The short answer is no it wasn’t, and that’s official. But proving that took a huge battle, and one that made international headlines.
Introduction
In 2020, myself and a small group of (mostly) amateur historians had to prove to a museum that they had made a mistake. The museum appeared to have popularised the claim, and were perhaps even the source of it. That wouldn’t normally be newsworthy. But this debate involved renaming what is unquestionably one of the most famous streets in the world (thanks to the Beatles). Also unusual, possibly unique, is that this debate about questioning the validity of historical research (or the apparent lack of it) didn’t take place in an exchange of emails or in history journals, it happened on social media and in view of the international press. Note: when I published this I was using my pen name Glen Huntley.
Background
In 2006, a Liverpool Councillor proposed a motion to rename all the streets in Liverpool that had a connection to the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Most of these were named after slave merchants. This motion eventually failed when someone mentioned that they would also have to rename Penny Lane because it was named after James Penny. Penny wasn’t just a slave merchant, he campaigned in Parliament to keep the trade going when the abolition movement was trying to end it.
Since it had opened in 2007*, the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool had a popular exhibition showing streets in Liverpool that were named after slave merchants – Penny Lane was one of them.
*Originally it had been the Transatlantic Slavery gallery that opened in 1994
Penny Lane wasn’t the only error – Great Newton Street was claimed to have been named after John Newton – the slave ship captain (and author of Amazing Grace). In fact, all evidence points to it being named after Sir Isaac Newton.
You can read about that on my other website Bygone Liverpool, a collaboration with Darren White.
Image: Liverpool Echo
Then, during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, the call to rename all those streets was renewed with vigor. Penny Lane, being the only street that was word famous, inevitably became the focus.
The trouble was that there appeared to be no evidence that James Penny ever had any connection to the area. As my website had researched the claim two years earlier, it became the primary source for anyone wishing to investigate the claim further.
Prior to 2020 my whole website was only getting around 10,000 views a year. In June 2020, the Penny Lane post was read 50,000 times in just a week. This was due in no small part from the campaigning of Richard Macdonald on Twitter (@tourguideliverp). Richard had been one of the original people who questioned the claim back in 2006.
The story was covered all over the world, here are examples fromNew York, Brazil, Netherlands, and Kuwait. The American Spectator ran the story but opened with:
Did you know that Paul McCartney once wrote a song celebrating slavery? Well, neither did he. It took about half a century after “Penny Lane” was a hit for the Beatles before historians decided that this street in Liverpool was a legacy of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
American Spectator, 18th June 2020
But after I emailed them, they ran an Addendum:
We are pleased to report that Penny Lane has been acquitted before the tribunal of history. Not long after this article was published, we were contacted by a British researcher who goes by the name Glen Huntley. His research into the origins of the name of Penny Lane began many years ago, and therein lies a tale.
American Spectator, 22nd June 2020
As it appeared that it was the museum who first made the claim, the emphasis of the debate was for them to submit the evidence they based it on. Without doubt, the hardest obstacle was convincing people that the museum had made an error. After all, if it’s in a museum it must be correct? Surely they must have done research it before they made the exhibition?
The museum had been contacted well before 2020 (independently by myself and Richard Macdonald) but had never provided their evidence. But at the height of the debate they had no choice. They issued a statement to say they had a team of experts investigating the claim (this comprised of slavery historian Laurence Westgaph, and Emeritus Keeper of Slavery History (also former Director of Merseyside Maritime Museum) Tony Tibbles). Eventually Liverpool Museums issued a statement that they agreed with the findings on this website.
After speaking with Liverpool slavery historian Laurence Westgaph, Tony Tibbles, our Emeritus Keeper of Slavery History (also former Director of Merseyside Maritime Museum) and historian and blogger Glen Huntley, we have concluded that the comprehensive research available to us now demonstrates that there is no historical evidence linking Penny Lane to James Penny. We are therefore extending our original review and setting up a participative project to renew our interactive display.
Reflecting, reviewing and responding, Janet Dugdale, Executive Director of Museums & Participation, 17 July 2020
Although, the statement claimed that the association with James Penny had been in the public domain in the 1990s:
We believe that the idea Penny Lane was named after Liverpool-based slave trader James Penny was in the wider public domain during the time of the original Transatlantic Slavery Gallery, opened in 1994 within Merseyside Maritime Museum, well before the conception of the International Slavery Museum.
Janet Dugdale,
Executive Director of Museums & Participation, 19 June 2020
https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/reflecting-reviewing-and-responding
I spent years searching for any mention of the claim prior to 2006, even now (updating this post in 2023) I’m still looking. The British Newspaper Archive currently has Liverpool newspapers up to the year 1999. No mention of it can be found, even in the Beatles-obsessed Liverpool Echo*. Instead, it came about in 2006 when a press officer at the museum made a casual remark to international press. How do we know this? Because the man himself admitted it on a blog for the museum.
*Perhaps when the newspaper archive has transcribed Liverpool papers up to 2006, an earlier record may be discovered? If you can find any reference to the claim prior to 2006, please add a comment to this post.
Just one indication of big the story became, is that Richard Macdonald was interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine.
During the debate, the mayor of Liverpool had to issue statements regarding the council’s decision. Eventually he issued a statement that the Council would not rename the street. This decision was based on the information on this website.
Why the myth gained ground
Liverpool does indeed have streets with names connected to slave merchants. This booklet from 2007 explains the origins of the streets named Ashton, Blackburne, Blundell, Bold, Cunliffe, Earle, Gladstone, Parr, Sir Thomas, and Tarleton. But very few people who are not from Liverpool, or never visited, will have heard of any of them. Some people who have lived in Liverpool all their lives might not know some of them. Outside of Liverpool, there was little chance of anyone writing a book or news article about any of those streets (apart a review of a restaurant on Bold Street perhaps). Penny Lane, on the other hand, is known all over the world. Furthermore, in the same period that the myth started, Liverpool was seeing a huge growth in international visitors. The streets supposed link to the slave trade was an interesting factoid they could bring back from their visit to the museum, or a guided tour. ‘Bold Street was named after a slave merchant named Jonas Bold’ was never going to get the same attention.
To demonstrate, this review of the International Slavery Museum appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2017, the other streets on the display are not mentioned:
Although the displays could use more focus, the museum deserves praise for examining how Liverpool in particular benefited from the business of human bondage. Penny Lane, for example, takes its name from James Penny, an 18th century slave merchant.
One Day, One Place: Beatle-free day in the life of Liverpool, Jeanne Cooper, San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 5, 2017,
Yet, although it was wrong, the Penny Lane myth has served a purpose. The debate has encouraged countless people to find out more Britain’s links to the slave trade.
When I was updating this post in June 2023 I decided to keep the post as it first appeared. Hopefully, in this form it tells the story of the debate, as well as presenting the evidence.
For anyone wanting to know the story, but can’t be bothered reading the whole lot, there’s a very short summary of the research below. After that comes the original research and its updates as the story unfolded. These detailed new findings, but also challenged some of the comments that were being raised on social media. The post ends with the last ever update, the statement from the museum.
A summary of the research
The research shows that James Penny had no links to the area around Penny Lane and it wasn’t named after him. There are over 30 other Penny Lanes in Britain, it’s quite a common name. There are over 300 streets and places in Britain that contain the word Penny – Halfpenny Close is close to where I live in Garston, Liverpool. The usual origins are related to being the lanes being unimportant – a penny lease for example. There are places named after James Penny’s family, but they are in Ulverston where he was born.
Rather than being laid out in the late 18th century, it is possible that Penny Lane pre-dated the Norman Conquest and was part of the hunting grounds of Toxteth Park that is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Like Smithdown Road it connects to, it could be one of the oldest streets in the whole of Liverpool.
After the initial post, more evidence was found by contributors to debunk the myth. This included a statement by the then press officer that he had undertaken no research whatsoever before he mentioned it to the press. We then proved that Penny Lane was there years before James Penny was in Liverpool – A previously unpublished map from 1754 shows the lane when Penny was still only a child in Ulverston.
Before 1967 Penny Lane was still just like any other English street, the Beatles changed that forever. The whole point of the song is celebrating the ordinary, almost banal. Penny Lane was always an everyday street ‘beneath a blue suburban sky’ but because of the Beatles it has and extraordinary history – but James Penny has no place in it.
The original post…
Was Penny Lane really named after the slave merchant James Penny?
Ever since 1967 when the Beatles released the song Penny Lane, this everyday suburban street has been associated with the ‘Fab Four’. Fans from around the world visit the place, being dropped off at the corner by the Magical Mystery Tour bus to pose by the street sign, for many years, painted onto the wall to prevent removal by fans wanting a keepsake.
For some years now the lane has also become known for a darker period of Liverpool’s history. An internet search of ‘Penny Lane’ will in no time instruct you that it was named after James Penny, a Liverpool slave merchant, but was it really?
Credence to the story is given by nature of the websites propagating the story, including The Guardian, the BBC, the New York Times and our very own International Slavery Museum. The latter have on display a replica Penny Lane street sign included in an exhibit on Liverpool streets named after people involved in the slave trade. The display at the slavery museum gives international tourists the unique opportunity to see the same street sign in two completely different locations and contexts on the same day!
Not just online, the legend has made it into print in newspapers and books many times. In 2008 a ‘Time Team’ TV documentary special about Liverpool’s first dock saw Liverpool historian Ray Costello standing outside The Cavern telling Tony Robinson of the cellar’s links to slavery, in a double Beatles’ expose he then told the Penny Lane story as fact:
One of the most famous streets I can think of is probably the famous Penny Lane, Penny Lane was called after James Penny, a slave ship captain who was one of the delegates who went down to the Houses of Parliament to speak in favour of the slave trade
But, is there any truth in it? Is there ANY evidence to prove that the street was named after James Penny?
The short answer is no, none whatsoever, for the long answer, please keep reading.
Origin of the story
The first time I had heard of the James Penny link to the lane was in 2006, when Liverpool Councillor Barbara Mace promoted a controversial scheme to rename all the streets in Liverpool that were called after people involved with the slave trade. These included Tarleton Street, Manesty’s Lane, Clarence Street, Rodney Street and Exchange Flags. It was only when she was informed by someone that the city’s most famous street, Penny Lane, would also have to be renamed because of a supposed link to James Penny that the scheme was scrapped.
A forum on the excellent Liverpool history website, Yo! Liverpool, followed the story at the time and provides the basis for the reporting on the story here:
Cllr Mace, who works in the Foundation for Citizenship at Liverpool John Moores University, says her proposal is aimed at marking the bicentenary in 2007, Liverpool’s 800th birthday year, of the abolition of the slave trade.
The Woolton councillor has told colleagues: “I want the city council to resolve that all streets, squares and public places named after those involved in promoting or profiteering from the slave trade be renamed.
Her plan was welcomed by Labour leader Cllr Joe Anderson, who says Exchange Flags could be re-named Independent Square.
Yo! Liverpool
Her plans were praised in some quarters; Gloria Hyatt, founder member of the Afro-Carribean-led Merseyside Campaign Against Racial Terrorism welcomed the idea:
I think we should change the street names and replace them with names that celebrate successful black people.
Liverpool Daily Post, via Yo! Liverpool www.yoliverpool.com Slavery Streets
Alternatively, there were many who opposed the idea, Dr Emlyn Williams, chairman of the Rodney Street Association, said:-
I’m totally opposed to this because it’s a form of whitewashing history.
The proposal hit a major obstacle when someone suggested that Penny Lane was also named after a slave merchant, and therefor the city would lose a major tourist location:
However, it appears the city’s leaders were unaware that such a decision would mean losing one of its most famous and most photographed streets. Penny Lane is thought to have been named after 18th century slave ship owner James Penny, who made his fortune in the industry.
