Place Name
Named after the Elizabethan-era explorer Sir Martin Frobisher (1535 – November 22, 1594), an eminent mariner who made three voyages to the New World looking for the North-west Passage. Having discovered what he thought was a black rock containing gold in Canada, he returned with a larger fleet, bringing back 200 tons of the rock only later to discover it was iron pyrite “fool’s gold”. Found to be valueless the material was used to repair roads in Kent. As an English privateer, he plundered riches from French ships. He was later knighted for his service, commanding the Triumph, in repelling the Spanish Armada in 1588. His searing career continued and between 1589 and 1592, he made three expeditions to the Azores capturing a number of valuable Spanish ships. The name is probably a continuation of the policy begun on the adjoining Enfield New Town development of naming the roads after Elizabethan worthies.
