Place Name
Until Victorian times this was called Hethenstret and in 1315 Hethenstrate and later Heathen Street in reference to the fact it crossed heath land. It has also been suggested that the road was once a desolate outpost used by rural traders. However, when John Dawson, an influential and wealthy leader of an Independent chapel, came to live on the street he was concerned that visitors might see it as a reference to the ungodly. He elicited the support of the Quakers who had a meeting house here and the Methodists who were planning a new church. The matter was made worse by local leaders of the Church of England making fun of these non-conformists. But the local council took sympathy on Dawson and agreed to his change of name to the more Biblical Eden Street.