Originally, Cllr Mace called for “all streets, squares and public places named after those who were involved in promoting or profiteering from the slave trade” to be renamed.
But the councillor today distanced herself from the original proposals, which could have seen Penny Lane scrapped. She said: “I wasn’t aware that Penny Lane was named after someone involved in the slave trade. However, I am not suggesting that all streets in the city associated with slavery should be renamed. If that was the case I think most of the city would be affected.
Eric Lynch, who for many years has given tours on the Liverpool Slavery History Trail said in 2006:
Penny Lane is thought to have been named after James Penny, one of the slave ship owners. People may be surprised but I completely disagree with the idea that any street names should be changed. If you change the names then it is like it never happened, there is no proof and people will forget. You cannot and should not change history, however disagreeable it is.
The BBC reported on the 11th July 2006 that the scheme was dropped, Council leader Warren Bradley explained why:
While we are committed to commemorating those who played an important role in the abolition of slavery, we have decided that renaming historic streets is not the best way forward.
Yo! Liverpool and their many members, have an incredible knowledge of Liverpool’s history, and it is a credit to them that they were quick to question whether their was any truth in story about James Penny. ‘Taffy’ on the forum stated:
I’ve never actually seen any evidence that this street was named after James Penny. Like Smithdown Rd & Mossley Hill Rd, Penny Lane is a very ancient highway whose name is likely to reflect its antiquity. I have to say I’d be surprised if this story about its naming were true but I’m happy to be corrected if someone has a source.
Christopher George then posed the question:
Could we find out if James Penny had any connection to the area around Penny Lane? Possibly he owned property in the area. If he didn’t and it is determined that he didn’t have a connection with the area, I would agree that it might be unlikely that Penny Lane is named after him.
He then listed all the known addresses for James Penny – all of which were in the town centre and none in the Toxteth Park/Wavertree area, where the lane is located. He also pointed out the only link to Toxteth is that Penny was buried at St. James church.
The Yo! Liverpool forum members also found that the lane was indeed ancient and probably predated the time of James Penny. Christopher George made the observation that near to the top of the lane there used to be an old house called ‘Penketh Hall’ and this may have been the origin of the name. ‘Dazza’ provided a map from 1765 that had appeared in Robert Griffiths’ history or Toxteth Park (1907) that shown what was to become Penny Lane. “Marky’ found that the earliest mention is the 1841 where it is recorded as Pennis (Pennies) Lane.
You can read the full debate here: www.yoliverpool.com Slavery Streets
Since finding the old Yo! Liverpool debate, I had set myself the task to look into the story further and collect as much evidence as possible to see if I could, once and for all, prove or disprove the story. Almost five years later I hope I can put it to rest.
Who was James Penny?
James Penny was not just a merchant who earned his money from human trafficking, he fearlessly fought for the right to continue the trade in Parliament when abolitionists were trying to outlaw it. The slave trade was important to Liverpool’s commerce and Penny was set on ensuring it continued.
Penny was born in 1741 in Arrad, near Ulverston, his father was also James. James Penny came to Liverpool sometime around 1764 and in 1768 he married Ann Cooper in St. Nicholas Church in the Old Churchyard. Several merchants involved with the slave trade who were from Ulverston would move to Liverpool around the same time including John Bolton, Moses Benson and Joseph Threlfall.
His first slaving venture was The Jupiter in 1764 carrying 250 enslaved Africans from Sierra Leone to Jamaica. The ‘middle passage’, being the 2nd leg of the triangular route of Liverpool – Africa – West Indies was horrific, not only would many slaves die but also the sailors transporting them. Others voyages included:
1768 & 1770 The Cavendish – Sierra Leone to Jamaica
1775-1776 Wilbraham – Carrying 530 slaves (27 died together with 7 seaman)
1776 – 1777 Wilbraham – Carrying 539 slaves (24 died together with 4 seaman)
1777 – 1778 Nicholson – Carrying 560 slaves (31 died together with 3 seaman)
1781 -1782 Carolina – Carrying 571 slaves (26 died together with 1 seaman)
1783 Count du Nord Angola to South Carolina
1785 Mamookata – Carrying 209 slaves ( 1 died together with 3 seaman)
www.cumbria.gov.uk/eLibrary
Penny was active in the trade until the American Revolutionary War, returning to it after the war was over in partnerships with other merchants.
(Penny was a) man of considerable stature in the town, highly regarded by his fellow merchants, his forthright views on the slave trade must have brought him to their notice as a likely delegate”. This refers to his having been chosen as one of the five delegates sent to represent the interests of Liverpool before a Committee of the Privy Council in 1788. In the years 1787 to 1789 there was an active parliamentary campaign for the abolition of the slave trade. There was much public feeling in general in favour of abolition but for Liverpool.
F.E. Sanderson ‘The Liverpool Delegates and Sir William Dolben’s Bill’. Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire
James Penny was one of five delegates sent to London in 1788 to represent Liverpool’s interests against the abolitionists before a Privy Council Committee.
In 1792 he was presented with a silver epergne for speaking in favour of the slave trade to a parliamentary committee. He continued to be committed to the slave trade even when other merchants were moving away from it. With his eldest son, James, he was elected to the African Company of Merchants trading in Liverpool in July 1793. He died in 1799.
wikipedia.org James Penny
The Penny family certainly had a novel way of keeping their money in the family. Penny’s eldest daughter Ann married James Penny Machell of Penny Bridge, he was the son of John Penny Machell who had added Penny to his name on his marriage to Isabel Penny, the daughter of James Penny Esq. of Penny Bridge (probably the slave merchant’s father).
On the death of James Penny, James Penny Machell inherited the silver epergne. James Penny’s company, James Penny & Co. was taken over by his son James. A partnership in a ropery business with John Penny Machell was dissolved on the death of James Penny Jnr in 1820.
More about James Penny here: discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk
How streets were given names
Historically, streets usually received their names from several sources; an ancient name as in the case of Smithdown Road (Smethedum meaning Smooth Down from the Doomsday book); a natural feature like ‘Dingle Lane’; named after a historic event; and most commonly, named after the owner of the land or the name of his house. Looking at 18th century maps of Liverpool, you can see many names that still survive in the form of street names, marking plots of land owned by merchants.
If Penny Lane was indeed named after James Penny, we would expect to see his name on plans of Wavertree/Toxteth Park at the time he lived there, no such evidence exists.
The last reason a street gets a name is when it is named after a famous person. If Penny was to receive this honour why not pick a prominent street in the town, close to the docks or the Exchange – not an insignificant lane with only two dwellings on it?
Known addresses for James Penny
I have searched genealogy websites many times for the surname Penny (together with variants) from 1760 to 1820. There are no records for the name in Wavertree or Toxteth Park – but there is ONE record for Childwall (Wavertree was in the parish of Childwall). Although this proved to have no connection to James Penny, it also predates Penny’s arrival in Liverpool by at least 12 years:
Mary Penny
Baptism 10th May 1752, Childwall
Father’s name John Penny
Mother’s name Esther Halewood
From the baptism record we can see that she was born into the Halewood Poorhouse and was a bastard child of John Penny and therefor nothing to do with the family of James Penny:
10 May 1752 All Saints, Childwall, Lancs.
http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Liverpool/Childwall/allsaints/baptisms_1742-1753.html
Mary Halewood – Daughter of John Penny & Esther Halewood
Born: 20 Feb 1752
Abode: Halewood Poorhouse
Notes: a bastard child, who saith shee was procreated by John Penny
Esther Halewood would go on to marry Thomas Travise on 09 Feb 1759 in Childwall.
The nearest a person named Penny had lived to Penny Lane, was a Mrs Penny who lived in Edge Hill in 1820.
If the Penny family had any links to Wavertree or Toxteth you would expect this to be represented in the birth, marriage and death records but the Baptism records of the children of James Penny and Ann Cooper show that they all took place in the town:
Baptism locations of the children of James and Ann Penny:-
James, 13 November 1772, Saint Peter’s Church, Church Street
Benjamin, 3rd July 1775, Saint Peter’s Church, Church Street
Ann, 21 February 1777, Saint Peter’s Church, Church Street,
Mary Margaret, 7th August 1783, Saint George’ Church Castle Street,
Margaret, 20 September 1785, St. George’s Church, Castle Street
Jane, 8 Jan 1787, St. George’s Church, Castle Street
Elizabeth, 14 November 1788, St. George’s Church, Castle Street
Margaret, 21 February 1790, St. George’s Church, Castle Street
The addresses of the churches that the baptisms took place in match with Penny’s known home addresses, all in the town centre:
Known home addresses of James Penny
1772 Capt. Penny, Church Street (Gore’s Directory)
1773 Capt. Penny, Church Street (Gore’s Directory)
1774 Captain Penny, 18 Church Street (Gore’s Directory it says ‘Old Church Yard’ which I believe is a mistake and he had lived at 18 Church street from before 1772 to after 1781)
1777 Capt. James Penny, 18 Church Street (Gore’s Directory)
1781 James Penny, merchant,18 Church Street (Gore’s Directory)
1787 James Penny, merchant, Ranelagh Street (Gore’s Directory)
1790 James Penny, merchant, Hope Street, Martindale Hill (Gore’s Directory)
1796 James Penny, merchant, 2 Hope Street, Mount Pleasant Street (Gore’s Directory) (His son James, merchant, is also listed at this last address).
So how about business addresses? Surely if he lived in Penny Lane we would expect to see a business or farm located there? Again no. After the death of his son James in 1820, a series of business premises were put up for sale belonging to James Penny & Co. These included:
A warehouse, Cooperage and two cottages on the east side of Fleet Street
A dwelling house in Renshaw Street
A warehouse in Arrad Street
There is no mention of any land or property anywhere outside of the town.
Burial location of James Penny
The only piece of evidence that brings Penny remotely close to Toxteth Park is his burial at St. James Church which still stands and is just within the old Toxteth Park boundary.
Toxteth Park was roughly box-shaped with St. James at the bottom left, Penny Lane on the other hand is the the further most point away from the church, in the top right of the box. In fact the only property on Penny Lane for many years was in the Wavertree half of the lane and not Toxteth Park at all. The reason Penny was buried here was because he lived close by in Hope Street.
Penny was buried on 26th August 1799. Also buried in the church is Moses Benson, another Ulverston slave merchant. The registers of this church feature many African and Caribbean born people.
Penny’s mother outlived him, she died in 1806, aged 87, at the family home in Arrad near Ulverston.
British Newspaper Archive
Penny Lane, the early years
Historically, Penny lane’s border was split between two areas, with the southern half being within Toxteth Park and the northern half in Wavertree, the latter being in the parish of Childwall. Because of this, historical references to the lane can be found in all three place names.
The lane appears to be historically linked with the Greenbank estate, allowing a direct route to Wavertree. The earliest maps show Greenbank as ‘St, Anslow’, I believe, as no saint is recorded by that name, and that Ansow was an error by a cartographer. It may have been a person’s name, with the ‘St.’ referring to an abbreviated Christian name, Stuart or Stephen. It could have also been one word Stanslow. In that case it could have been in connection to the monks of Stanlawe Abbey (I’ll return to this theory in a later post).
Greenbank was the home of the Rathbone family, famous in Liverpool for their philanthropy and public service. The first of family that lived their was William Rathbone IV. He was an opponent of slavery and was a founding member of the Liverpool branch of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
William Rathbone IV (10 June 1757 – 11 February 1809) was a member of the noted Rathbone family of Liverpool, England. He was the son of William Rathbone III and Rachel Rutter, and was a Liverpool ship-owner and merchant, involved in the organisation of American trade with Liverpool.
