Place Name
The simple version is that it was so-named by Richmond Council in 1892, that is directional, leading from Richmond to North Sheen and that the name Sheen can be traced back to Saxon times. The manor was first referred to as Sceon in the mid-10thCentury coming from the Old English word scëon meaning sheds or shelters. The name Richmond came in 1501 after Henry VII’s earldom of Richmond, Yorkshire. The route itself is probably ancient, picking its way through former marshland on either side. Indeed the Marsh Gate stood across this road to prevent cattle straying into the neighbouring manor. It was therefore not developed until at least 1580 when Henry Pencost or Pentecost built a property on the north side of the road, this became known as Pentecost House or the Marsh House as mentioned in the court rolls of 1622. Nearly 200 years later this outlier was joined by three houses and cottage, enough of a settlement for it to become known collectively as Marshgate and by the early 18thCentury it was joined by a pub the Black Horse Inn. The road underwent many different names from the 17thCentury it was called ‘the road to Marshgate” or later as “the Marshgate Road”. Like many roads at the time its length ebbed and flowed, so a section featuring on Rocque’s Map (1741 – 1745) from Paradise Road to Manor Road was known as Thieves Harbour, by the 1771 manor map shows the stretch from the Quadrant to the junction of Paradise Road was known as George Street but this was short-lived, by 1774 it became “the road to Marshgate”. James Green, Judith Filson, and Margaret Watson in The Streets of Richmond and Kew believe the reference to George Street may have been an error.
