How did the road get its name?
Seward Road is named after Seward House on the High Street, where the Seward family lived from the late 17th to the late 18th century. Seward Road now extends much further than the land held by the Sewards, but at the time that the first houses went up, the Seward House land was some of the first to be developed.
When did housing development begin?
Seward Road comprises a development of houses built between the 1960s and 1980s, plus the conversion of a barn which belonged to Seward House. Until the mid 20th century, the large houses on the west side of the High Street had long stretches of land extending to Badsey Brook. By the latter half of the 20th century, these large plots of land were no longer viable and gradually the land at the rear of the houses was sold off for development. The rather piecemeal development of the road is because of the differing times when land became available. The first houses to be built were in 1965 once the access road called The Poplars had been built. Three detached houses and two pairs of semi-detached houses (present-day numbers 26-38) were built on the land which had once belonged to the house known as The Poplars on the High Street and which was demolished in the 1960s.
Numbering system
The numbers are 1-72 with the even numbers being on the west side and the odd numbers (ending at 61) on the east side.
