My friend the English Hypnotist Ben White recently posted this: http://www.benwhite.me/2009/11/ben-white-boulevard/
Coincidentally last week, when my mother was visiting from England,
I took her to see this:
Nowhere near as grand as Ben’s Boulevard, Blackwood Lane is in the popular Lichfield Lanes district of Christchurch, New Zealand. Home to The Vespa Room, The Twisted Hop, Goodbye Blue Monday and some other very trendy eating and drinking establishments.
However, I have no idea why this lane in Christchurch, which appears on no map, is so named. If anyone can tell me, that would be great!
I know Blackwood is a Scottish name and I share it with a fine array of people including comedian and presenter Richard, actor Vas and even a whole Gospel Quartet!
Finally, if you’re wondering, like I once did, why there appear to be a lot of people of Jamaican descent around the world all with the Scottish name Blackwood, or in fact any other Scottish name, then you’ll find the answer here.
Some of my friends back in England also used to take great pleasure in pointing out that “black wood” has an amusing double meaning in patois but I’ll leave that one to your own imagination and research!
So does Blackwood Lane in Christchurch have a Scottish/Caribbean origin?
Come to think of it, it did use to be home to a hair studio called The Dread Shed.
The plot thickens!
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November 22nd, 2009
Great minds…
November 22nd, 2009
Very thought-provoking.
I read the link to the article about Jamaica. It reminded me of my late mother-in-law, whose maiden name was Fowlis, another Scottish name. She was black, but her antecedents were from the Gambia, not the Caribbean. There are various family legends about how an apparently 100% Black African family ended up with a Scottish surname, but no one I’ve spoken to really knows.
Rob
http://www.AscotBusinessTraining.com