Wick Street Names

[Garnet]

I've read through this very fasinating thread, having stayed in about five of the places mentioned with one very short stay on the 'Wick side' (2 months). Hen St was mentioned and is now Langley Lane (2 houses)then tucked round the corner leading on to new builds and called Langley Court (5/6 houses). Many changes in P/Town in the last 30 odd years.

[sweep]

garnet i believe the area with the 6 new houses is langley park.

[Garnet]

Hi Sweep, well i guess that's a smarty pants for you 'park' it is, though i've never actually been in there so took a guess at how many houses, but i'm definately right about Hen street... ....need for kudos!! G. super thread though...memories...memories!

[trinkie]

It's some time since we added another Wick Street, but have we had Kirk Lane ?
It was named after John Kirk 1785-1863 A Merchant in Wick and Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce - can anyone add more ?

i always thought it was named for a nearby church !
Trinkie

[Moira]

Good one Trinkie,

I've always wondered about the origins of naming Randolph Place which is situated in South Road, Wick.

[trinkie]

How old do you think Randolph Place is Moira ? I'll see what I can find.
Do you think it was before Randolph Churchill's time ? Though I dont know if he had any Caithness connections,
he was in politics - ye never know .

Trinkie

[Mosser]

How old do you think Randolph Place is Moira ? I'll see what I can find.
Do you think it was before Randolph Churchill's time ? Though I dont know if he had any Caithness connections,
he was in politics - ye never know .

Trinkie

I don't know the origin of this one but it is almost certain that he had something to do with the British Fisheries Society, nearly all the Pulteney streets were named for the office bearers and members of that body. The area next to it, Norton Place, was named for John Bruce Norton, Advocate General. BFS Shareholder, Gladstone Place for William Ewart Gladstone, Prime Minister and Northcote Street for the estate of Sir Stafford Henry, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh Director BFS and so on it goes. Hope this helps

Mosser

[trinkie]

That certainly does help Mosser - I'm sure Moira will be pleased !
Many thanks.
Trinkie

[George Brims]

I could be wrong but I thought all hotels were booze free in Wick until after WW1 such was the power of the temperance movement.

There was a spell when Wick was "dry" because of the interfering biddies of the temperance movement. There used to be a rule that you could get a drink if you were a guest in a hotel, so the railway company used to run Friday night trains between Wick and Thurso so Wickers could drink in Thurso and Thurso people in Wick. You would have to register as a "guest" before getting served. Mr Swanson, our history teacher at WHS told us the trains used would just have arrived from the South and there would be cups and saucers and plates out on the tables of the buffet car. The lads would skim the saucers and plates across the water as the train passed Watten Loch. I always wanted to scuba dive in there and see if I could find any!
Of course the "dry" thing didn't really work. Mr Swanson also told us that Newton Hill was famous for its illegal whisky, with quite a number of stills. My uncle Stanley arrived in Wick for the first time one summer evening in the 1930s. It was a Thursday so there was a bobby directing traffic at the end of the bridge. The train was hot and he was parched, so he asked the bobby where a bloke could get a drink of beer. "Oh dear, ma loon, did nobody tell ye - Week's dry!" Seeing his crestfallen face he took pity on a stranger, and told Stanley to wait a few minutes till the Thursday rush our was over and he was off shift. A few minutes later the bobby went back to the station for his coat and lunch box, and Stanley followed him down past McKay's Hotel along Union Street, and arrived at a speakeasy.

[trinkie]

Thank you for that interesting story George. Wick Streets would have been much quieter in the DRY spell - until the Mountain Dew opened in Smith Terrace !

[Mosser]

Wick was dry "in theory" from 1922 -1947 but there were lots of ways to have a wee dram, one man was a walking pub, he wore a long coat and inside it he had tot glasses and a bottle of the craitur. I think that the Camps Bar owned by Don Sutherland was the first pub to open in 1947.

Mosser

[Moira]

I don't know the origin of this one but it is almost certain that he had something to do with the British Fisheries Society, nearly all the Pulteney streets were named for the office bearers and members of that body. <snip>
Mosser

Thanks Mosser.
I need to hone my researching skills which go very little beyond Google at the moment.

[Stack Rock]

I think that the Camps Bar owned by Don Sutherland was the first pub to open in 1947.

Mosser[/QUOTE]

This brings back memories. My dad Paul worked for Bob Sutherland the blacksmiths at this time and I can recall him telling me that he and Bob had the first 'official' drink after the prohibition period. They had just finished fitting a metal grille at the bar before opening time when they were given a free dram.

[Moira]

Lol Stackrock, I hope they had their drams in their hands before the grille was tested! Great story, thank you.

[trinkie]

I now hear from Archives at the Library that Randolph is likely connected to The Dunbar family at Hempriggs. Their crest consists of four families one of them is Randolph.
The Dunbars would have been connected to the Fishing Industry as Mosser suggested, and indeed the land for Pulteneytown came from the Dunbar Estate.


Randolph Place first appears as a plot of land in 1911 . The following year houses had been built .


I hope this helps . Thanks to Moira for asking initially !


Trinkie

[George Brims]

I think that the Camps Bar owned by Don Sutherland was the first pub to open in 1947.

We were in a wee town called Hopland, north of San Francisco on the 101, and discovered a great pub that brewed its own beer. They claim to have been the first such "brewpub" in California, and also the site of a genuine miracle. There was fresh brewed beer available on the morning of the repeal of Prohibition!

[trinkie]

Brandy at the beginning of this thread you mention MacKays Hotel. In 1932 the Proprietors were Mrs Taylor and Miss MacKay. I dont know if they were sisters.
The Hotel was called The Commercial Hotel then.
Here is a snippet from The Scotsman 1932 -

'' Lord Strathclyde - then Lord Advocate - aptly described it as 'the bowsprit of a ship'
submitted by Lord Allness

Trinkie

[trinkie]

Here's a new one - Agnes Henderson Close ? Where was it and who was Agnes Henderson?
I think there was a Lodging House there for travelling people.

I'd love to hear more if anyone can help.
Many thanks
Trinkie.

[Mosser]

Here's a new one - Agnes Henderson Close ? Where was it and who was Agnes Henderson?
I think there was a Lodging House there for travelling people.

I'd love to hear more if anyone can help.
Many thanks
Trinkie.

Where did you dig that one up from Trinkie?? It's a new one on me

[trinkie]

When I read your reply Mosser, I thought "Heavens - that's no lek Mosser !" Alas it's my own spelling error - it should read Angus Henderson's Close, does that make any difference to you? I was reading a poem by John Horne and he begins by explaining..... Bill Prior's Hyrdopathic. “The Hydropathic” was a famous establishment in its day - a lodging-house up “ Angus Henderson's Close” for tramps and beggars of every description. It was affirmed that when the house was full some of the “travellers” were accommodated on ropes ! Bill – a tall, dark, quiet man – swept chimneys, cleaned clocks etc.....