Originally a member of the Society of Friends, he felt compelled to write a Narrative of Events in Ireland among the Quakers in 1786 in protest against religious intolerance in the Society, for which he was disowned from the Society in 1805. He would never join another religious body, though he occasionally worshipped with local Unitarian congregations.
A committed opponent to slavery, Rathbone was a founding member of the Liverpool Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade (perhaps another name for the Liverpool branch of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade founded in 1788, a society originating in London the year before.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Rathbone_IV
Being within Toxteth Park, Greenbank had been the property of the Earl of Sefton. William Rathbone leased the estate in 1788 from William Reid and finally purchased it in 1809. William Reid had a porcelain works at Brownlow Hill but had become bankrupt in 1761. In the late 1990s, the site of his pottery business was excavated and thousands of pieces of pot were excavated. Analysis of these led to important discoveries about early porcelain. You can read more about William Reid here: The Liverpool Porcelain of William Reid: A Catalogue of Porcelain and Excavated Shards
What the Rathbone records omit is that in 1768, prior to William Rathbone living there, Peter Holme was living at the Greenbank estate (in another house now where Greenbank Park is), the clipping below shows that he had grown a 25.5 inch long cucumber, grown from a seed bought in Turkey. It weighed upwards of 30 lb.
Growing giant cucumbers was not however Peter Holmes’ source of income, that came from investment in Slave trading voyages. The online resource of UCL (Legacies of British Slave Ownership) has this information on him:
Peter Holme, son of William Holme, a grocer, born 1730/1 and died 1779, had investments in 50 slave trading voyages between 1750 and 1777. Mr. Peter Holme, Merchant, Liverpool, was a subscriber to two volumes of poetry in 1759. 24/06/1766: Articles of Partnership between the following Liverpool Merchants: William Davenport, Peter Holme, Thomas Hodgson, Ralph Earle, Thomas Earle, William Earle, John Copeland. For carrying on trade of selling beads, arrangoes, etc. Possibly this was an antecedent of Peter Holme’s later partnership with William Atherton. Will of Peter Holme merchant of Childwall, proved 22/05/1780. The will, made in 1749, is five lines long and left everything to his sister Elizabeth Holme.
www.ucl.ac.uk Peter Holme
The lane running up to the top right hand corner is Penny Lane, but like most streets on the map it is not named. The north half of the lane is not shown as it is in Wavertree. The lozenge feature, next to plot 144 is a pond and is remarkably still there.
Thanks to @Waite99D
Thanks to @Waite99D
The census of 1841 lists Penny Lane but the enumerator may have made a mistake and had written Pennis (Pennies) Lane (See update Sat 4th July 2020). John Whittingham is at Grove Cottage and John Frankland is at Grove House.
The earliest mention in the British Newspaper Archive of the lane by name is in 1846. It is an advertisement for Grove House to be let. At that time it was occupied by William Anthony Esq. Here it is called Penny’s Lane. It is also referred to as Penny’s lane in an advertisement for a property in July 1858, this may imply that it was named after a person called Penny but no evidence has been found to support this other than the advertisements. No-one called Penny has been found with links to the area. It also has to be noted that in 1859 an article was published that called it Perry’s Lane (see further down this page).
Grove House, is still standing although much altered, and is now Dovedale Towers. Both Grove House and it neighbouring cottage appear on early maps of Toxteth Park from the 18th century and these remained in isolation for at least 70 years until the 1840s.
The Yates and Perry map of 1768 clearly shows the lane, indicating that both the lane and its two dwelling where already there before Penny moved to Liverpool.
Sometime before 1840, two other properties appeared at the bottom of the lane, these were part of the Rathbone’s Greenbank estate. Fern Lodge and Oakfield can be seen on the map below, Oakfield still stands and possibly part of Fern Lodge. These buildings became part of the Lourdes Hospital site, now Spire. Oakfield is a beautiful building but hidden behind a fence and dense trees.
Image: www.spirehealthcare.com
It was not until the start of the 20th century that the lane was developed further.
Image: Google Street View.
In 1896, a letter appeared in local press entitled ‘Typhoid Dissemination’ that shows even by that time, the lane was far from developed, or sanitary:
Persons wishing for practical knowledge on this subject are advised to go to Penny-lane, enter it from Greenbank, keeping to the right hand side of the road by the old fence, at the end of which the olfactory senses will tell of the neighbourhood of their desires. Look down the bridge embankment, as the writer unfortunately did on Tuesday last, expecting to see some putrefying animal matter, instead of which he saw a miry farm road, soaked by the water of an obstructing drain or ditch, abutting upon the embankment ; on the other side of the road a hedge terminated by a gate, through which is continued the horrible miry road to a small, dirty-looking hovel. Whether the aroma, reeking with typhoid, comes from that building, road, ditch, or all the three combined, is for the local sanitary authorities, in the interests of public health, to satisfy themselves, and if possible, apply a remedy.
The James Penny saga in 2006 was not the first time Penny Lane was threatened with a name change, in 1859 there was a failed attempt to rename several lanes as roads including Perry Lane (sic), Smithdown Lane, Greenbank Lane and Ullet Lane. It is interesting as it gives an insight into the designation of a lane, being “generally understood to mean a narrow street or alley, and not an important thoroughfare’:
Thomas Webster
It is possible that the Webster family had built Grove house in the late 18th century. In 1814 Thomas Webster is living at Grove Cottage and placed an advertisement for Grove House to be let. Although it is only 15 years after the death of James Penny, it is merely named as ‘The lane leading from Wavertree to Greenbank’.
In fact, up until it’s first appearance by name in the 1841 census – 42 years after James Penny’s death – Penny Lane is always listed as just a connecting route to two areas, such as Wavertree to Toxteth.
The following year, Webster had three ducks stolen from Grove House by a market trader called Catherine Evans. She was sentenced to seven years transportation by ‘The Wavertree Association’ as a demonstration that they would ‘take this opportunity of assuring the public that it is their determination to prosecute all offenders’.
The house of Thomas Webster was robbed in 1817, again the name of the name is not mentioned.
Thomas Webster was a Brass Founder with premises in King Street under the name of Webster and Forshaw. The building was converted from a mansion once owned by the Trafford Family. There are records of the Webster family of Childwall going back to the 1600s. On Christmas day 1776 a Thomas Webster of Huyton married Mary Hickson of Childwall.
In 1828 Webster & Forshaw made a chair made of solid brass weighing 148lbs. It was a commission for Sir John Tobin to be given as a gift to Duke Ephraim, King of Old Calabar.
Sir John Tobin was a slave-merchant, palm oil merchant and Mayor of Liverpool 1819-1820. He gave the chair in recognition of the post-abolition palm oil trade with Africa. Tobin was one one the largest importers of palm oil in Liverpool.
Webster died at Grove House in January 1832. His house is described simply as being “by Greenbank”.
In 1819 Joseph Gunnery, a solicitor, was living at Grove House. Gunnery married Webster’s eldest daughter Helen on the 29th March of that year.
Andrew George Kurtz
By 1861 Grove House was in the occupation of Andrew George Kurtz (1825 – 1890). Kurtz was a chemical manufacture who owned the Sutton Alkali works in Saint Helens, which he had inherited from his German-born father. Kurtz took over reluctantly – having to turn his back on legal career to do so. He shared Grove house with his cousin Julia Turner. He had a large gallery of paintings and regularly opened his house to the public.
…he was also a talented amateur painter and an exceptionally able pianist. He was a major patron of the British painters of the classical revival, particularly Frederic Leighton, and assembled a famous collection of autograph musical scores and letters. His taste in music and art was distinctly conservative reflecting, possibly, his provincial life, but this may have encouraged his adherence to advanced classicism.
academic.oup.com
It was Kurtz who remodelled Grove house around 1871 to what see today as ‘Dovedale Towers’, he extending it and adding the strange looking tower at the front of the building. Kurtz regretted adding the tower and was to write in his diary that it looked;
…quite out of proportion and the marble columns outside the upper storey appear unnecessary and pretentious… I feel rather sorry that I have had it altered…
Liverpool and the Southwest, Richard Pollard, Nikolaus Pevsner, Joseph Sharples
but everything (Hermann) takes in hand has a look of being overdone
You can read more about Kurtz here: www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk
So why was it really called Penny Lane?
In England alone there are over 30 Penny Lanes and well over 300 streets or lanes that contain the word Penny. Just off from the street next to where I live is a halfpenny Close. It is by no means an unusual name for a street. Usually it seems to have been a nickname for an unimportant street or path (worth a penny). There are also some that originate from a penny-lease. An example of this can be seen below from this clipping from a street in Bristol, ‘Pennys Leaze’ Lane also known by the rather alarming ‘Pickpocket Lane’:
I am weary of offering alternative speculation on the origin of the name after the damage created by the slave story, but apart from the likely reason (as a name for an insignificant path) there are a couple of other theories that may be of interest.
1: ‘Pennies’ a nickname for a group of land plots called Penkeths
As mentioned earlier, Christopher George, on the Yo! Liverpool forum discussion put forward an idea that the name may have had something to do with a nearby house called Penketh Hall (that used to stand to the right of where the Brookhouse is now).
Christopher’s theory is very plausible – Penketh Hall was named after a series of small, ancient plots of land called Penkeths. The name of Penketh originates from two Celtic words: ‘pen’ meaning end, edge or top and ‘coed’ meaning ‘wood’ – ‘The edge of the wood’. This makes perfect sense as this area is on the northern boundary of King John’s hunting ground, Toxteth Park this name could date back to the 13th century. The park was disaforrested in 1604, during the Commonwealth (1649 to 1660), Oliver Cromwell had given permission for inhabitants to cut down cart away all the timer they required.
On the 1765 map of Toxteth Park, these areas can be seen as Penketh Hill, Little Penketh Rough and Great Penketh Rough. It is plausible that this group of farm plots could have gained the local nickname of ‘The Pennies’ and the lane close by “Pennies Lane”.
As these plots cut through by what would later be called Greenbank Road, it would be more likely that the nickname would be be attributed to that, but Penny Lane is very close by so the argument is solid. It is interesting to note that when Penketh Hall was first built, no other property lay between that and Penny Lane.
Penketh Hall, demolished in 1906, was an early 17th century building. The first mention of the property is in 1615 when it appears in the West Derby Court Rolls when the property is being being surrendered to Edward Aspinwall, one of the early settlers of Toxteth Park who also owned the Lower Lodge in Otterspool:
Court Heading:
Halmote Court of West Derby held on 18th December 1615
m11, 13. Haughton to Aspinall
Robert Burry and Ralph Gryffithe, customary tenants, give evidence that Richard Haughton, gent., out of court on 11th September last surrendered to Edward Aspinall of Toxteth Park, gent., the capital messuage called Penkethe Hall in Wavertree, 30 acres, for 3 years, paying Richard Haughton and his present wife, or Dorothy and Francis, his daughters, £16 a year. Admitted.
2: Named after a house on the lane called Penebrine
I found another possible origin of the name in a Will relating to the family of the surgeon Henry Park. The Will shows that John Parke owned a property called Penebrine . This had a ‘Paſsnips Croft’ – Parsnips Croft, note the 18th century ‘long s’.
On the 1765 map of Toxteth Park there is only one Parsnips Croft and is located at the bottom of what would be later called Penny Lane, close to St. Anslow – the original name for the Greenbank estate.
