tenants of the Borough in Applegate. Throsby says that Shambles Lane led to the West Bridge, and Nichols identifies it with Applegate. It has been suggested that the first part of the name "Applegate" may be the French word "appeller," and that it refers to the watchtower on the adjacent Castle Wall, where the sentinel used to "call" the hour of the night. But it may be derived, perhaps more naturally, from the former presence of apple trees.
Red Cross Street, which runs west from the old High Street, opposite Peacock Lane, still retains its old name. This is said by some to be derived from Rede, or Rood, quasi Rede or Rood Cross Street. But the Dean of St. Mary's de Castro in 1494 occupied a house belonging to the Corpus Christi Guild, which is described as being "ad rubiam crucem," and from other entries in the accounts of the Guild it may be inferred that this Red Cross was in Red Cross Street. It was called Red Cross Street in 1557, when the second of the ten town Wards was made to run from the South Gate unto the High Cross with the Soar Lane and Red Cross Street. In Speed's plan of Leicester a cross is shown at the junction of Red Cross Street and St. Mary's Church Lane.
The lane now called Soar Lane, which ran from the North Bridge to the river, outside the town wall, was in mediaeval times generally called Walker Lane, after the Walkers, or Fullers who dwelt there. It was named Soar Lane as early as 1458. But there was, at that time, another Soar Lane, in the South quarter, and the two were distinguished in the Rental of the Corpus Christi Guild of that date as "Soar Lane extra portam borialem," Soar Lane without the North Gate, and "Soar Lane juxta Castrum," or "Sorelane que ducit ad Castrum," Soar Lane
near, or leading to, the Castle. The latter street ran out of the High Street towards Castle and river from a point nearly opposite to Friar Lane, as we may conclude from the boundaries of the tenth Ward in 1484. It is the lane mentioned in 1325, when some brawlers, after a dispute in the High Street, are said to have gone quarrelling to "the lane which leads to the Castle."
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