London, 14 February 2011 – The naming of a new link road in English town of Chorley, Lancashire, has honoured an internationally significant former resident. 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.
Johnathan Barclay (left), System Support Assistant with Paul Sudworth, Information Manager (right), both of Chorley Council.“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.”
Chorley's street naming work was ‘highly commended’ in the NLPG/NSG Street Naming Award category at the annual Exemplar Awards held in Sheffield last October. 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.
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