Penebrine possibly originated from the Welsh Pen y Bryn meaning ‘top of the hill’. It is possible that Penny’s Lane came from the lane that ‘Penybryn’ was situated on.
WILL OF JOHN PARKE OF LIVERPOOL. Co. Lanc:
www.hslc.org.uk
Marriner, aged and infirme, dated 21 Nov: 1715.
Unto loving wife Ellen Parke household goods it personal estate and house &c tent, in Toxteth Park called Penebrine with the Passnips Croft (Parsnips) and house thereunto belonging for life while unmarried, remainder to three sons John, Edward & James Parke equally. To wife 50 s p.a. out of tents, in Darby and that called Rough Parke. To five grandchildren £3 each viz : Nathaniel, John & Jane Woolfall sons & daur: of John Woolfall and Elizabeth & Kllinor daurs: of Thos: Rigby of Liverpool. Rest of my tents, in Darby & Rough Parke to my sons A: daurs: Nathaniel, Thomas, Anne, Mary it Elizabeth equally. Wife Ellen it son Thomas, Thomas Rideing it James Chadwick, both of Liverpool, Executors. In witness whereof (&c) . . . having first surrendered into the hands of the Lord & Lady of the Mannor of Westderby my mes- suage in West Derby heretofore in the possession of Robert Sussmith and now in my possession. Witnesses. JOHN SEACOME, John WAINWRIGHT, PETERS. Admon: Chester 3 May 1716 to Ellen Park, widow, it James Chadwick, power res. to Thomas Parke & Thomas Rideing.
3: Named after an 18th century name for loamy soil – ‘Penny’
Below is an entry for the word Penny from a farming dictionary dating from 1777, kindly sent to me by Darren at Liverpool Fragments.
PENNY – earth, a term used by the farmers for a hard, loamy, or sandy earth, with a large quantity of sea shells intermixed in it : some of which being round and flat, and in some measure resembling pieces of money, have occasioned the earth’s being called by this name.
This is a very interesting discovery, as the area around Penny Lane in the 18th century had several ‘Marl pits’, these were dug to collect Marl, a calcium carbonate or lime-rich mud or mudstone which contains variable amounts of clays and silt to be used as a fertiliser. The map below shows sites of Marl Pits and likely old disused pits that have become filled with water. The largest group of these pits in the vicinity is next to Passnips Croft or ‘Penebrine’.
Shown below is an area in Allerton known as ‘Forty Pits’, after the old Marl Pits on the site that became filled with water. The shapes of the pits are very similar to to those on Penny Lane.
A map generated to show soil types shows that Penny Lane is between two areas that are high in loam. Red indicates ‘Naturally wet very acid sandy and loamy soils’
Could it be that the name Penny Lane originated from a description of the land it spanned?
Summary
The reason this research has taken so long is that I have realised that it is often quite easy to prove someone lived in, or had links to, a property, but proving they didn’t is altogether more difficult. The first can be proved with one clipping, census or BMD record, the latter needs every possible source of information available, to be found and eliminated.
From the earliest maps of Toxteth Park we have seen that the lane was in existence before Penny arrived in Liverpool. A holding called Penebrine, with its Parsnips Croft, had occupied the site since before 1715, 60 years before James Penny set foot in Liverpool.
We have seen that just 15 years after Penny’s death the lane appears to have no official name and the Penny family had no links to the lane whatsoever, even though his son was still in Liverpool at the time.
It’s also important to note that the respected Liverpool historian, Steve Horton, in his 2002 book ‘Street Names of Liverpool’, does not include the link to James Penny with the lane.
I think that I have shown that there is no link to be found to connect the lane to James Penny. It is most unfortunate that this will do little or nothing to stop the myth or to repair what has been printed before. A story about a street NOT being named after a slave merchant is not a headline grabber after all.
The question is why the story spread so quickly and is so widespread? It’s not hard to find links to the slave trade in Liverpool merchant families, (a pin and an old map may do the trick) and it is true that there are a lot of street names that remember these families or places relating to the trade such as Goree, so why invent one?
The answer may lie in a famous speech made by George Frederick Cooke (17 April 1756 in London – 26 September 1812 in New York City). Cooke was an actor who was well known for his drunken antics. One night when appearing in Liverpool, he was heckled for his poor performance and his response to the unimpressed audience is recalled in a memoir of his life:
On occasion of some offense which he conceived against the people of Liverpool, he uttered this eloquent burst of invective. “It is a place accursed of heaven, and abhorrent to nature”— their wealth is the price of human misery; and there is not a brick in their houses that is not cemented with human blood”
Memoirs of the Life of George Frederick Cooke
The quotation appears in British newspaper from the early 1830s, often embellished with even more gory details such as blood mortar and ‘human blood’ being replaced with the blood of an ‘African’, ‘Negro’ (or much more offensive). Since then it appears that a history of the slave trade in Liverpool is not complete without including it (including this one).
The speech reflects the outrage of people coming to terms with an inhuman trade earlier generations had profited from.
Although it has been questioned if Cooke actually made this speech*, it is of little consequence, as it’s quite possibly the most often quoted phrase about Liverpool in history, an internet search of the term “cemented by the blood” will demonstrate this. The speech has also been attributed to Bristol and by different orators.
That Liverpool owed much of its growth and wealth to the slave trade is not in question, neither is the fact that many merchants built their villas and warehouses with money earned by slavery linked ventures. But maybe, Cooke’s line of ‘not a brick’ has been taken a little too literally by some? Perhaps someone was too quick to assume a link to the slave trade to every street in Liverpool?
*Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 12,
A Liverpool street that does have a connection to James Penny
If you seek a Liverpool street with a credible reason of being named in connection with James Penny, you’ll find it running behind the Everyman theatre in Hope Street. Penny’s book-keeper, Samuel Knipe had business premises for James Penny & Co. in Arrad Street – Arrad being the birth place of James Penny.
I doubt the New York Times will be interested but maybe the International Slavery Museum could swap their Penny Lane sign for this one?
I’d like to thank Yo! Liverpool for the information from their website and the work done by their members that formed the basis of this post.
Update 2018: The origin of the James Penny story
Shortly after posting this piece, I was contacted via the comments section by ‘tourguideliverpool’ who kindly referred me to a blog post on the Maritime Museum’s Website. Written in 2008, the page by Stephen Guy tells how he was responsible for the story reaching the media:
I confess to helping to raise awareness about the sinister origins of perhaps Liverpool’s best-known thoroughfare. Penny Lane – immortalised by The Beatles’ song – is probably named after notorious slave trader James Penny.
In 2006 there was a move – later withdrawn – to rename Liverpool streets named after people linked to the slave trade. I happened to mention to the local media that Penny Lane was one of them and the story went around the world.
Like other byways named after people, Penny or his family either owned land in the area or had strong associations with it.
I would be very pleased to see any evidence that the Penny family ‘either owned land in the area or had strong associations with it’ or indeed of the Lane’s ‘sinister origins’.
I would of course be glad to post that evidence here.
You can read full Maritime Museum blog post here: blog.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/2008/08/pennys-lane/
Updates to the post as the story made the headlines in 2020…
Update January 2020: The story resurfaces
On the 10th January 2020, ITV ran a story about Liverpool Council’s plans to erect signs in Liverpool streets that bear the names of slave merchants and abolitionists:-
Liverpool City Council want to give more “honest” account of City’s link to slave trade Liverpool could introduce plaques on buildings related to the slave trade in a new effort to give an honest account of the city’s past.
Much of Liverpool’s 18th Century wealth came from the slave trade and the City Council have said that is reflected in street names and building designs.
Mayor Joe Anderson is calling for new signs to explain their relevance to traders and abolitionists.
The Council have also said that they want there to be plaques explaining the true history of notable merchants from Liverpool’s past in the city’s Town Hall.
They have also called on the Highways Department to identify new streets which can be named after Liverpool-based abolitionists and BAME figures in order to celebrate the city’s rich history of fighting for justice for diversity.
ITV Report 10th January
A feature in the Liverpool Echo on 13th January said:
The council motion, by mayor Joe Anderson, does not call for the changing of any road names, something some campaigners have called for in the past.
Liverpool Echo
Unfortunately the media coverage of this scheme has brought the Penny Lane association back into the spotlight, ITV ran the story with this photo:
The Mail of 10th January went as far as implying Penny Lane was the main reason for the scheme:-
BBC North West Tonight had a Penny Lane street sign centre screen when it reported the story:
The scheme
This new idea seems to be a much better idea that renaming streets (and in the process erasing the visible history that belongs to them). After all, street names are often the the primary source for research.
The scheme was championed by Laurence Westgaph, a Liverpool historian specialising in the history of Liverpool’s Black community and in particular the city’s role in transatlantic slavery. On 15th January the motion was passed after a speech by Laurence.
It is interesting that as an historian with many years experience in this field Laurence said recently of the association of Penny Lane with slavery:
I researched James Penny in 2006 for a booklet I wrote on the subject of Liverpool streetnames associated with slavery. I found no evidence connecting him with the area so didn’t include Penny Lane.
Sadly to my knowledge Laurence has never published his research into Penny Lane, but you can read his excellent street name publication on the link below, the booklet is available as a free download: Read the signs
If you are interested in finding out more about Liverpool’s involvement in the slave trade, Laurence Westgaph gives regular walking tours of the city that are highly recommended. To find out more about his tours and for fascinating, but sometimes harrowing, insights into Liverpool’s slavery role visit his facebook site Liverpool and Slavery or you can follow him on Twitter @andslavery
A Twitter campaign to challenge the story
In response to the the myth resurfacing, Richard Macdonald, who kindly commented on this post in October 2018, used his Twitter page to champion the cause for truth about Penny Lane and has worked tirelessly to inform anyone repeating the story that the story has absolutely no truth in it (or indeed research). You can catch up with this debate here @TourGuideLiverp.
So far the International Slavery Museum has not responded, even though it was one of their employees that started the story.
In the words of Richard we should ‘Reclaim Penny Lane!’
So if not Penny Lane, where did James Penny really live?
Darren at Liverpool Fragments has often kindly lent his assistance with my research for previous posts. He has an incredible knowledge of Liverpool’s history and an uncanny ability to locate historic sites through old maps and images from archives (many never seen before). I am indebted to him for his help in tracking down James Penny’s real addresses in Liverpool.
As mentioned in this post, we know Penny was at 18 Church Street for most of the 1770s and from at least 1790 until his death in 1799 he was at 2 Hope Street, a home that was left to his son, also James. Hope Street is important as it is recorded in Penny’s 13 page will as his dwelling house (not a commercial property). As you can see from the 1803 map below this was in a semi-rural location so Penny would not have required a second ‘country residence’ in the area of what would become Penny Lane.
As street numbers change dramatically throughout history it is extremely difficult to prove where these houses were located over 230 years ago. Luckily with painstaking research Darren was able to locate the exact site of the Church Street home and one property belonging to the Penny family in Hope Street, (it is possible the Hope Street home still exists but there may have also been another property belonging to Penny so research is ongoing).
You can read the full story and the ongoing research involved here 18 Church Street (now Marks & Spencer) and 2 Hope Street (now 26 Hope Street) but in brief, here are the locations today:
Church Street
Hope Street (Research is ongoing, look out for updates soon)
It is a shame that the same level of research was not taken before it was suggested that Penny Lane was linked to James Penny!
I will update this post as soon as more evidence is found regarding Hope Street.
I am all for the city’s links to slavery to be on display, indeed several of my own posts refer to it, I also give the names of several Liverpool slave merchants and their past house locations. But, it is vital that the information presented is factual.
As I think I have proven, there is no link to James Penny and Penny Lane other than he shares its name (alongside another 300 streets in England).
