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ROADS AND STREETS

CATTE STREET

Updated:  12 April 2011 

 
Location of Catte Street, Plymouth

Catte Street, Plymouth, ran eastwards from High Street to Batter Street and continued as Stillman Street.

Origin of the name, Catte Street

Quoted in its earliest form as "Katt Strete", this is supposed to be a back formation from Cattewater.  The "Catte" is also thought to refer to a rock formation at the entrance to the Cattewater.  The earliest Ordnance Survey maps refer to Bears Head Rock where Queen Anne's Battery was later constructed.  This may have given the appearance of a cat at one time.  [1]

Catte Street, Plymouth, shown here as Cattle Street.

 

History of Catte Street, Plymouth

Worth quotes from an undated rental, probably of the early 16th century, 'Katt strete' and from a Town Rental of 1706 that: 'Cat Street begins from pomroys conduit to Mr Cownes'.  [2]

On Benjamin Donn's map of 1765 it is clearly shown as "Cat Street".  [3]

It was in a small, first-floor room over a shop in Catte Street that the Plymouth Mutual Co-operative and Industrial Society commenced trading in 1860.  [4]

By 1890 Catte Street had been absorbed into Stillman Street.  [5]

Catte Street, Plymouth, 1765.

 

Some Views of Catte Street, Plymouth

Photographs to follow.

 

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Occupants of Catte Street, Plymouth


Sources:

[1]  Worth, R N, "Calendar of the Plymouth Municipal Records", R N Worth, Plymouth, 1893; Gover, J E B, et al, "The Place-names of Devon, Part One", Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1969; Ordnance Survey, 1 Inch to the Mile, First Edition, Sheet CXXIII, Ordnance Survey Office, Southampton, 1867.

[2]  Worth, R N, "Calendar of the Plymouth Municipal Records", R N Worth, Plymouth, 1893.

[3]  Donn, Benjamin, "A Map of the County of Devon 1765", facsimile, Devon and Cornwall Record Society and the University of Exeter, Exeter, 1965.

[4]  See Business Houses, Plymouth Mutual Co-operative and Industrial Society.

[5]  White, William, "Plymouth 1890: History and Directory", reprint, Hindsight Publications, King's Lynn, 1989.

©  Brian Moseley, Plymouth, UK

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