It started with the TEMPLE Way estate in the mid 1970’s by Charter Homes and it was clear that this estate built on a tipping free for all by the crooked scumbag criminal Sydney Sheldon would expand to accommodate more former agricultural land for housing. But who was this named after, as a newby to the area may be mistaken for thinking that the Balaji temple nearby was where it got its name. Not so, as this structure was commenced far more recently in 1992.
Henry John Temple, 3rd viscount Palmerstone was Prime Minister of this wretched country between 1855-1858 and 1859-1865. What is even worse is that he was the first Liberal Prime Minister. His father and therefore his whole family gained power through a rotten borough system of land ownership and the peerage system. Perhaps after all, naming the area estate after him was not out of place in the borough of Sandwell with Oldbury at its centre!
The bright idea therefore of this estate by those in the council was to choose British Prime Ministers as the names of the streets, with much later additions to those from the 1970’s continuing the leitmotiv of political heavyweight dross, but in their deluded eyes perhaps to gentrify the area with these “paragons of virtue”? Perhaps these were all free masons, that would not surprise me at all. 😉
Obviously, Lord Palmerstone as he was known gives its name to another extension street off Macdonald Close Palmerstone Drive. Shelbourne Close is named after William Petty who was the second earl of Shelburne though Sandwell council appear to have misspelt the name!
Macdonald Close is named after the more recent Ramsey MacDonald, though without the capital D retained.
Addington Way is named after Henry Addington.
Of course we then have Gladstone Drive after Liberal William Gladstone, and Law Close after the short lived 7 month PM Bonar Law.
In between the two non consecutive terms of Gladstone there was three time Tory boy Robert Gasgoyne- Cecil ,which is where the name Cecil Drive comes in. Of course Peel Way gets its name from rozzer founder Robert Peel.
There is Balfour Drive which I declare is named after Arthur Balfour.
Another Cul-de-sac off Temple Way Russell Close is named after the obscure Whig John Russell.
Asquith Drive obviously after double H Asquith
One of the weakest prime ministers ever Neville Chamberlain gets the nod with Chamberlain Close.
Winston Churchill is immortalised with the T shaped Churchill Close, whilst his successor Clement Attlee gets Attlee Close.
Peace time Stanley Baldwin has Baldwin Close named after him. One of the newer add ons to the estate is Campbell- Bannerman Way where Henry of the same double barrel gets the nod.
We then get to the more recent “dearly” departed.
Harold Macmillan sees Macmillan Close commemorated after him.
Anthony Eden , the Albright and Wilson shiller and another candidate for the worst British Premier ever has greatness thrust upon him with Eden Close
The two Labour shiesters ironically built on the former sewage works are enshrined in history with Wilson Drive (Harold Wilson), and Callaghan Drive, (James Callaghan)- who was another AW arse licker in chief.
There are other streets on the estate which allude me Gordon Drive (the Scottish gold flogging goldfsh?) , Shinwell Crescent and Healey Drive, and not to mention Warwick Gardens, Cartwright Gardens, Hamilton Drive and Thornton Close on the periphery which may not have been named after number 10 Downing Street squatters. Answers on a postcard please if you can tell me anything about these origins. Were they that desperate that they named a street after eyebrows Dennis? Keir Hardie of Keir Hardie Walk fame was never a Prime Minister of this country, and neither was Hugh Gaitskell of Gaitskell Terrace though obviously the Labour lovies wanted to honour them as if they had been. By that token should we also have a “Duncan- Smith Drive” or a Pants down Way?
Surely there are ordinary people who were honest, did not lie and achieved something in their lives connected to the area they came from that deserved to have a historic recognition of a road named after them, where NONE OF THE NAMED ABOVE HAVE ANY CONNECTION TO THE AREA. But that is the problem of having politicians name streets, as they eulogise their own in death after knifing them in the back in life.
Of course, if this shite continues can we expect Thatcher Road, Major Grove, Johnson Crew, Truss Fold, Sunak Mews, Cameron Meadow, Brown Street and worst of all Blair Rise?