I will continue to update the post as this story develops.
My thanks to Richard MacDonald @TourGuideLiverp and Darren White Liverpool Fragments.
Update 12 June 2020:
The original research is still here, you can still find it below but here is an update with key events that have happened recently.
Since the rightful toppling of Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol as part of the Black Lives Matter movement, Penny Lane and it’s supposed links to the slave merchant James Penny has become a bigger news story that ever. There has been repeated calls for Liverpool Council to rename the lane. Last night, 11th June 2020, every street sign on Penny Lane was vandalised.
The truth is that there is no evidence to support this claim. I researched it for several years and found nothing to link Penny to the Lane. Furthermore, I know of no historian that has ever found any proof. Mayor Joe Anderson has recently stated they won’t be renaming Penny Lane due to lack of evidence. The International Slavery Museum that first made the claim is now investigating it and have said they may take down the street sign that appears in their exhibit as they did not research it thoroughly when they first made the claim.
The origin of the claim
The claim was started by a press officer of the International Slavery Museum in 2006. This was in response to a motion proposed by the council to rename all streets with a slavery connection. In around 2014/15 he ‘confessed’ the origin of the story on the museum’s own website.
Although the assumption is understandable – with so many of the cities streets owing their name to the slave merchants who owned the land – it is pretty clear that little or no research was carried out. Instead the only link is the word ‘Penny’. The emphasis is mine:
I confess to helping to raise awareness about the sinister origins of perhaps Liverpool’s best-known thoroughfare. Penny Lane – immortalised by The Beatles’ song – is probably named after notorious slave trader James Penny.
In 2006 there was a move – later withdrawn – to rename Liverpool streets named after people linked to the slave trade. I happened to mention to the local media that Penny Lane was one of them and the story went around the world.
Like other byways named after people, Penny or his family either owned land in the area or had strong associations with it.
https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/pennys-lane
On the contrary, you will see from the research below that, in fact, James Penny had no links to the area around Penny Lane.
I am now in contact with the author and I have have asked for the evidence he used before making the claim to the press. I will gladly share it the moment I receive a reply.
After pressure, the museum agrees to look into the claim
Even before the renewed calls to rename Penny Lane, the museum had been repeatedly contacted by myself by email and several others via Twitter. Richard MacDonald, @TourGuideLiverp, had also been researching the James Penny claim for many years and one of the contributors to the Yo! Liverpool forum that questioned it the day the press claimed it. Richard wrote to the Museum to question the claim in 2013 and received this reply:
https://twitter.com/TourGuideLiverp/status/1271375454948253696
Until the 9th June 2020, the museum had not acknowledged that their claim had no historic basis. Thankfully it now looks like they are looking into it, the following from their Twitter account @SlaveryMuseum:
Here is the text from the museum’s Tweets, again the emphasis is mine:
Hello all, we realise that there is some debate about whether Penny Lane was named after James Penny and we openly talk about this to visitors. We are actively carrying out research on this, and will re-evaluate the display (and change if required)…
…The research carried out in 2007 wasn’t conclusive but we have not removed it as we are a place of debate and discussion (including the dynamics of developing a museum) – and we hope to have these within the space once we can safely reopen.
…Also please do share any information or evidence on this if you have. We can all learnfrom each other, and think it’s important we do that.
The respected Liverpool historian, and author and teacher of over 30 years @MikeRoyden, replied to the museum with this very fair point:
Thanks for replying- I put the link (this post) on your Twitter feed two years ago and again this morning, but you are still after conclusive evidence. If it still isn’t enough, what conclusive evidence did you use in the first place to exhibit the street name?
This is a great start and a welcome move by the museum. The museum have asked myself to help in their research. We also have the amazing online community of highly knowledgeable historians that Liverpool has to assist. I would also encourage ANY historian to look into it themselves.
Britain is now challenging how we remember a shameful period in its history. In one act the protestors in Bristol inspired British people to educate themselves on history of our sickening role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Liverpool has done more than most in acknowleging the role it played, the International Slavery Museum is a big part of that. Locally, historians like Laurence Westgaph @andslavery have been working tirelessly for years to educate and address the ignorance and false information regarding Liverpool and Slavery, often facing a backlash in the process. Still, much more needs to be done.
The names of institutions, statues and street names are the most visible legacies of the trade, we have to make sure their true history is told and as Liverpool Council says ‘give an honest account’. That must also include correcting assumptions made in the past.
The Liverpool Enslaved
Laurence Westgaph has set up a fund to raise funds to erect a memorial to the slaves who lived, died and were buried in Liverpool. In just 4 days the figure reached over £21,000. More is needed, you can donate here The Liverpool Enslaved.
Finally, a big thank to to everyone that has shared this post and to the people that have helped contribute. A special thank you goes to @tourguideliverp for finding the origin of the claim and working relentlessly on Twitter to point anyone who mentions the Penny claim to go to this site and make their own mind up. I am indebted to @Waite99d for finding the real homes of James Penny, one still survives, although much altered (see bottom of this post).
Update 12 June 2020 17:05:
A letter from the press officer at the International Slavery museum who first made the claim that Penny Lane was named after James Penny in 2006 – he left the museum around 2014.
I am delighted and very grateful to have received this reply. I had emailed him yesterday requesting to see the research he carried out before making the claim. He has very kindly agreed to allow me to share it here which I think you’ll agree is very generous of him. I have also forwarded it to the museum:
Dear Glen,
I was interested to read your e-mail. I agree there is no concrete evidence that Penny Lane is named after James Penny. The theory that it was “probably named after James Penny” or his family arose following a discussion at Merseyside Maritime Museum about Liverpool street names and their origins.I think it is likely that the lane was named after James Penny. He was a leading citizen in the port and he may have had associations with what is now the Penny Lane area. It is too much of a coincidence for there not to be a possible link.
However, neither I or anyone else has ever claimed to have documentary evidence to back this up. It is a theory, a talking point rather than an academic pronouncement. Perhaps in my blog I should have said “may” rather than “probably”. What a difference a word can make!
I would be delighted if you or anyone else can prove that Penny Lane has nothing to do with James Penny i.e. a reference from before his time.
I believe that the earliest reference anyone can find is to Pennies or Penny’s Lane from about the 1840s. Of course this is after James Penny’s era.
I hope this has helped to clarify matters.
Feel free to quote me on your blog.
This post has been read over 21,000 times in the last few days and counting. While for most it has shown that the link had no foundation, some people still thought that there must have been some evidence for it have been made in 2006. I hope this puts an end to that.
There never was any evidence.
The association was understandable with so many of Liverpool’s streets having a link to the slave trade, but it is unfortunate that it has only acted as a distraction to the real history of the slave trade.
Moving forward, we can concentrate on educating people on the city’s proven links to the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Thank you to everyone who has shared it on social media! I would also like to thank you for reading.
Update: 14th June 2020
We can now prove conclusively that the story of Penny Lane being named after James Penny the slave merchant has no basis in fact.
We can also prove that when the story was started in 2006 by the press officer of the International Slavery Museum, no research at all was undertaken.
The only thing that links the lane to the slave merchant is the word ‘Penny’.
That’s it, that’s the only counter argument.
It’s a long post, it needed to be in order to dispel a popular myth, unfortunately started by a respected and otherwise superb museum. A story that proved so popular with the international press that it has been repeated ever since.
Mayor Joe Anderson has said he won’t be renaming the lane because of the evidence against the claim. The museum has said it will take down the Penny Lane street sign if there is no evidence to support their claim – but the only thing that could have proven a link to Penny would have been the research the press officer made in 2006, we can prove that no research was carried out.
On the 12th June 2020 David Olusoga said he also has never seen evidence to link James Penny with the lane. The acclaimed historian researches and presents TV’s ‘A house through time’, the first of which featured a Liverpool house. He is a Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester and an expert on the Slave Trade and Black British history. He told a debate hosted by Intelligence Squared that in his research on slavery he ‘hadn’t come across a link with the iconic Penny Lane’. www.liverpoolecho.co.uk
I encourage anyone who is still repeating the myth to find the evidence themselves. Good luck!
On social media, anyone who still believes it often says ‘Prove it wasn’t’ so here are facts in a nutshell:
FACT 1:
Penny Lane was not named after James Penny. There I’ve said it!
The claim that Penny Lane was ‘probably’ named after the Slave Merchant was made in 2006 by the then press officer of the museum. The museum features a Penny Lane street sign in an exhibit. He has now admitted that before he announced it to the press with no evidence and he had undertook no research.
A snippet form the originator of the story here, full letter below,
…The theory that it was “probably named after James Penny” or his family arose following a discussion at Merseyside Maritime Museum about Liverpool street names and their origins.
….However, neither I or anyone else has ever claimed to have documentary evidence to back this up.
…It is a theory, a talking point rather than an academic pronouncement. Perhaps in my blog I should have said “may” rather than “probably”. What a difference a word can make!
The museum has faced increased pressure to remove the exhibit and thankfully on 9th June 2020 they agreed to review the exhibit and may take it down if no evidence is found. There is or never was any evidence, it was based merely on assumption. There is however a huge amount of evidence to show that it had nothing to do with him.
Please read the lengthy research on this site.
I am assisting the museum in their research.
FACT 2:
Liverpool’s streets have streets named after slave merchants, but not Penny Lane.
Many streets in Liverpool have names linked to merchants who became wealthy from the Transatlantic Slave Trade. When these merchants owned land and streets were built on the site, the street would be named after the owner of the land. A few examples of streets bearing the names of slave merchants include Tarleton Street, Parr Street and Bold Street. Streets were not named in honour of these people, they just owned the land. Penny never owned any land in the area of Penny Lane.
You can read more about street with slavery links here in a 2006 publication by Laurence Westgaph called Read the signs.
FACT 3:
Before the museum made the claim in 2006, NO-ONE had had ever made the association before.
Below is a paper from 1876 that explores the origin of the name Penny Lane. No mention of James Penny is made, instead it is linked to the ancient name of Penketh.
Thanks to Edgar Wright @wreadon for sharing this paper recently in the comments section. I had forgotten it was first mentioned in 2010 here by Richard, now on Twitter as @TourGuideLiverp.
The significance that it does not mention James Penny had been overlooked. If the lane was named after him it would have certainly been mentioned here.
The Penketh – Penny theory may not be correct as the author makes some errors elsewhere, but the important thing is that he does not include James Penny in the possible origins of the name. (Read this post for further information about the Penketh theory).
Fact 4:
The real origin of the name.
This is open for debate. It’s probably ancient and dates from before the Norman Conquest of 1066. It was a muddy country lane through countryside well into the 19th century. One possibility show in above is that it came from the name ‘Penketh’ which means ‘Edge of the forest’, the area was at the edge of the Royal hunting grounds of Toxteth Park – a forest until the late 16th century. The real origin is not crucial but several theories are provided on this site.
Fact 5:
Named after a Penny Toll?
For balance, I have recently seen online that the lane got its name from a penny toll, Mayor Joe Anderson has also said this. I know of no toll roads that were in the Penny Lane area. If anyone has any any evidence I would love to see it. There a was a toll gate at the border of Toxteth Park and Aigburth, this was situated at Aigburth Vale. Although this was quite close, it is too far to be associated with the lane. Read here. I have also heard it said that James Penny’s name was spelt Penney, I have not seen evidence of this myself.
Fact 6:
A Liverpool street that was really named after Penny and his real homesArrad Street off Hope Street was named after Penny’s birthplace. His son (also James and also a slave merchant) built houses on Hope Street and Arrad Street runs behind them.
