come across in researching the history of the town from the seventeenth century from a variety of sources:

Newtowne Limavady 1622

Limavady map 1699:

Market Street	Later renamed Main Street
Patterson’s Lane	Later renamed Methodist Lane
Market House Lane	Later renamed Market Street
The Green	Later renamed Catherine Street
Pound Lane	Later renamed Protestant Street

1735 lease

Cuckold Row

Was on the east side of the present Linenhall Street.

Ordnance Survey Memoirs, 1833-35

Name of Street	Number of houses
Main Street	94
Catherine Street	64
Linen Hall Street	33
Market House Lane	25
Ballyclose	141
Irish Green Street	69
Isle of Man	44
Pound Lane	29

Note – there was a street named Captain  Street in the 1831 townland valuation – today it is the upper end of Roe Mill Road. This road ran parallel to Pound Lane (today known as Protestant Street). See below:

Captain Street, Limavady

 GREAT CHURCH OF THE ROE (Phillip Donnelly)

Placenames in the register of St. Mary’s catholic registers at the time of Fr Edward McKenna (1857-1869)

Bessbrook	Methodist Lane
Brewery Road	Moss Knock
Barony March	New Coleraine Road
Brick Row	Peter’s Brae
Cather’s Row	Pound Lane
Distillery Road	Rankin’s Row
Isle of Man	St Patrick’s Court
Kennaught Street	Sandy Row
Little Dublin	Steel’s Houses
Lory Lane	Town Hall Court

Coleraine Chronicle BMD's (1844-1869)

Placename	Year
Barley Park	1854
Walk Mills	1859
Bridge Street	1861
Ball Court	1862
Bridge Hill	1864
Brick Row	1869
Railway Row	1869
Railway Place	1869
Pound Loaning	1869

T.H Mullin, Limavady and the Roe Valley 

• Barley Park – built in 1813 by Wm. Ross and skirting of trees planted. Later used by Technical school for domestic economy and later demolished. East of Irish Green Street.
• Bridge Hill – Original house built at Bridge Hill built 1732. Bridge Hill became the War memorial Building, was damaged by a bomb in the troubles and demolished 1974.

LIMAVADY STREET NAMES PAST AND PRESENT

Back Row	Near the end of Protestant Street and William Street
Barley Park House	Top of Connell Street where part of Limavady High School is now built
Brick Row	First half of Killane Road
Bridge Hill	Top of Catherine street at Roe Bridge
Coach Road	Top of Ballyclose Street adjoining onto Church Street
Council Terrace	Houses at centre of Church Street on the site of Cather’s old distillery (built 1933)
Craig’s Court	Lower Irish Green Street behind Moore Lockhead’s shop
Distillery Road	Church Street
The Double Ditch	Replaced by the Rathbrady Road linking Irish Green to Roe Mill.
McCrory’s Lane	Just off Main Street and Ballyclose Street
Meeting House Lane	By the side of the Post Office, Main Street
Methodist Lane	Renamed Connell Street (the bottom of Connell Street on the right side)
Rathbrady Cottages	On Roe Mill Road at the end of Rathbrady
Sam’s Lane or Factory Lane	Side and behind Council Terrace
Scappy’s corner	Main Coleraine Road (Broad Road)
Spring Hill	Top of Catherine Street and start of Roe Mill Road
Sunnyfield Terrace	Where houses are now built in Connell Street
St. Patrick’s Court	Connell Street behind St. Pat’s Hall
The New Row	William Street
Windsor Avenue	In 1937/8 the council built 14 semi-detached houses on the opposite side of Church Street.

 LIMAVADY STREET NAMES IN THE 1901 AND 1911 CENSUS RETURNS

1901 CENSUS		1911 CENSUS
Street name 1901	Number	Street name 1911	Number	Order
Ballyclose Street	1-65	Ballyclose Street	1-68	1
Billy’s Lane (Josephine Avenue)	1-11	No Billy’s lane listed	n/a	n/a
Catherine Street	1-66	Catherine Street	1-66	2
Distillery Road	1-33	Distillery Road	1-34	4
Fleming’s Court	1-12	Fleming’s Court	1-12	5
Irish Green Street	1-103	Irish Green Street	1-109	6
Isle of Man Street	1-45	Isle of Man Street	1-45	7
No Josephine Avenue listed	n/a	Josephine Avenue (Billy’s Lane)	1-20	8
Kennaught Street	1-40	Kennaught Street	1-46	9
Linenhall Street	1-42	Linenhall Street	1-41	10
Main Street	1-95	Main Street	1-101	11
Market House Street	1-44	Market House Street	1-46	12
Meeting House Lane	1-7	Meeting House Lane	1-7	13
Methodist Lane	1-25	Methodist Lane	1-21	14
Mill Row	1-8	Mill Row	1-8	15
Protestant Street	1-36	Protestant Street	1-33	16
Roe Mill Street (Road)	1-37	Roe Mill Road	1-31	17
Sandy Row	1-11	Sandy Row	1-10	18
Steel’s Row	1-28	Steel’s Row	1-8	3
William Street	1-12	William Street	1-12	19

