The names Hooper, Hodge, Parkes and Quick

should be included among those of seven streets and roads on the new Burwood housing estate, Torrington Town Council are suggesting.

A letter from Torridge District Council had put forward Burwood Road, Parkes Road, Pathfields Way, Pathfields, Parkes Walk, Burwood Walk and Burwood Crescent.

Names of people who had done or were still doing great work for the town should be given to the streets, suggested Mr Jim Martin. This was an opportunity to honour people who had honoured the town and would be a permanent reminder of the town’s appreciation.

The Council’s choice of names followed a discussion in private after the monthly open meeting.

The late Mr Walter R Hooper, hon freeman of the borough, was the author of a history of Torrington and steward of the Town and Alms Lands; the late Mr Frederick W Hodge and a son, the late Mr F R (Reg) Hodge, were both honorary freemen and Mayors of the borough and served on the Borough Council and other local bodies, sometimes together, over a combined period of some 70 years; the late Mr Sam Parkes, another honorary freeman, served over 25 years as a Council official, mostly as Town Clerk, and was an official of other local bodies and for many years a churchwarden; and Mr Clifford Quick, also an honorary freeman, has now served for over 30 years on the former borough and present town councils and on many other organisations.

Gazette article dated 11 February 1977