Street Naming Honours Pilgrim Father

The road was named by Chorley Borough Council as Myles Standish Way after an English Officer hired by the Pilgrim Fathers as Military Advisor for the Plymouth Colony. A passenger on the Mayflower on arrival in the 'New World', Standish played a leading role in the administration and defence of the settlement from its inception. The Standish family lived in Chorley from 1300 to 1623 and built an Elizabethan Hall at Duxbury close to the new road, thought to be the birthplace of Myles Standish.
"Myles Standish has an historical importance that exceeds local, regional or even national significance," commented Paul Sudworth, Information Manager, Chorley Borough Council. "He is rightly honoured and respected in his adopted home; Duxbury, Massachusetts so the opportunity to remember him in his probable place of birth seemed a fitting tribute."
The naming and numbering of streets and buildings is a statutory function of Chorley Borough Council. Only Councils have the authority to allocate new or amend existing street names and property numbers. In accordance with national guidelines, names of new roads should, where possible, reflect the history or geography of a site or area. They should not be duplicated within the administrative area; not be difficult to pronounce or spell; not be construed as advertising or have the potential to cause offence and not be named after a living person.
Streets within a new development in the area of the link road are also named along the same theme and include; Pilgrim Drive after the name commonly applied to the early settlers of the Plymouth Colony. Mayflower Gardens - named after the ship that transported the Pilgrims from a site near the Mayflower Steps in Plymouth, England to Plymouth, Massachusetts. Allerton Close, Bradford Avenue, Chilton Mews, Minter Close, Sampson Close and Winslow Place were all named after passengers on the original Mayflower during its trans-Atlantic voyage of 6th September to 9th November 1620.
This innovative example of street naming with particular relevance to local history and geographical context was recently recognised with the presentation of a 'Highly Commended' prize in the 2010 NLPG/NSG Exemplar Street Naming Award category. Chorley Borough Council was presented with the commendation during a one-day conference 'Everything Happens Somewhere' held on the 20th October at Cutlers' Hall, Sheffield.
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Notes to editors:
The NLPG is a joint venture between all local authorities in England and Wales, the Local Government Information House, part of the Local Government Group and Intelligent Addressing Limited.
Intelligent Addressing is an information management specialist and data provider, focusing on land and property data, particularly addresses. As well as being the joint venture partner with local government in the development of the NLPG, IA also manages the national datasets for local government; the NLPG and the National Street Gazetteer (NSG). Data is an essential yet high-cost resource to maintain. IA helps organisations find, utilise and manage the information that they need and provides services to any organisation that depends on the accuracy, manageability and versatility of its information.
Local Government Information House is part of the Local Government Group. LGIH concentrates on core projects that have maximum benefit for the whole of local government. To this end, LGIH focuses on geographical information-related projects, as the standardisation of this type of data affects more than 80 per cent of what local government does. LGIH acts as an intermediary between the public and the private sector enabling it to negotiate with private companies on behalf of local authorities in order to provide key parts of a technical infrastructure for improved service delivery.