Helmores announce Name a Street winner

Being able to name a street is usually reserved for VIPs but one lady from Devon has been lucky enough to do just that.

Following a competition launched by Crediton based estate agents, Helmores, Wendy Jelier from Chagford has had her name chosen for a development of five brand new homes in Lapford.

Announced by BBC Radio Devon’s Simon Bates live on Monday morning Wendy found out that her name, Canterbury Drive, will now be immortalised on the map of Lapford.

Lapford's church, St Thomas of Canterbury, dates back to the 12th century and is believed to have been built by William De Tracey as penance for his part in the murder of the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas a Beckett (and leg-end has it that Thomas Beckett still haunts the area looking for his murderer!). The new energy efficient development will also have reaching views to this church.

Wendy said; “I grew up and lived around Crediton and the surrounding villag-es, raising a family there until a few years ago and love the area; I am passion-ate about history and so when I heard about the street-naming and realised the historical links I felt the opportunity to draw together the generation of new homes with such a strong thread of local and national heritage. The ghost story is rather fun too!”

Associate Partner George Clover said; “When the Helmores New Homes de-partment takes on developments - whether it is one or hundreds of properties - we are asked to help advise on what will sell, what we can achieve and advice on the re-sale. But more and more we are involved in the development of the branding and marketing. This time we thought we’d do something a bit differ-ent and open it up as a public challenge. We had some great answers including Custard Close and Ambrosia Avenue (due to the old Ambrosia factory connec-tion) as well as names in memory of loved ones.”

The new development of 5 houses on the edge of Lapford is due to be complet-ed in Autumn/Winter 2015 and with a mix of 3 and 4 bedroom houses reserva-tions are already being made. The site owner was delighted with the amount of public support; “To have so many great choices was really exciting but also challenging too! Amusing though some of them were, I felt I had to go with ones that would reflect the history of the area. Canterbury Drive was my fa-vourite because of this - and was especially poignant to me because I know the town well!”

The name will now be submitted to the council for final approval and once the development is finished, will be marked and celebrated with a special ceremo-ny.