January 1, 1970

Godnow Road

By Angus Townley

According to “The Isle of Axholme – Its place-names and river-names, John K Johnstone, 1886.” Godney Bridge, near Crowle. Godn is a contracted form of the personal name Goodwin, and the suffix ey means and island, sometimes the water which surrounded the island.

On old maps the area around Godnow is shown as Godknow – I guess the wild moorland would be an easy place to come to know god.

On the 1822 enclosure plan the road is labelled as ‘Broad Fleet Road – 40 feet’

On an old postcard of the junction of Godnow road with the High street. It is labelled as Fleet Street. On the 1738 Manorial map there is clearly a large pond/lake called Broad Flete and clearly some people knew it by this name.

One contributor suggested that before the drainage this was where one got the boat to Thorne/Doncaster.