Friday 21 August 2020

Strawberrybank or Strawberry Bank? #dundeewestend

The recent discussion about the road marking in Strawberrybank resulted in a few enquiries to me from residents about the spelling of Strawberrybank ... err ... or is that Strawberry Bank?

I must confess that I have always personally spelt the lane as Strawberrybank but ran the query past the City Archivist who advises :

"With regard to the name, Dundee directories, electoral registers, valuation rolls and One Scotland Gazetteer of Scottish addresses have it as 'Strawberrybank' whereas it appears as 'Strawberry Bank' on Ordnance Survey maps. 

According to Gillian Molloy's 'Street Names of Old Dundee' it was originally called Hampton's Lane after John Hampton, a mason and gardener who owned property there.

It is referred to as Strawberry Bank in a document dated 1859 and the name is thought to refer to a nearby bank of wild strawberries."