Place Name
Originally called William Street after William Earsby (about 1591 – October 16, 1664), a well-to-do market gardener whose family had settled at Washes Farm, North End, in the reign of Elizabeth I. He has a monument in All Saints’ Church. In his will, he left: “Three pieces of lande in Fulham Fields abutting upon Aylands to the north and to the Worple near Hanger Parrebridge containing by estimation 4 acres and acre more near Parrebridge, in all 5 acres, on condition that he and his assigns should, with the rents and profits of the said 5 acres, buy thirty yards of Hampshire Kersey [a kind of coarse woollen cloth], worth 4s. the yard, the said cloth to be by him or his assigns made in six petticoats and waistcoats with good bindings and clasps; and the six suits so made up to be delivered by his said son or his assigns on the first day of November after his decease to six poor widows on Fulham side, of good repute and quiet conversation, and so be continued, six one year and six the next year twelve month, as they were in the time of his life until the world’s end.” The family continued to farm the land for several generations after him until it was sold to Robert Foot, who purchased Washes Farm in 1706.
