4. Silver Street

Gaol Lane
Silver Street was listed as Silver Street on John Speeds map of 1610. However it has also been known as Gaol Lane and Little Silver Street. It was called Gaol Lane because the County Gaol stood on the junction of Silver Street and the High Street. 

‘The old County Gaol stood on the northern corner with the High Street until it was moved to its present location in 1801. There had been a Gaol in the street since the 12th century and is mentioned in the Harrold Priory Cartulary several times up until the 15th century.’

The County Gaol stood at the corner of Silver Street and the High Street then, from at least the 12th Century up until 1801 when the new prison was opened at its present site on St. Loyes - possibly as many as 600 years. Little wonder then, that John Howard found the conditions to be unacceptable when he made the first of many visits in 1773. It was this first visit that spurred him on to assess conditions in prisons across England. In 1777 he published State of the Prisons before extending his enquiry to Europe and eventually Russia, where he died in 1790.



An excerpt from the Introduction to State of the Prisons, John Howard





Jeffrey's map of 1765 shows it as Goal Lane -
the spellings were interchangeable at that time.



Silver Street
According to the research by Crawley and Freeman it is unlikely (although it is possible) that Silver Street was so named because of the number of Silversmiths on the street.

‘Silver Street comes from a very much earlier time. 'Silver Streets' occur as principle streets in many Saxon towns (Anglo-Saxon towns in southern England). Silver Street could be the 'street of the Silversmiths', but in the absence of early forms of the name this should not be assumed. Silver Street in Reading, for example, was 'Sivekare Stret' in 1311, the street of the Sievemakers. We also find Silver Streets in villages such as Great Barford and Stevington, where it is unlikely there would have been a Silver smith’.