Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past History Information Request The ..... Croft Roads

Does anybody know why Roads in the Somerville area of Poulton have 'Croft' as a proceeding title?
Off the top of my head there is Ryecroft, Eastcroft, Greencoft, Westcroft etc etc
What is a 'croft'? Must be something important, i.m.o to name loads of streets and avenues after 'it'??

O.K..... Wikipedia suggests (citation needed) that a croft is a fenced or enclosed piece of land.
With regards to the Somerville crofts, who was the land owned by, and what era?

"A croft is a fenced or enclosed area of land, usually small and arable with a crofter's dwelling thereon."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croft_%28land%29

Which suggests that it was farmland before someone made a lot of dosh out of property development.

If the garden soil is sandy as opposed to clay this would be even more likely.

Someone with old maps would need to help.

Similarly, the suffix 'hey' also means an enclosure, going back to when what is now urban development was agricultural land.

Among numerous examples are Alder Hey and Hackins Hey in Liverpool, Dibbins Hey in Bromborough and Dale Hey in Hooton.

the roads ending in croft in wallasey are named after a famous artist called thomas croft.

Ooh?! Ok. We got Croft meaning agriculture and Croft, a surname of an Artist. Great stuff!! Thanks guys, so far.

Karl - do you have evidence for your statement.

I found a reference to a Thomas Croft, currently an artist, who isn't exactly famous now, and a Thomas Croft, architect, who too would seem to be too young for the age of these houses.

http://www.historyofwallasey.co.uk/wallasey/mansions_the_breck/index.html

Scroll to Heath Bank,

appears to be just the name of a field.

hi, not sure if this has anything to do with it but there are allotments in 'the croft' area and also a large field/football pitch