May Avenue (St Mary Cray)

Locality
Coordinate	51.390064, 0.108599
Adm. div.	Kent, now Greater London
Vicinity	Between Stanley Way and Poverest Road
Type	Thoroughfare
Interest	Miscellaneous
Status	Extant
First Record	c. 1944

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May Avenue.

May Avenue / Google Earth Street View.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2017-12-25. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2021-01-06.

May Avenue runs between Powerest Road and Stanley Way, a little northeast of an area that was once wooded and known as Robin Hood Shaw but is now full of residential streets with Robin Hood-related names. Given its proximity to these it seems likely that May refers to the month and that there is in this name an intended connection with Robin Hood, one of the 'characters' of spring festivals. In the immediate vicinity of May Avenue we find Marion Crescent and Hood Avenue. See further the place-names listed on the page on the St Mary Cray place-name cluster.

Gazetteers

• Not included in Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), pp. 293-311.

Maps

John Bartholomew & Son Ltd. Bartholomew's Reference Atlas of Greater London, Covering the Whole Metropolitan Police Area, with Larger Scale Maps For Central London and Index For Quick Location of Over 62,000 Names (Edinburgh, 1968), 118E (May Avenue shown and labelled)

• 25" O.S. map Kent XVI.3 (c. 1868; surveyed 1867). No copy in NLS
• 25" O.S. map Kent XVI.3 (1896; rev. 1895) (May Avenue not shown)
• 25" O.S. map Kent XVI.3 (1896; rev. 1895) (May Avenue not shown) (georeferenced)
• 25" O.S. map Kent XVI.3 (1908; rev. 1907) (May Avenue not shown)
• 25" O.S. map Kent XVI.3 (1932; rev. 1930-31) (May Avenue not shown)
• 25" O.S. map Kent XVI.3 (1947; rev. 1937-38) (May Avenue shown and labelled)
• 6" O.S. map Kent XVI (1871; surveyed 1862-68) (May Avenue not shown)
• 6" O.S. map Kent XVI.NE (1898; rev. 1895) (May Avenue not shown) (georeferenced)
• 6" O.S. map Kent XVI.NE (1898; rev. 1895) (May Avenue not shown)
• 6" O.S. map Kent XVI.NE (1910; rev. 1907-1908) (May Avenue not shown)
• 6" O.S. map London Sheet T (1919; rev. 1914) (May Avenue not shown)
• 6" O.S. map Kent XVI.NE (c. 1938; rev. 1930-1931) (May Avenue not shown)
• 6" O.S. map Kent XVI.NE (c. 1944; rev. 1938) (May Avenue shown and labelled)
• 6" O.S. map Kent XVI.NE (c. 1945; rev. c. 1938) (May Avenue shown and labelled)
• 6" O.S. map London Sheet T (c. 1946; rev. 1938) (only partly revised) (May Avenue not shown)
• 1:25,000 map TQ46 (1957) (May Avenue shown, not labelled)
• 1" O.S. map Sheet 271 (Hills) (1896) (May Avenue not shown)
• 1" O.S. map Sheet 271 (Outline) (1896) (May Avenue shown, not labelled)
• 1" O.S. map Sheet 171 (1946) (May Avenue shown, not labelled)
• 1" O.S. map Sheet 171 (1961) (May Avenue shown, not labelled).

Background

• Wikipedia: Orpington Urban District.
• Wikipedia: St Mary Cray.

Also see

• St Mary Cray place-name cluster.

 Kent place-names 

 London place-names 

 Place-names