Senvey Gate, but it would seem that, in the course of that century, the name was altared to Sanvy Gate, and it appears as Sanvy Gate in maps of 1802 and 1828. Nichols rings the changes on Sanby, Sonvey and "Sanvy, quasi sanda via," and endorses the questionable etymology of Bickerstaffe or Carte, who satisfied themselves that the word was a corruption of sancta or sacra via, denoting the sacred way by which, in pre-reformation years, the great religious processions used to go up to St. Margaret's Church. A stone cross, called Senvey Cross, was standing, in the 16th century, at the end of this road, near the North Gate. It has been suggested that this cross was one of those erected to mark the stages of Queen Eleanor's funeral progress, but the evidence seems against this. It is more likely to have been the Cross which Henry, the third Earl of Lancaster, is said to have put up for the soul of his brother, Thomas, "outside the town of Leicester," but this is mere conjecture.
The Soar Lane "extra portam borialem" ran west, outside the North Gate, down to the river. It was also called Walker Lane, or Fullers' Street. In the year 1298 a member of the important family of Curlevache, when he was "amens et demens et ebrius," walked outside the North Gate down Fullers' Street ("invico Fullorum") into the river, and was drowned. In the 14th century it was still known as Walker Gate, or Walker Lane, and was so named in 1417, but, in the course of the 15th century, "Soar Lane" came into use. In 1594 it is referred to as "Soar Lane, or Walker Lane."
Soar Lane does not seem to have run immediately beside the town wall and its ditch; for in 1392 land was conveyed, which is described as being outside the North Gate in " Walkercrofts," and lying between the town ditch and the common footpath. The ditch and its environs were used as gardens; and part of this land belonged to the Priory of the Black Friars, whose grounds were intersected by the town wall.
The land in this district was called "Walkercrofts," or "Crofts." It was divided by ditches, and dykes or raised paths, such as Acedyke, or Ash-lane, and the path called Benacre,
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