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Vickers Drive, Firth Park


Guest Cath Stannard

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Guest Cath Stannard

Many yrs ago Vickers drive was named Rake Road and i just wondered if there was any way i could find out why?

Thanks

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"Vickers Drive Formerly known as Rake Road - a name objected to by the residents about 30 years ago because of the association with tramps! Now that is suburbia for you! In the days when we had snow in the winter we used to sledge down here."

It says here.

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I wonder if it the allotments/open space that were the problem. I have been in those allotments within the last 5 years and they are well gated and locked.

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I would have thought that "Rakes" referred to "mining" rakes. There were probably some in the area.

Edit: in fact I would be surprised if there weren't. They were all over the place.

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Besides that, I never associated the term "Rake" with vagrants.

A rake, as far as I'm aware was an aristocratic, gambling, womanising, playboy type character.

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Guest Barbara M

From what I can remember .....I went to school at Hucklow Road from 1949 to '54 so passed Rake Road when walking to school from my home on The Oval...... Rake Road was an unadopted road , it was very rough & stoney & not as it looks today .

Does anybody else remember this or is it a " Senior Moment ".......!!

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I would have thought the name RAKE was given to an incline from the horizontal, so that may be why it was called Rake Rd. The other Rake that comes to mind is of a young man who comes from a wealthy family and is in line for a big inheritance, so he goes his merry way doing what he wants to do despite the trouble he leaves behind ( see Hogarths The Rakes Progress) no way does the word Rake refer to tramps and down and outs, seems someone was very ill informed when they pressed for a name change.

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Hmmmm... as a young lad, back in 1949 (ish) I joined a gang of pals from Hucklow Road Infant School.We spent half an hour on our way home, throwing stones at an external toilet door at the top house on Rake Road. Next morning, we were all identified by the house owner and punished by the Head ( Miss Wragg) Guess what? I never did anything quite so stupid ever again. Who says a bit of corporal punishment doesn't work?

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Mining "rakes" are usually associated with lead extraction..there is certainly none of that in the immediate area. However, apart from a "rake" being an implement it also means to "stretch out" ( M Dut...raak) or pile up ( Goth... rikan) or, more likely, given the Viking influence (ON... "raka") to scrape, shave or, indeed "rake". So why not an old lane/road known after a farmyard instrument. I doubt it was called after a man of "loose habits"...but, not impossible. What a wonderfully diverse language we possess!

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Or perhaps rake as in slope, which this road does in two ways, being a steepish road and as the map shows is set at an angle to the other two roads? Having proposed a name change for a road, it's extremely difficult to get the Council to agree. Just about the only reason they'll consider is if the name is duplicated within the city, and then only if you can prove confusion. So I think the residents' protest is unlikely to be the reason.

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I went out for coffee this morning with an old friend who, for over 25 years, was a City Councillor... of which she served several years on Planning. I asked her. Straight away she said..."Ah yes, it was changed because a well known historian...Edward Vickers was born in the area".

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I went out for coffee this morning with an old friend who, for over 25 years, was a City Councillor... of which she served several years on Planning. I asked her. Straight away she said..."Ah yes, it was changed because a well known historian...Edward Vickers was born in the area".

So there we are then - :)

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So there we are then - :)

That's interesting. The one I tried was to get Quiet Lane at Fulwood changed to Jewett Hill. The reason was that T Walter Hall, the local historian, spent years trying to get the Council to do it. Jewett Hill was the name of the road from the 14th Century until the Council changed it around 1900 I think. Given TWH's contribution to local history in Sheffield I thought it might be an appropriate way to celebrate his centenary. It took almost 6 months to get a reply via a local councillor, which flatly turned down the suggestion of the grounds it was a very complicated procedure involving the Council, the Post Office/Royal Mail, and uncle Tom Cobley and all, and most importantly, there are four houses on that road and a change of name would cause severe disruption for the occupants. How many houses are there on Vickers Drive?

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