What's In A Name?

 Oak Bay Avenue took it's name from the shoreline with its large growth of oak trees. Other streets in the community carry the names of prominent residents (Bowker, Tod), early explorers (McNeill), poets (Chaucer, Byron), soldiers (Allenby, Currie), and cities and countries of Britain (Devon, Dover, Exeter, Norfolk, Penzance, Cavendish, Rutland, Nottingham).

 Henderson Road is named after William Henderson, second reeve of Oak Bay (1909-11) and founder of the Masonic Lodge. Topp Street is named after Charles H. Topp, the former city engineer responsible for the many big developments in 1911-12.

 Cadboro Bay Road, the longest in the municipality, takes its name from the Hudson's Bay Company's brigantine, Cadborough, a 72-tonne, 56-foot ship - the first to anchor in the bay in 1842. It was lost 20 years later in a storm.

 Foul Bay Road, which provides Oak Bay's western border, was named by early shipping navigators because Foul Bay itself was so rocky it made passage treacherous.