PLACE NAME
Welbeck Abbey in the heart of Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire is a former monastery established in about 1153 by Thomas de Cuckney on land which at the time of the Domesday Book belonged to the former Sheriff of Yorkshire, a Norman nobleman called Hugh fitzBaldric. The abbey takes its name from one of four historic estates in that area known collectively as the Dukeries, namely Welbeck, Clumber, Thoresby, and Worksop Manor. The name, a hybrid of the Old English word, wielle, meaning a stream or well, and the Old Norse word for a brook, bekkr, literally means stream rising from a spring, and is in reference to a local stream there. It is recorded as Wellebech in 1161 and Welbecke in 1284. The abbey suffered the same fate as many former religious buildings after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s and was converted into a private grand mansion. Like many of the roads on the St Helier’s estate this is named after British monasteries and abbeys in remembrance of the area’s historic ownership by Westminster Abbey. The road names are in alphabetical order, of which Aberconway Road in the north west of the estate is first.