Penny’s bookeeper lived on Arrad Street.
Thanks to @Waite99d we now know where James Penny’s house really were in Liverpool. One still survives although much altered. See the updates on the bottom of this post.
Fact 7:
Museums, galleries or places of learning of any kind should research their exhibits before they display them.
The Penny Lane slavery debate has been a distraction to the real issues raised by the Black Lives Matter protests. The only positive outcome is that thousands of people have now decided to educate themselves on Britain’s shameful role in it and it is being debated like never before. When Lockdown is over I highly recommend a visit to this excellent museum, details can be found here www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk or follow them on Twitter – @SlaveryMuseum
Update: 16th June 2020
No, it wasn’t and here’s even more proof.
NEW: A recently discovered map (266 years old) shows Penny Lane existed years before Penny came to Liverpool.
This 1754 plan below was found and published for the first time (in 266 years) on Twitter by @Waite99D It shows that Penny Lane was in existence 14 years before James Penny came to Liverpool from Ulverston in 1768.
At the time of this map James Penny was only 13 years old!
This new find shows Penny Lane wasn’t owned or leased by him, he didn’t name it. Penny Lane was rural track in the ancient hunting grounds of Toxteth Park, it was already there possibly hundreds of years before he came here.
It shows Penny Lane (right) in 1754, James Penny arrived in Liverpool from Ulverston circa 1768 – 14 YEARS AFTER THIS PLAN.
Like others, Penny lane is not named on this plan of Lord Sefton’s rural estate, but it proves that it was not Penny who laid out the lane, he never lived there, he didn’t lease it.
Compare the 1754 plan of Toxteth Park to this section of the 1785 plan of Liverpool below:
Most of these land owners are slave merchants and have streets names after them; Bold, Blackburn, Cunliffe, Colquitt, Gildart, Hardman, Leece, Parr, Rodney and Seel. (I’ve probably missed a few but you get the point)
These are just some of Liverpool’s streets that REALLY owe their names to the landowners who became rich from the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Map from this excellent resource of old maps of Liverpool liverpool1207blog.wordpress.com
A quick summary
A story invented by a museum employee – a confession
This website proves that the link was invented by a well-meaning press officer at Liverpool’s International Slavery Museum in 2006. The ex-press-officer has kindly supplied me with a confession that it was based on pure conjecture alone. This can be read further down this page. Bogus origins for Liverpool street names are quite common so it is an understandable but unfortunate mistake.
#BlackLivesMatter
The James Penny link was made to journalists in response to a proposal to rename streets that were ‘named after’ Slave merchants back in 2006. This was 7 years before #BlackLivesMatter was founded. It’s not a new claim that has arisen since the toppling of the Colston statue – calls for Liverpool to acknowledge it’s role in slavery has a long history, led primarily by from political activists and historians from Liverpool’s Black community (see bottom of this update). Recently the Penny Lane street signs were defaced as part of the #BLM protests, these were cleaned by local people the same day.
The Penny Lane myth has only served as a distraction to the real debate.
The museum has agreed to remove their Penny Lane exhibit if no evidence is found
After seeing the evidence presented here, the museum thankfully said they would would review the evidence. If none was found to support their claim they promised they would remove the Penny Lane street sign from their exhibition – see here.
The Mayor backs this site
Mayor Joe Anderson has repeatedly encouraged everyone to read the findings on this website.
Still no evidence to back it up
Since the museum said it would look into it, and the world’s press repeating it over and over, Zero evidence has been found to support the museum’s claim, yet new evidence to prove it was wasn’t named after James Penny is still being discovered. Not by guesswork but by searching every possible archive to get to the truth, and checking it before we publish.
I’d like to address some issues brought up recently on Social Media:
“Liverpool is trying to cover up it’s history to protect tourism”
In fact Liverpool has done much more than most to acknowledge it’s role in the Slave Trade. It’s had a slavery exhibition since the 1990s and the International Slavery Museum since 2007 (although The Guardian appear to be oblivious to this). In 1999 the city of Liverpool made a public apology, Liverpool Black historians have also staged guided tours of the real ‘Slavery streets’ for decades. In 2018 Eric Scott Lynch was honoured as a ‘Citizen of Liverpool’ by the Mayor of Liverpool for many years of educating people of Liverpool’s links with Slavery with his guided tours.
We can still do more of course. Since 2006 Liverpool has discussed renaming streets. Before the Covid-19 pandemic the Council had promised to erect information plaques on the statues, buildings and street signs linked to the trade, after the Lockdown this will go ahead. Penny Lane will not be included.
Historian and ‘Liverpool and Slavery’ expert Laurence Westgaph has led tours for years and are highly recommended. He has also started an amazing fundraiser for a memorial to The Liverpool Enslaved. You can help address how we remember Britain’s (and more specifically Liverpool’s) shameful role in slavery – by erecting a new public monument, here.
“This research is by amateurs, what do the experts think?”
Two historians, who are experts in Liverpool and its involvement in the slave trade, have since said that they have seen no evidence to link James Penny to Penny Lane
David Olusoga and Laurence Westgaph have both said they have seen no evidence to link James Penny to Penny Lane (see post for links). Laurence wrote a booklet about Liverpool streets named after Slave merchants in 2006 (Penny Lane isn’t in it).
As yet no academic has supported the Penny Lane story.
If you are an academic historian I would welcome your professional opinion. Whatever it is I will publish it here.
Update: 4th July 2020
I am indebted to Mike Chitty who has looked into the theory that the name Pennis Lane that appeared in the 1841 census may have been correct and not a spelling mistake as I assumed.
Mike’s findings also provides more evidence that the name Penny derives from a link to the Welsh word ‘Pen’ meaning ‘top’, ‘head’ or ‘Edge’. As we have seen Penny Lane was bordered on the north by a range of fields called Penkeths (and a house called Penketh Hall) and also by a farm on the south called Pen y Bryn.
Mike’s comment from 14 June 2020:
You suggest that ‘Pennis Lane’ – the street name written in the 1841 Census record for Grove Cottage and Grove House – was a spelling mistake by the enumerator. But maybe Pennis Lane was the original name – derived from the Welsh word ‘pen’ for head or end – indicating that this was the boundary of Toxteth Park? (Just as Edge Lane was ‘on the edge’ of West Derby township). Then in 1846, when Grove House was advertised To Be Let, someone decided they didn’t like the word Pennis, so replaced it by the more ‘acceptable’ Penny’s. And when the Ordnance Survey came along in 1848, they didn’t much care for apostrophes, so standardised the name as Penny Lane?
Incidentally, I’ve just come across another Pennis Lane. In the Chester Chronicle, 12 Oct 1804: “Mr WILLIAM BUTTER of Pennis-lane, near Northwich”. The London Gazette, 8 Apr 1831, mentions: “Mr James Butter, Pennyslane, near Northwich, Cheshire”. The road is still there today – called Penny’s Lane. And 19th century OS maps – e.g. the six-inch Cheshire Sheet XXXIV at https://maps.nls.uk/view/102341056 – indicate that it had an administrative boundary running alongside.
Mike then emailed me some further evidence:
After submitting my original comment to the blog, I examined the Tithe Maps covering Penny’s Lane near Northwich. It was historically situated in the Township of Rudheath. I attach an extract from one of them – for the “Part of the Lordship of Rudheath in the Parish of Davenham” – which confirms that Penny’s Lane was the boundary between that area and the adjacent (to the north) part of Rudheath: i.e. the “Part … in the Parish of Great Budworth”.
I also attach copies of the two press cuttings I referred to (1804 and 1831), along with the OS six-inch maps (1882 and 1899 editions) covering this Penny’s Lane. The name ‘Butters’ Farm’ on the 1899 map is confirmation,
I think, that it was the ‘Pennis Lane’ where William Butter lived in 1804.
Update: 19 June 2020
It’s official! Penny Lane was not named after the Slave merchant James Penny.
I am very pleased to announce that the International Slavery Museum has now issued a statement that includes the result of their new research on Penny Lane’s links to slavery. The review came about from increased pressure due to the evidence presented here. The museum has said they will remove the exhibit that features a Penny Lane street sign.
As the statement is too long to reproduce in full here I will just show the part directly relating to Penny Lane, but I encourage everyone to read the full statement as it is an important message on their work, their values, their future aims and also details of their Black Lives Matters resource area on their website:
Over the past week, there has continued to be much public debate about the origins of Penny Lane. As an organisation which prides itself on learning and participation, we encourage debate around our collections to bring attention to the bigger issues in society. As part of this, we want to focus our commitment and action on working together towards ending racial inequality and social injustice.
We are also open to change. As historians and storytellers, we believe we have a duty as a museum to review, reflect on and respond to new information when it becomes available. History is not static. Our understanding of the past evolves and changes as more people engage with public history by sharing research to build inclusive narratives.
This response to change is very important in reference to Penny Lane being included in an interactive display of street names within the International Slavery Museum. The display was installed when the museum opened in 2007. We believe that the idea Penny Lane was named after Liverpool-based slave trader James Penny was in the wider public domain during the time of the original Transatlantic Slavery Gallery, opened in 1994 within Merseyside Maritime Museum, well before the conception of the International Slavery Museum.
Alongside my colleague Dr Richard Benjamin, Head of the International Slavery Museum and our team of curators, we had already begun to undertake a review into all the street names on display in the museum – of which Penny Lane is one – taking into account the new sources of information available to us since the museum opened. This was in response to Liverpool City Council’s commitment, earlier this year, to introduce plaques and to give an honest account of places connected to the slave trade throughout the city.
Following recent conversations and the public debate, we have decided to expedite this review. After speaking with Liverpool slavery historian Laurence Westgaph, Tony Tibbles, our Emeritus Keeper of Slavery History (also former Director of Merseyside Maritime Museum) and historian and blogger Glen Huntley, we have concluded that the comprehensive research available to us now demonstrates that there is no historical evidence linking Penny Lane to James Penny. We are therefore extending our original review and setting up a participative project to renew our interactive display.
As part of this review, we will work with historians and meet with young people from a Liverpool school (virtually at the current time) so that they are involved in the debate and can discuss how we change our museum display. We need space to develop this project in a collaborative way so that it is meaningful for everyone involved. Following these discussions, we anticipate that our first action will be to replace the Penny Lane street sign with another.
Janet Dugdale,
Executive Director of Museums & Participation, 19 June 2020
https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/reflecting-reviewing-and-responding
I am delighted that the museum has co-operated and responded to the research in such a positive manner. Together with the other contributors to the research I look forward to working on a the display at the museum that will replace the street sign.
I am pleased that Tony Tibbles and Laurence Westgaph were able to review the evidence on behalf of the museum. You can read that evidence yourself further down this page in the original post. It is gratifying that they reached the same conclusion as the research presented on this website in 2018.
That street sign display had led many to believe the link between Penny Lane and James Penny, it has been reproduced by the world’s media for years. An ex-employee of the museum had claimed publicly that he started Penny Lane’s ‘probable’ association to the Slave trade, and since admitted he didn’t research it prior, this announcement by the museum will hopefully end the debate about Penny Lane once and for all.
An understandable but very unfortunate error
The claim originated from just an assumption based on the name Penny alone. This was an understandable but very unfortunate error. Liverpool has many streets that were named after the owner of the land, often these were slave merchants. James Penny had no links to Penny lane, instead all his properties were in town and his birthplace of Arrad, Ulverston.
Until today, that exhibit was the single link between James Penny and one of the most famous streets in world. That link is now broken, Penny Lane has been freed from it’s connection to a shameful part of British history.
