Secret of Loughborough's newest streets

You may have caught me on BBC Radio Leicester on Wednesday (listen again, available until 25th October 2019)? This was an extract from a podcast recorded by Becca Bryers for her award-winning podcast, Multi Story, which was released on 25th September 2019 (available forever!). Becca and I chatted about some of Loughborough's secrets, and decided we would visit Queen's Park, the former St Peter's Church and Beaumanor Hall. We had a great walk around Loughborough's town centre, and spoke to some really interesting folk at St Peter's and Beaumanor.

One of the reasons we chose to visit Beaumanor was because we knew of the links with Bletchley Park during the Second World War, when Beaumanor was a "Y" listening station. The other reason was because of the naming of the streets on a new estate on the outskirts of Loughborough, off Epinal Way, and close to Beaumanor. I covered these streets, and the background to their names in my book, 'Secret Loughborough'. Sadly, there wasn't enough room in the book to write everything I wanted to, so below is a slightly extended version.







Alongside thematically named groups of streets, like those after trees, or flowers, or stately homes, there are other thematically named groups of streets in Loughborough that are rather more complex than those named after trees, or birds, and an understanding of these really does point to some interesting history. A relatively recent example of one such theme is that to be found on a newish estate, on the edge of Loughborough, close to the hamlet of Woodthorpe and the estate of Beaumanor, where one can find roads names like Hugh Foss Drive, Leslie Yoxall Drive, Peter Twinn Drive, Peter Laslett Close, John Tiltman Drive, which are clearly named after people, and the less obvious ones like Knox Drive, Boyle Drive, Aitken Way, Watkin Drive, Wilson Drive.

The one that really cracks the code, is Alan Turing Road, as these roads are named for people who were associated with the intelligence operations at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. Beaumanor Hall, in Woodhouse close to Loughborough, was a “Y” listening station during that war, and had regular contact with people working in cryptography or cryptanalysis at Bletchley Park, many of whom went on to have distinguished careers.

Peter Laslett lectured at Cambridge University, reaching the position of Reader in Politics and History of Social Structure before retiring in 1983. He was a founder member of the University of the Third Age (U3A) of which there is a branch in Loughborough. Hugh Foss retired from GCHQ in 1953. Leslie Yoxall joined GCHQ, retiring in 1974. Dilly Knox, a graduate of King’s College Cambridge, had been a codebreaker during the First World War, and died in 1943 whilst working at Bletchley Park as chief cryptographer.

Edward Boyle went on to study at Christ Church Oxford, graduating in 1949. When his father died in 1945, Edward inherited the baronetage, becoming Baron Boyle of Handsworth. He later became an MP, and died in 1981.

Peter Twinn was the first person to read a German military Enigma message just before the secret operations moved from London to Bletchley Park in July 1939. He later became associated with institutions like the Royal Aircraft Establishment and the Natural Environment Research Council. In 1980 he was appointed a CBE and died in 2004.

John Tiltman, an army officer in the First World War, was wounded and received the Military Cross. At Bletchley Park he was considered to be one of the best at his job, and in 1944 he was promoted to Brigadier, a position from which he earned his nickname – The Brig.. He died in 1982.

One or two of the road names on this estate cause a little consternation.

Was Watkin Drive named for Vernon Watkins, a Welsh poet and friend of Dylan Thomas, who attended Repton School in Derbyshire before going on to Cambridge to study for a degree in modern languages, although he left before he completed this. Whilst working at Bletchley Park Watkins met his future wife, and at the time of his death in 1967 he was seriously in the running to become Poet Laureate. Is it possible that the name Watkin Drive was chosen in order to simplify what would otherwise have been a bit of an awkward name to spell – Watkins’ Drive?

For a similar reason, it could be concluded that Wilson Drive is named for Angus Johnstone-Wilson, rather than Harold Bernard Willson, the former being a graduate of Merton College Oxford, who worked as a code-breaker in the Naval section at Bletchley Park. Harold Bernard Willson graduated from Cambridge University with a degree in modern languages, working at Bletchley Park during the Second World War, being the first person to decrypt the Italian Navy Hagelin C-38 code machine. But why not Johnstone-Wilson, or Willson?

Aitken Way could refer to either: James Macrae Aitken, a Scottish chess player, who worked at solving German Enigma machines, from Hut 6 at Bletchley Park, and seems to have spent much of his life playing (and winning) championship chess; or to the New Zealand mathematician, Alexander Craig Aitken, who also worked from Hut 6 during the Second World War, also decrypting the Enigma code.

  

Finally, perhaps the most well-known of the Bletchley staff is Alan Turing, whose story was told in the recent film, ‘The Imitation Game’. He is perhaps best known for being a cryptanalyst and designer of the Bombe (a mechanical device to help decipher Enigma messages) as well as being the head of Hut 8. Turing died a few days before his forty-second birthday.

You are welcome to quote passages from any of my posts, with appropriate credit. The correct citation for this looks as follow:

Dyer, Lynne (2019). Secret of Loughborough's newest streets. Available from: https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2019/09/secret-of-loughboroughs-newest-streets.html  Accessed 26 September 2019]

Take down policy:

I post no pictures that are not my own, unless I have express permission so to do. All text is my own, and not copied from any other information sources, printed or electronic, unless identified and credited as such. If you find I have posted something in contravention of these statements, or if there are photographs of you which you would prefer not to be here, please contact me at the address listed on the About Me page, and I will remove these.

Thank you for reading this blog. 

Lynne