Eastrea Village News No 56

No 56: November 2015

Eastrea Village News OUR VANISHING VILLAGE Antique maps (right) showed Eastrea as a village, but many modern digital dabases now leave us out altogether (below).

EASTREA does not exist, at least according to the databases used in Britain. Many older residents have told us how they resent everything going digital, and in this case they may be right. Today’s satellite navigation shows roads in Eastrea to be either in Whittlesey or Coates. According to these systems, Eastrea does not exist.

At Fenland District Council we have a street naming officer who enters all these details into the national database, and she is Wendy Lake. She tells us: “Neither the local authority or the national hub can force companies to update their databases with the most up to date information.” This is a new problem: the older maps of the district have shown our village since the 1500s (on the right is an Ordnance Survey map from 1850). At the office of the national database which maintains addresses, Stella Loftus tells us: “Data in the National Address Gazetteer is provided to us by local authorities. They are responsible for creating and maintaining the address and streets data … contact the street naming and numbering officer.” Our street naming officer Wendy replies: “If they are using address from the Geoplace hub they would have always had Eastrea in the address.” It doesn’t work. Enter roads in Eastrea and they default to Coates or Whittlesey. There are countless examples.

BARCLAYS Bank (above) exemplifies the problem. Enter ‘Mayfield Road’ onto their address finder and it insists it is in Peterborough.

It shows the correct post code, but there is already a different Mayfield Road in Dogsthorpe, Peterborough. Then we can check the InterParcel site (centre). Enter Wype Road and they insist it is in Whittlesey, for Eastrea does not exist on their system. Search for the road and post code on MinuteCast (right) and the same happens. Eastrea defaults to Whittlesey, even though you can go to hunt throughout every inch of that town and never find a Wype Road. Similarly, if you enter an Eastrea post code into a satellite navigation system (below left) it insists we are in Peterborough. Want to check the local weather? Enter Eastrea into the Weather Channel and we do not exist. Put in the post code instead, and it says we are in nearby Coates.

We heard of an emergency ambulance called to a house in Roman Gardens, Eastrea PE7 2DF (the correct address) and instead they went to Roman Close, Whittlesey. Even after two years, many databases still do not show that road, so we usually tell people who are visiting the Eastrea Centre or Roman Gardens to come to PE7 2BA which brings you to the junction with the A605. Enter Wype Road, Kelful Close or Mayfield Road into a satellite navigation system and they insist they are in Coates (below, right). The digital era works well — but not when a central database holds the wrong details. Fenland District Council need to sort this out—and do it now.

E-mail: mail@eastrea.net

Eastrea Village News

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STALLS FOR ALL

RESIDENTS flocked to the Hallowe’en party held this year at the Eastrea Centre (above). Al Green snapped this picture of this busy evening, which was held to raise funds for the Sue Ryder charity. This may become an annual event.

VILLAGE HALL TRUSTEES

The 2014 Xmas Craft Fayre at the Eastrea Centre (above) was a great success, and this year’s event is taking place on Sunday 29 November from 11.00 am to 3.00 pm.

Along with the craft stalls, licensed bar and raffle, a quilting exhibition and sale is a new feature for this year.

EASTREA Village Hall Trust has been seeking new recruits and has recently finalised the board of trustees representing the widest range of age and experience. They are (L-R) Ritchie Walton, project manager, in the chair; Ben Parnell, maintenance engineer; Mac Erysthee, former policeman and social worker who is returning to the committee; Marsha Erysthee, landlord and former estate agent; Maureen Watson who used to run the Whittlesey Museum and is a former town councillor; and John Watson, former colonel and policeman, who is now a magistrate. They can be contacted by letter via the Village Hall Trust at 2 Roman Gardens, Eastrea PE7 2DF or by email: mail@eastrea.net.

‘WHITTLESEA’ IS WRONG BOOKING train travel to our local station is never going to work until the station is called by its proper name. It says “Whittlesea” at the station, though the name of the town is Whittlesey. This topic has even been raised in the ‘notes and queries’ column of the Guardian newspaper (right).

Only one person, signing as ‘Dave’, had the right explanation — the “sea” has nothing to do with the shore. We never were near the sea; all fens are freshwater. The “-ey” means “isle”.

Ramsey was the island for rams, Ely was the isle where they paid their taxes in eels, Thorney was once the prickliest island in the fens. Manea was the main island, just as Eastrea was the island to the east.

The “Whitt” probably originated as ‘white’, from the Old Norse Old Norse hvítr. By the seventh century this had become hwit, our modern word ‘white’, which signified ‘stone-built’.

What about the Whittlesea spelling? The word does exist, but only as a person’s surname. An art exhibition by Ian Whittlesea was in the Guardian last year, and a journalist named Peter Whittlesea is a TV reporter for BBC South-East.

What about the ‘Whittlesea Society’? Just like ‘Discovering Whittlesea’ magazine, they simply have the name wrong. Both need to correct the spelling: then we can easily find them online.