Streets of Walsall – the men behind the names
READING through a book regarding the street names of Walsall recently, I thought the stories behind some of the names would be of interest to residents of the town.
Leckie Road:
John Leckie founded a saddlery business in Glasgow in 1849 and owing to the increase in trade opened a showroom in London in 1870, followed by a factory in Newport Street, Walsall in 1874.
Later in 1886 the company acquired a large premises which became known as the London Saddlery Works, in Goodall Street.
Leckie Road was named after John’s second son, Joseph Alexander Leckie, who was elected councillor for Hatherton Ward in May 1916. He became Alderman in April 1930, and held the office of Mayor of the Borough in 1926.
Joseph Alexander Leckie did valuable work on the council as the chairman of the Education Committee. He was elected Member of Parliament for the borough in 1931 and served until his death in 1938.
He was president of the Free Church Council and at various times chairman of the Walsall Historical Association and many other positions of importance in the town.
He made gifts of the frescoes on each side of the organ in the Town Hall, illustrating incidents in World War I, in which the 5th Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment, played a gallant part. Also the fresco in the gallery, depicting the escape of Charles II, assisted by Jane Lane of Bentley Hall.
Thorpe Road:
The estate was owned by Joseph Thorpe, who built many roads of houses in the borough. Thorpe was a financier, and lived in the house at the corner of Bradford Street and Newport Street.
For some time Thorpe was chairman of the Walsall School Board. He was a great supporter of St Mary’s The Mount Roman Catholic Church.
In 1880 he was a hairdresser in Digbeth, Walsall. The Thorpe Ward at the General Hospital (no longer there) was named in his memory.
Newbolt Street:
Sir Henry John Newbolt, famous as a poet and also a naval historian, was born at Bilston on June 5, 1862. He was the elder son of the late H.F. Newbolt, vicar of St Mary’s, Bilston, and Emily, daughter of the late George Bradnock Stubbs of Walsall.
He lived for a time in Doveridge Place, Sandwell Street, where once lived several leading Walsall families.
Newbolt was a pupil at Queen Mary’s Grammar School during the years 1870-1872, before going to Clifton College and later to Corpus Chrisi College, Oxford, where he became an Honorary Fellow.
He was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn in 1887, where he practised until 1889. He then became editor of the Monthly Review from 1900 to 1904. His most famous line is ‘Play up and play the game.’