PEDDERS LANE
Beccles

Waveney District Council changed a local street sign after schoolchildren learning how to use the apostrophe complained may have wasted time and money, according to a grammar expert.

Waveney District Council, based in Lowestoft, Suffolk, removed the apostrophe in “Peddar’s Lane” after pupils at Ditchingham Primary near Bungay, Suffolk, said the punctuation mark was unnecessary.

The street is named after the Peddars Way walk – a trail which runs along the East Anglian coast. The youngsters argued that because the Peddars Way did not have an apostrophe, Peddars Lane should not have one either – and the council agreed.

But John Richards, founder of The Apostrophe Protection Society, said the council’s original sign was not necessarily wrong.

Experts say the derivation of the word “peddar” is unclear. But one explanation may be that it is a bastardisation of “pedlar”.

Mr Richards said in that case Peddar’s Way or Peddar’s Lane would be right because it would indicate that the route was the way or the lane of the peddar or pedlar. “Actually I would have thought that it would be named after peddars rather than one peddar,” he added.

“Therefore the apostrophe should probably be after the ‘s’ – Peddars’ Way – the way of peddars. But I suppose it’s possible that the way could have been named after one peddar, therefore the apostrophe before the ‘s’ would be correct too.”

An apostrophe indicates possession – as in “this is Brian’s pen”, or the omission of a letter – as in “it’s not your pen”.

Mr Richards, a former newspaper sub-editor who lives in Boston, Lincolnshire, says the apostrophe is necessary. “Imagine if a council put up a sign saying, residents’ refuse to be placed in bins,” he explained.

“Without the apostrophe the phrase becomes: residents refuse to be placed in bins – and takes on a completely different meaning.”

Historical transcripts concerning Peddars Lane, Beccles:
www.foxearth.org.uk/BecclesStreets