Watford Gap
B74/ B75 - Grid reference SK110010
A 'gap' in Middle English signified a breach or a break. Here it may have referred to the crossroads of Blake Street and the Lichfield road. The ford was on Blake Street which crosses a small stream near the junction. Could Wat be a personal name?
Blake Street is recorded as le Blakestrete in 1290. Blaec straet, meaning 'black' or 'bleak' is the boundary between the manors of Sutton and Shenstone.
William Dargue 27.02.09/ 01.08.2010
For 19th-century Ordnance Survey maps of Birmingham go to British History Online.
Map below reproduced from Andrew Rowbottom’s website of Old Ordnance Survey maps Popular Edition, Birmingham 1921. Click the map to link to that website.