Bodmin Road

When a large part of the Whitleigh Estate was laid out in the early 1950s the decision was clearly taken by someone to name most of the streets in the area after various county towns.

As much of the estate looks out over part of Cornwall, it is no great surprise to find that one of the longer thoroughfares here was named after the Cornish town Bodmin (which shared county town status with Truro until 1976).

The name Bodmin itself is thought to be made up of two elements; the Cornish "Bod" or possibly even the earlier "Bot" - meaning house or dwelling, and "meneich" (the plural of "manach") meaning monks. King Athelstan is believed to have founded a monastery there in 926. By the time of the conquest though Bodmeneich had become abbreviated to just Bodmine or Botmenei.

EH 1 April 1995