A statement by Tony Tibbles, Emeritus Keeper of Slavery History
Since 9th June 2020 when the museum had announced that they would be reviewing the evidence of the claim, I have been assisting the museum in that endeavor.
All sides wanted this review be as unbiased as possible, because of this I contacted Tony Tibbles, (Emeritus Keeper of Slavery History at the museum) and asked him if he look at the evidence on this website and give his academic opinion, he has very kindly agreed to do so and has asked me to share his findings:
I welcome this important new research on Penny Lane and the former slave captain and merchant James Penny. This is far more comprehensive than anything previously undertaken. I agree that this research shows that there is no historical evidence to support the suggestion that Penny Lane was named after James Penny. I am pleased that the International Slavery Museum will be able to amend its displays to take account of this important research.Tony Tibbles, Emeritus Keeper of Slavery History
As well as his connections to the museum, Tony Tibbles is a leading expert on Transatlantic Slavery. His most recent book to date Liverpool and the Slave Trade (2018), is a must-read for anyone interested in Liverpool’s shameful role in the Slave trade.
The research presented here was carried by a very small group of non-academic historians, it is gratifying to have Tony Tibbles acknowledge our work and agree that there never was any historical evidence.
Black Lives Matter and Penny Lane
This post was originally intended as just a local history discussion – that all changed on 7th June 2020 when the statue of the slave merchant Edward Colston in Bristol was toppled as part of the Black Lives Matter protests. Soon after, calls were made to rename Penny Lane. This website then became the centre of the debate about Penny Lane because it was the only place that presented the known facts. It has been shared countless times on social media and discussed in the world’s press, it had been read over 50,000 times before the announcement.
The Penny Lane slavery debate has been a distraction to the real issues raised by the Black Lives Matter protests and to the good work done by the museum. The only positive outcome is that thousands of people have now decided to educate themselves on Britain’s shameful role in Slavery and it’s now being debated like never before. When Lockdown is over I highly recommend a visit to this excellent museum, details can be found here www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk or follow them on Twitter – @SlaveryMuseum
The Mayor announces that he will not rename Penny Lane
On 12 June 2020, Mayor Anderson announced that the council would not be renaming Penny Lane, he had previously encouraged everyone to read the research I had presented here several times.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to the International Slavery Museum and Tony Tibbles. Thanks also to Stephen Guy for his assistance.
I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this research in particular Darren White @Waite99D, Richard MacDonald @TourGuideLiverp, Christopher T. George @CThompsonGeorge, you will find credits to their hard work throughout this post. I would also like to thank Kev at Yo! Liverpool and all the original members on his forum as it was a discussion on there that launched the debate back in 2006. Follow Yo! Liverpool on Twitter: YOLiverpool
I would also like to show my appreciation to everyone who shared this post on social media, and politely referred anyone repeating the story to the facts.
Finally, thanks to my family for their support, especially Nola and Alex, they have had to put up with me talking about Penny Lane for years.
If you enjoyed this post and would like to show your appreciation, you can Buy me a coffee. This will give me £5 to help me fund my research and continue this website. If you can afford it, you can buy me as many as you like. I’ve got plenty more posts to come. Some of these contain some very important discoveries.
Just click on the logo below.
Copyright notice:
Copyright of original archive images belongs to those named below the images. All original research, photographs taken by myself, illustrations, artists impressions, and archive images and maps that have notes added are all © Jim Kenny. Permission to share is only granted if the site is credited and a link provided.
The Priory and the Cast Iron Shore 
I commend and damn you! Since that original yoliverpool discussion I have wanted to write the article above. After a rather sluggish decade in finally started only to find you’d pipped me to it.
Still, you pick up on more than I had (Arrad St, for instance). I also think for the sake of completeness Stephen Guys assertion that he linked Penny Lane with James Penny should be included.
In short, a fantastic local history piece, well done and about time!!!
Hi, thanks for your comments and feedback, to be honest most of what I found was just confirming what had been suspected on that great forum conversation, I felt it deserved a bigger audience and further investigation. Until you mentioned it I hadn’t noticed that by Stephen Guy and I’ve read that piece by him! That’s the problem with landing on a page via a Google search, you may miss the most important bit because you’re looking for something specific, in that case the silver epergne photo, it’s been bugging me where the myth originated, I’ll edit the post straight away and credit yourself for finding it -thanks!
I’m sorry that I posted it before you, but as you said at least someone has put the record straight.
Hi Richard, I have been following the developments with the Penny Lane story, and although I’m not on Twitter, I have seen the hard work you have put into correcting anyone who repeats the story. Thanks for linking to my post, I have updated it to include your campaign. I hope you still publish your own take on it as I would really enjoy reading it. Cheers!
Excellent piece of research.
I too would like to commend you on this piece of work – however, tinged with a slight degree of regret.
I have just produced a book on the origins of street names in Liverpool, named “Streets Ahead” and which, despite research, I too have cited the Penny Lane derived from James Penny.
In light of your work I will adjust the text to reflect this
Thanks Paul, I wouldn’t blame anyone for thinking it was true. Especially as it’s been repeated by (and probably originated from) the Maritime/International Slavery Museum which you’d think was a credible source.
An outstanding piece of research and writing Glen.
I hope that ‘the mob’ read it before they start pulling more statues down.
http://historyofliverpool.com/liverpool-slave-trade/
I also want to thank Keith Lloyd Admin @ Liverpool (fb) Historical Society for referencing this Link;~https://theprioryandthecastironshore.wordpress.com/…/was-p…/ via @wordpressdotcom
It makes revelatory reading….. & thanks too to all our keen historians for their valuable contributions. Not withstanding Glen Huntley for this most excellent piece of historical research.
Pen y Lan would be the Welsh for the edge of the river bank – no such stream or river to influence the name in this area. Excellent article – well done
IS there no such stream? Didn’t the Brookhouse nearby get its name from the Upper Brook- which went through the Greenbank Park lake an under what is now the Greenbank Halls, at the bottom of Penny Lane?
If so, Penny Lane would pretty much start at that brook’s edge??
Hi Peter, I’ll track it on a map and get back to you.
In the meantime Robert Griffiths said of the stream in 1907:-
“A portion of the Upper Brook may still be seen in the gardens behind the Brook House Hotel, in Garmoyle Road. It crossed Smithdown Road at a point where the first of the trees now rise from the side-walk, falling into the lake at the bottom of Gorseland Road, and then joining the Lower Brook in what is now the lake in Sefton: Park, and forming THE RIVER JORDON”.
I’m in the middle of writing a history of Toxteth Park itself and the streams will be part of that.
18th century Greenbank was fed had a considerable water source, it still is. The lozenge shaped pool attached to the house that is still there dates from before the 1750s.
Thanks!
Reblogged this on Historical Tours Ireland.
On p. 171 of the Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, Volume 65, 1876, we find “ The names of Penny Lane and Penketh bear testimony to conflict, K. pinn-nidh, pinn-keit, both signifying battle-hill. The names of Penketh and Penny are of frequent occurrence on the ordnance survey. In this neighbourhood, at the junction of Penny Lane and Smithdown Road, are two fields, which, on Lord Sefton’s map,… ”
See https://books.google.ca/books?id=xatoAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA171&dq=%22penny+lane%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjMmtLWjv3pAhXFGjQIHWQSD0oQ6AEINzAC#v=onepage&q=%22penny%20lane%22&f=false
Hi Edgar, superb find! In fact it could be a game changer. Before that the Penny – Penketh link was an educated guess. Well done and thank you!
This was referenced on a yoliverpool thread 10 years ago. Pinn-nidh sounds Irish rather than Welsh, but if so I don’t think it means what Boult thinks it means…but what other language could he have in mind? The tract mentions other branch of celtic…
The most significant thing here though is surely that someone writing in 1872 discusses the origin of the name, and does not associate it with James Penny?
Hi Peter, that’s it exactly.
The origin is discussed and Penny isn’t mentioned! Soon I will do an update and give this superb find prominence, for now though I need to keep the main story as the admission that no research was carried out before the claim was made. Thanks.
Hi Glen, I must admit i was one of those who publicised the supposed James Penny link (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/19/put-infamous-names-in-historical-context), but have had to reappraise it in light mainly of your excellent blog!
In the absence of any connection with the area, it seems implausible that a leading merchant citizen would have been honoured by naming what was basically an insignificant country lane (not the major commercial streets other slavers claimed) after him – and without any fanfare or record such as we have from 1792 when the council gave Penny silver plates. A connection doesn’t seem to have occurred to anyone until the 2000s. And that on the basis that it seemed ‘too much of a coincidence’: perhaps if you have a hammer everything looks like a nail, but the Museum’s response that ‘the staff member no longer works here’ was a bit concerning. We need history to be robustly and publicly documented.
Though it is worth noting that one of those silver plates has a later (1877 – the year after the Proceedings were written) inscription referencing Penny’s grandson John Penny Machel of Penny Bridge, County Lancaster (Tibbles, 2005, pp69 & 174). That, presumably, is the Penny Bridge just west of Newby Bridge – and it clearly *was* named after James Penny.
Hi Glen, I must admit i’m one of those who publicised the supposed James Penny link (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/19/put-infamous-names-in-historical-context), but have had to reappraise it in light mainly of your excellent blog!
In the absence of any connection with the area, it seems implausible that a leading merchant citizen would have been honoured by naming what was basically an insignificant country lane (not the major commercial streets other slavers claimed) after him – and without any fanfare or record such as we have from 1792 when the council gave Penny silver plates. A connection doesn’t seem to have occurred to anyone until the 2000s. And that on the basis that it seemed ‘too much of a coincidence’ that a common improper noun was also a slaver’s surname: perhaps if you have a hammer everything looks like a nail, but the Museum’s response that ‘the staff member no longer works here’ is a concern. We need history to be robustly and publicly documented, not dependent on individual employees.
Though it is worth noting that one of those silver plates has a later (1877 – the year after the Proceedings were written) inscription referencing Penny’s grandson John Penny Machel of Penny Bridge, County Lancaster (Tibbles, 2005, pp69 & 174). That, presumably, is the Penny Bridge just west of Newby Bridge – and it clearly *was* named after the ancestors of James Penny.
Hi Peter, Thanks for commenting.
To be fair, I don’t blame anyone for believing it. It came from a museum, it was on Wikipedia, Beatle’s fan sites and in every major newspaper and TV channel since 2006. If you see the update you’ll notice I managed to get a reply from the person who started it when he was the museum’s press officer. In the letter he admits he never researched it. The single link to the person and the name is the word ‘Penny’. I am now helping the museum with their research. Cheers!
Thanks I’ll fix that now!
This is a fantastic post and the history is wonderful. Why can’t someone put up information boards at Penny Lane, say by the Millennium Green or Penny Lane Association Community Centre about the history found here? We can’t just bury history. History is often difficult and traumatic. Education on the real story is the way forward. It was the fascists who wanted to erase history. No matter how painful history has to be preserved and told. No slave ownership should be honoured but neither can we eradicate what happened. Instead use it to educate and reconcile and make a better future. Twitter isn’t the right place for such a debate as most people on social media quite frankly don’t know what they are talking about and believe anything they are told without checking out evidence and research and making false claims. Surely we can amend history without destructive measures? And where does it end? How many Roman, Saxon, Viking and Crusader monuments are there in England? How about Oliver Cromwell? How far back should we go before history is offensive? What about the children who were forced to work in the factories or mines? Will we destroy monuments to the industrial revolution? What about European slavery in the Middle East? Have you read the research on their suffering? I have. What about the buildings in this city? Surely amending history so as the whole story is told is better than eradicating it? Even Laurence Westgaph said he didn’t agree with this destruction of these statues because we should learn from them in his video.
