EVEN in a city so widely written about, Ann Spokes Symonds can surely now be viewed as an author streets ahead of the rest when it comes to knowing her way around Oxford.

Almost 50 years ago the former Oxford Lord Mayor set herself the formidable task of researching the story (or stories) behind the name of every road, square, lane and street in Oxford.

Today her long trek through the highways and byways of Oxford comes to the end with the publication of her new book The Origins of Oxford Street Names.

The book includes a mind-boggling index of some 1,455 Oxford streets, as she leads us through some 900 years of history, from the earliest medieval lanes to cul-de-sacs on the most recently built estates.

There are roads commemorating great men and women, and thoroughfares recalling past events and occupations.There are romantic names (Love Lane, Bocardo Lane and Barbican Lane) and examples of modern practicality (streets in Blackbird Leys were alphabetically named after wildflowers starting with Andromeda and ending with Vetch.) The book has been produced with Nigel Morgan who, as a chartered surveyor working in and around Oxford for 30 years, also has an extensive knowledge of local roads.

Mrs Spokes Symonds, who has just celebrated her 85th birthday, says her curiosity in road names began when, as a young girl, she came across Squitchey Lane in North Oxford, close to where she now lives in Davenant Road. “As a child I thought it was named after ‘the squish, squish’ sound of boots on muddy ground,” she said.

But it was not long before she found out the name refers to the grass squitch, also known as couch or witch grass, much hated by gardeners.

As a city councillor and a member of Oxford City Council’s highways committee in the 1960s she was invited to help select names for many of the new estates.

“I was lucky in the fact that my father was interested in local history and in his extensive library were all the books I needed to learn about the streets,” she recalled. One of the biggest challenges was finding names for the new roads on the Blackbird Leys estate. For the nearby Horspath Road Trading Estate she was particularly proud of coming up with Pony Road, pony being the slang for £25, and Pound Way in the Cowley shopping centre.

She began assembling boxes of index cards of Oxford streets, which came in useful when she began appearing weekly on Radio Oxford in the 1970s with Andy Wright. “People would telephone in to know why a particular street was so named,” she recalled.

A promise, made to herself, to convert all her research into a book on retiring from local politics had to be put off, while she wrote six books on North Oxford and other parts of the city.

But she eventually faced up to the daunting task, which involved her and Mr Morgan spending hours going through council records.

The task was made all the more difficult because names frequently changed. Cornmarket, for instance, once had a dozen names to identify the various stalls from which people traded. Catte Street was given its name as early as 1210, and was also known as the street of mousecatchers. The name changed to St Catherine’s Street until the old name, with its early spelling, was revived in 1930.

Magpie Lane, off High Street, almost deserves a full book in its own right. In the 13th century it was known as Grope Lane in recognition of the fact that it was where the city’s prostitutes plied their trade. It was to be repeatedly renamed before the city decided to revert back to the name it had in the 17th century.

When it comes to naming streets after living celebrities, Oxford has always played safe. ‘Dead is best’, except in very special cases, has been the approach, confirmed by the city council’s Highways Committee in 1993.

At one time it seems, there had been a real chance of a street being named after the then Oxford United owner Robert Maxwell, long before the world discovered he was a crook.

It was also suggested Oxford United’s players who won the Milk Cup in 1986, have roads named after them.

One footballer is remembered in Hodges Court (named in 1993). Hodges was the scorer of the first goal when Oxford City Football Club won the Amateur Cup in 1906.

Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien; historian Anthony Wood, Pre-Raphaelite Sir Edward Burne-Jones; artist and writer John Ruskin; and the Nobel Prize winning scientist who gave the world penicillin Howard Florey have all been overlooked. Some celebrities have been commemorated including Sir Roger Bannister, the first man to run a mile in under four minutes in 1954. Sir Roger, along with Morse author Colin Dexter, will be among guests in the Town Hall today to mark the publication of the book.

Jean Wheeler, 77, has lived at Titup Hall Drive since 1957. She said: “It was named because the horses used to make that noise with their hooves, I think “Everywhere I go I have to spell it out to people.

“People have got more used to the name recently though, because it’s on the bus route.

My mum particularly thought it was a funny name.”

Elizabeth Jones, lives in Squitchey Lane, North Oxford. She said: “I am a potter – and it seems quite an appropriate name for someone like me, because everything is squelchy, and it sounds quite fun.

“It always has to be spelt out when I’m ordering things on the phone. My husband has collected about 16 different inter-pretations of the spelling.”

Roger Baycock, has a shop, Allegro Oxford, near Crotch Crescent in Marston.

He said: “I think it’s named after somone, but people new to Oxford, especially Oxford Brookes’ University students, think it’s exceedingly funny.

“It doesn’t really bother me though.

I can think of funnier names street names and places – I think!"

The Origins of Oxford Street Names is published by Robert Boyd Publications (priced £11.95).