Place Name
Named after the Powell-Cotton family’s estate Quex Park in Birchington-on-Sea, Kent. The estate itself was named after a wealthy wool merchant family called the Quekes in the 16thCentury. Quex Park was bought in 1777 by John Powell who four years earlier had purchased Shoot Up Hill Farm and the following year Kilburn Wood Farm, both as investment properties. Powell died childless but the land was inherited by a niece on condition she kept his surname. When she married a man named Cotton, they became the Powell-Cottons. Both these farms and the Kent house were passed down through the family. Once the railways lines in the Kilburn area were established, the land began to be sold for housing and all the roads named after places local to the family’s Quex Park property and later after places Major Powell-Cotton visited on his travels – particularly Abyssinia (Ethiopia) between 1899 – 1900.
