History
The name `Stoneygate' originates in Old English as "stone road", and Ordnance Survey maps show the former route of an unnamed Roman road leading South-West from Stoneygate on the A6 towards Little Stretton, Medbourne and Corby.
Stoneygate's historical significance was recognised when it was designated a conservation area by the City Council in 1978. The Stoneygate Conservation Area (which also includes properties in the adjacent suburb of Clarendon Park) is bounded by Victoria Park Road to the north, Queens Road to the west, Stoneygate Road to the east and Shirley Road to the south. A map is available on the Stoneygate Conservation Area Society website (see external links below).
There are many examples of well-preserved Victorian family homes in Stoneygate as well as slightly later Edwardian buildings and -in the southern section- homes built after the Great War of 1914-18 and influenced by more modern architectural styles, notably Art Deco. Particularly worthy of note are `Brookfield' and `The Firs' on London Road; two remaining examples of the oldest and grandest homes built by wealthy commercial families to imitate the country estates of the local gentry. There are no less than ten Grade II listed residential properties. These include `The White House' in North Avenue designed in a variation of the Arts & Crafts style by Ernest Gimson in 1898 and 22 Avenue Road, designed in the modernist style by Fello Atkinson and Brenda Walker of James Cubitt and Partners in 1953. The Stoneygate Conservation Area Society, a group of local volunteers with a current membership of over 170 households, exists to inform the public about the Conservation Area, its history and proposed developments that will affect its future.
Read more about this topic: Stoneygate
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—Frances Burney (1752–1840)
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