Place Name
After a former field name, Acton Meadow, which was sold by the Sir Henry Gough in 1773, to the Swinton brothers, James, a builder and surveyor of Gravesend, and Peter of Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, a Doctor in Physick. They in turn granted a building lease to John Seager and worked started in 1776. By December, 1777 there is a reference to “a new street called Acton Street”. The completion of the street however took decades, it is shown unfinished on various maps. The remainder of was only completed by 1845. The name Acton means an enclosure surrounded by oaks. Acorns have the same root in Old English.