Penny Lane is a vibrant community which is very diverse and we are not racists. Let the city council debate it. It will be in committee for 20 years and get forgotten about. It will not be accepted here. Nor should anyone accept forced name change. It has to be through education, debate, public information and consensus. Racism is wrong but so is trying to put 21st century values on the eighteenth. Slavery was and is terrible. However, it was also integrated into commerce. That’s why it was so hard to end. Every port city has its main civic buildings because of the profits of slavery and the money given by the men whose statues are now being reassessed or vandalised which is why they were built. It’s a shameful past which is linked to much of our heritage. You can’t knock everything down, that is of course, ridiculous. Information is the key to keep the history but with the full truth included. Otherwise the past will never be healed.
Thanks for commenting, I think information boards are the way to go. Whether they could tell the full story is another matter. Maybe a phone app would be better? Personally, I don’t agree with renaming signs, they can be used to educate. Statues are slightly different as they are there to honour the person. That honour can be addressed by a big plaque telling people the person made his money from human trafficking and slave labour. I think that is more powerful. Cheers!
Hi Glen, many thanks for bringing all the evidence together in one place.
You suggest that ‘Pennis Lane’ – the street name written in the 1841 Census record for Grove Cottage and Grove House – was a spelling mistake by the enumerator. But maybe Pennis Lane was the original name – derived from the Welsh word ‘pen’ for head or end – indicating that this was the boundary of Toxteth Park? (Just as Edge Lane was ‘on the edge’ of West Derby township). Then in 1846, when Grove House was advertised To Be Let, someone decided they didn’t like the word Pennis, so replaced it by the more ‘acceptable’ Penny’s. And when the Ordnance Survey came along in 1848, they didn’t much care for apostrophes, so standardised the name as Penny Lane?
Incidentally, I’ve just come across another Pennis Lane. In the Chester Chronicle, 12 Oct 1804: “Mr WILLIAM BUTTER of Pennis-lane, near Northwich”. The London Gazette, 8 Apr 1831, mentions: “Mr James Butter, Pennyslane, near Northwich, Cheshire”. The road is still there today – called Penny’s Lane. And 19th century OS maps – e.g. the six-inch Cheshire Sheet XXXIV at https://maps.nls.uk/view/102341056 – indicate that it had an administrative boundary running alongside. A coincidence – or not?
Hi Mike!
Interesting, I’ll look into it. My idea that it was a spelling mistake came from looking at the same enumerator’s entries on the census pages before and after the Penny Lane entry. I spotted a few more errors. I will have a look and get back to you. Thank you, great find.
Hi Glen, What first went through my head was “how many Penny Lanes are there in the UK?” I immediately Googled that question, and found the following: Penny Lane, Emsworth, Hampshire, PO10 8HE. Emsworth is only 20 or 30 miles west of where I live, so I’m going to go and have a look tomorrow and see what the area is like for myself, but as I understand it it is an ancient village with a small port, and very little modern development. I have tried to find evidence online of a potential connection with Emsworth, Hampshire, and James Penny, and nothing has turned up. I’ll post here again tomorrow once I’ve found out more from the site itself.
Hi, thanks for commenting.
That would be interesting to see what the origins of other Penny Lanes were, as you said it’s often hard to find out. Streets named after people are much easier.
This one I presume?
https://www.google.com/maps/@50.8461328,-0.9227468,3a,75y,250.25h,81.15t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sVm0QC-TagjIGnVKVPj6wBA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Just 2 minutes on Google maps brings up these not far from Liverpool:
One in Haydock:
https://www.google.com/maps/@53.4713253,-2.6445583,3a,75y,262.22h,93.82t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sGSWi4Z–VYVOxScCjgevVQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DGSWi4Z–VYVOxScCjgevVQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D331.3756%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656
One in Burtonwood:
https://www.google.com/maps/@53.442329,-2.6647392,3a,75y,51.83h,84.81t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sdAfi2fTe98IuE17eIedcBg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
This one is very near to me and only 2 miles from Penny Lane – Halfpenny Close
https://www.google.com/maps/@53.3609096,-2.903856,3a,75y,239.19h,78.64t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sggCq3f4xc1yAFjuoXMcuTg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
Today, Kay Burley at Sky News, said this in response to Metro Mayor Steve Rotherham when he said there is no proof about James Penny:
“it’s a bit weird James penny was a slave trader and there’s a street named Penny Lane in Liverpool and they are not connected’
On that basis I’m perfectly OK to say “it’s a bit weird that William Burley was a slave owner and there’s a Sky presenter named Kay Burley and they are not connected”
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146632339
Penny Lane has been the victim of poor journalism like that since 2006.
Cheers!
Great stuff. As you say, one of Penny’s houses was on the current Marks and Spencer site. Coincidently M&S was originally called the Penny Bazaar. And that’s what it is. A coincidence. Another coincidence.
Exactly, good one! It was @waite99d who found the houses.
He also located the surviving Hope Street house. This still has a garden at the back. When he died Penny’s book-keeper recalled him taking walks there to his family.
Here’s another superb find by @waite99d. A map that has never been seen before – hidden away in an archive and just discovered by him. It’s 1754, 14 years before Penny came to Liverpool. And when he was only 13. Although not named Penny Lane is on the map it shows that the lane predates him. I’ll be updating the post with it soon.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Waite99D/status/1272188558690975751
Thanks Glen for all this impeccable and enlightening research on Penny Lane and the associated successive controversies. I am encouraging some American Beatles fans in a FB group to read this entry. A touch more edifying than Fox News!
Thanks Edward!
Fox got it from Sky I think. Kay Burley did a hatchet job on the Metro Mayor’s interview. Shameful journalism to grab headlines.
She even asked him the daft question “don’t you think it’s weird that there was a slave trader called James Penny and a street called Penny Lane?”
A moronic conclusion. I hope she never sits on a jury.
Keep dropping by for future updates.
The 1846 newspaper clipping definitely says “Penny’s lane”, implying that the lane was named after somebody called Penny.
Why wasn’t that fact picked up on?
That spelling also appeared as late as 6 July 1858 in the Liverpool Daily Post.
I can’t read the 1841 Census, but surely Pennis Lane is a mistake for Penny’s lane.
Philip G. Mayer.
Hi Philip
Thanks for commenting.
As I know you are an expert on the history of the Toxteth Park area, it’s great to have your feedback!
You say the fact that it was named Penny’s lane in 1846 is not picked up on but above it I write “Here it is called Penny’s Lane”. I didn’t think I needed to point out the purpose of an apostrophe because the entire blog is researching the premise that it could have been named by someone called Penny, especially the title.
You say “surely Pennis Lane is a mistake for Penny’s lane”, yes but only if you add a Y and an apostrophe, I thought Pennies Lane is closer because I only added an e. Either way I look into both options thoroughly. When I couldn’t find anyone called Penny in the area I looked for possible origins of the plural Pennys/Pennies instead.
I tried not to put too much emphasis on early spellings, in 1859 it is referred to as Perry’s Lane on an advert regarding possible name changes, this is also on the blog. It seems that the spelling of the lane (and most of the others) was often subject to either interpretation or the victim of several typos. Regarding the 1841 census, the enumerator made quite a few errors, take a look at that section of the 1841 census for yourself if you have a subscription.
“Penny’s Lane” may imply that it was named after a person called Penny, but it doesn’t prove it was. What other streets/lanes in the area are named after people from before the mid 1700s when it was there to 1841? Every street and lane in Toxteth Park I can think of has origins in the landscape not the residents. Even when Tarleton laid out his new street himself did he call it after himself? No.
If the lane was named after a person called Penny then who was this person? For years the only resident was Webster and his tenants. Even if it was named after someone called Penny, was that James Penny? That’s the whole argument.
To be honest, as an amateur, I think I did a pretty good job of summing up all the evidence. Yes, there maybe some things I missed out (like the full copy of his 14 page Will that does not refer to any land anywhere near Penny Lane) but on the whole I think I went over the top with evidence.
I have yet to see one shred of evidence in support of James Penny or anyone called Penny for that matter.
I would be grateful on your opinion based on this research and your own extensive knowledge of the area. Personally I think a museum should not put an exhibit up based on a hunch by a press officer looking for a headline. It should have been researched first.
I’d love for you to take a look into it yourself, if you find anyone called Penny that the lane was named after I will gladly publish your findings here.
Thank you.
Hi Philip
I have added a line to the post to address your comment. That paragraph now reads:
“The earliest mention in the British Newspaper Archive of the lane by name is in 1846. It is an advertisement for Grove House to be let. At that time it was occupied by William Anthony Esq. Here it is called Penny’s Lane. It is also referred to as Penny’s lane in an advertisement for a property in July 1858, this may imply that it was named after a person called Penny but no evidence has been found to support this other than the advertisements. No-one called Penny has been found with links to the area. It also has to be noted that in 1859 an article was published that called it Perry’s Lane (see further down this page)”.
I have also added an update with information sent in by Mike Chitty that shows Penny Lane in Northwich was also originally called Pennis Lane, the same as how our Penny Lane is listed in the 1841 census for Toxteth Park. This is further evidence that it was not named after a person called Penny (See update 4 July 2020). Instead it gives more credence to the claim that it was named in relation to the Welsh word ‘Pen’ – linking it to the nearby Penketh fields and the farm next to Penny Lane called Pen y Bryn.
That would certainly be the most obvious implication (if spelt correctly) today. Might another possibility also be that a plural noun was intended?
The grocer’s apostrophe is still with us, but it actually goes further back than the possessive apostrophe: the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (p.215) notes that it was “often used before a plural ending”, and that there was uncertainty about its use “until the middle of the 19th century”.
The plural of ‘penny’ is of course still a source of some confusion (pennies, pence): in the 18th and 19th centuries we also had ‘pennes’ to add to the uncertainty.
Thanks Peter, I need to look up Grocer’s apostrophe, I’ve never heard of that before, thanks.
Several adverts in the same period just call it the “road between Wavertree and Toxteth Park” so the name was by no means certain then. The streets in town named after the merchant occupiers are not subject to the same confusion. At least one still the apostrophe even today – Peter’s Lane:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/PPrnZfzG69oKxJMi6
Dear Glenn,
Thanks for this interesting blogpost. May I ask for a source for the 1768 newspaper clipping about Peter Holme? (Apologies my query is a bit tangential, but I am interested in the mention of the cucumber from Turkey!
Regards, Alex
Hi Alex,
Thanks! It appeared in two newspapers I know of:-
The Oxford Journal, Saturday 17 September 1768
Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette, Thursday 22 September 1768.
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results/1750-01-01/1799-12-31?basicsearch=%22cucumber%22%20%2b%22greenbank%22&freesearch=%22greenbank%22&phrasesearch=cucumber&retrievecountrycounts=false
Good luck with your Turkish Cucumber research 🙂
Bit of a stretch perhaps but maybe (Half)Penny Lane was originally a drove road (halfpenny per head being the fee for secure fields for cattle while drovers stayed in the adjacent inn). See https://www.localdroveroads.co.uk/place-names/
Hi, sorry for the late reply as I was on holiday. Great find! A drove road sounds much more feasible that the imaginary (bridge) toll that was often mentioned as an explanation. Even Joe Anderson mentioned that one at one point but the bridge only came with the railway. I’ll have to update the blog at some point as it became a bit of a mess during the 2020 debate. Thanks!
When a person loves the place he came from, he is capable of changing its history, in this case preserving it… congratulations…
Quando uma pessoa ama o lugar que veio é capaz de mudar sua história, neste caso preservar… parabéns…