Place Name
Oliver Goldsmith (November 10, 1728 – April 4, 1774) was a novelist, playwright and poet, who is best known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield published in 1766. This is one of a cluster of roads with a literary reference. The Pardoe family, owners of Leyton Grange Manor, married into the Oliver and Thornhill families and some of their children were given first names that appear in the Vicar of Wakefield. When the Grange Park building development of Leyton Grange Manor, was carried out by the British Land Company between 1861 and 1870, the streets were given names connected with the book, namely: Burchell, Goldsmith, Oliver, Primrose, Sophia, Thornhill, Wakefield, and Wilmot. In this case Primrose was the surname of the vicar in the title. The land had previously been part of Stratford Langthorne Abbey’s Grange Farm. The section between Thornhill Road and Church Road was renamed Rosedene Terrace by 1968.