 1904 Map of Limavady

ROEVILLE (TERRACE)	North of Christchurch, close to the creamery and west of the railway line were 2 rows of 4 houses called Roeville. This was the most northern terrace in the town – also known as Creamery Lane
CHURCH VIEW (TERRACE)	A row of 8 houses running South from the centre of Ballyclose Street
DISTILLERY ROAD	At the eastern end of Ballyclose Street, Distillery road ran in a South-east direction to Scroggy Lane
SCROGGY LANE	A narrow lane that ran from the eastern end of Distillery Road in a southerly direction past Scroggy House to the Greystone road.
IRISH GREEN STREET	Ran in a southerly direction from Market Street down to the Double Ditch.
KENNAGHT STREET	Ran south of Irish Green from the Double Ditch past Josephine Avenue
JOSEPHINE AVENUE	Ran from the Roe Mill Road to Kennaght Street
DOUBLE DITCH	Ran from Irish Green Street to the Roe Mill road – later replaced by the Rathbrady Road.
ISLE OF MAN STREET	Ran from the western end of Catherine Street in a southerly direction to the Double Ditch and then became Roe Mill Road.
ROE MILL ROAD	Ran south of Isle of Man Street from the Double Ditch and further south became Coolesan.
PROTESTANT STREET	Ran from Catherine Street down to William Street and after this was called Pound Lane
POUND LANE	Ran from William Street to the Double Ditch
WILLIAM STREET	Ran from Isle of Man Street to Protestant Street at Drumachose old school

 Street names and dates from newspapers before WW2

Churchill Terrace	1877	Coleraine Chronicle
Albert Terrace	1886	Northern Constitution
Steel’s Terrace	1895	Derry Journal
Moore Terrace	1897	Coleraine Chronicle
Oakey’s Terrace	1914	Larne Times
Council Terrace	1934	Derry Journal
Factory Terrace	1936	Derry Journal
Hunter’s Terrace	1938	Londonderry Sentinel
Alexander Terrace	1938	Derry Journal

STREETS - POST WW2

Massey Avenue	24 houses built by Council between 1943 and 1946 and named after William Ferguson Massey, Limavady born PM of New Zealand
Crawford Square	28 homes built 1948-1949 and named for David and John Crawford of Parkersburg, West Virginia, founders of the Parkersburg Rig & Reel Company.
Connell Street	Built 1954-1955 and called for the Connell family
Roeview Park	64 houses built 1958-1958
Scroggy Park	16 houses built 1962
Rathbeg Estate	Hospital lane. First phase built 1962-1963 and second phase built 1963-1964
Rathbeg Walk	Overlooking Scroggy road Playing fields built 1972-1973
Alexander Road	Built 1967-1972
Oakey’s Row	Demolished 1971-1972 and new houses numbered into Irish Green Street
Annadale Park	Facing Massey Avenue houses, finished by N.I.H.E in 1972
Thackeray Place	Pensioners’ houses built 1972-1973
Killane Road/Church Street	Started by the council and completed by N.I.H.E

Erected by Northern Ireland Housing Trust

Greystone Park
Josephine Avenue	Completed 1966-1967
Protestant Street/William Street	Redeveloped 1968-1970

THE TURKEY ROW:

On the right hand side of the Sistrakeel Road, about 100 yards from the turn off on the main Ballykelly-Derry road, there is a very large oak tree. There used to be a line of six of these trees, four of which have been cut down or died over the years. They were TURKISH OAKS, which of course could be called the Turkey Row.

                                          

THE DYE WORKS:

Still called ‘The Dye Works’ to this day.

This came because all cottagers used to burn nothing but peat on their fires. When they threw their ashes out over the years, people, chickens, ducks, dogs etc became covered in red, and so the nickname ‘The Dye Works’ came into being.

ALBERT TERRACE

Late Victorian row of houses in Linenhall Street