I’ve written a previous article about Scunthorpe’s misspelled place names, particularly looking at the misspelling of the local place name Redbourn, after the Redbourn Hill Iron & Coal Comapany and not after the nearby village of Redbourne. The article focused on the addition of the letter ‘e’ added to the end of the name seen in the towns’ road and place names. The article can be read via the link below;

http://www.visitscunthorpe.com/ScunthorpeNews/Headline/Misspelt-Street-Names

This time I’m looking at the ever increasing instances of the misspelling of the name Westcliff.

The Westcliff Estate sits on the escarpment along the towns’ western edge and was constructed in the 1960s & 1970s, given its location the estates name is quite decipherable. However it more and more seems to be suffering the same fate as Redbourn and there are many instances where there is an ‘e’ added to the end of the name giving the misspelling; Westcliffe.

North Lincolnshire Council is in the main blameless with this as there are no instances of misspellings on their behalf unlike with the spelling of Redbourn. Up until recently the former Shell filling station at the corner of Burringham Road & Scotter Road was misspelled, an ‘e’ added to the end of Westcliff as does the now Jet filling station and there are many instances of ephemera and literature relating to Westcliff being incorrectly spelt with the added ‘e’ at the end.

So where and why has this misspelling come about?

The route cause of the problem could infact come from a very place where people are taught to read and write.

Below, Westcliff Junior and Infant Schools 

When the Westcliff Estate was built in the 1960s/70s there was also a need for new schools, two of these were built on the same site adjoining each other, Westcliff Infants and next-door Westcliff Juniors, two separate schools each with its own headmaster. It is said that the headmaster of the Junior school, during the 1970s, frustrated in the number of letters and other deliveries ending up at the wrong site, decided to further distinguish the Junior school by adding the ‘e’ to the of Westcliff, giving the name Westcliffe Junior School.

 Below, The new school construction

The two schools merged sometime in the 1990s to create an all through Primary school, keeping the ‘e’ at the end to give the name Westcliffe Primary School. So could therein lay the problem, there are whole generations of school children who have/are coming through the school system believing the estate name is spelt the same as their school name, all this at the very important foundation stage of their lives.

The school on Westcliff’s Dryden Road is currently having an all purpose new school being built on the site of its playing field and is due to open next year, is it time to drop the ‘e’ from the school name to stop the confusion in the spelling of the estates name?