Place Name
Laid out over land that was once Stratford Langthorne Abbey’s Grange Farm. The land was still being used for plant nurseries when it was developed. It was named shortly before or just after the death of Anthony Ashley-Cooper, (April 28, 1801 – October 1, 1885) the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, who was an active philanthropist, and as a Member of Parliament was responsible for several reforming acts designed to alleviate the suffering of the poor. Soon after leaving Oxford University he became the Tory MP for Woodstock, and was quickly appointed to a number of committees, among them Pauper Lunatics in the County of Middlesex, having seen first-hand the terrible conditions he helped draft some of the first Acts of Parliament making reform a legal requirement. It was a campaign he was to continue throughout his life. He campaigned for child labour laws; legislation to ban women working in the pits; introduced laws to ban young boys as chimney sweeps, became president of the Ragged School Union; and sought the ban opium; among many other reforms. He is said to have propagated the idea that social evils were caused by slum housing. When he died he was generally acknowledged as one of the most pious and energetic philanthropists of his generation and several roads were named in his honour.
