Welcome to Sherwood Forest

Most New England towns are dotted with familiar street names, and Ledyard is no exception. The town has its obligatory Spring Street. There is a Birch Street, a Library Lane and an Old Quarry Road. There is even a Meetinghouse Lane and a Pumpkin Hill Road.

But when you are standing on the corner of Robin Hood Drive and Little John Court, you can only be in Gales Ferry, a community famous – at least locally – for its unusual street names. In some cases, there are whole neighborhoods of peculiar street names. Many are the creations of a once prominent local developer, Irving Norman.

Norman was a native of Gales Ferry. He was born in town on April 11, 1922, and he lived here until his death on Aug. 20, 2005. He fought in World War II and was a member of the Gales Ferry Fire Company. He was president, at different times, of Ledyard Elderly Housing and the Avery-Stoddard Cemetery Association. He also served on the Town Council.

Norman’s trade, though, was masonry.

He worked as a mason and a building contractor, said Jim Onorato, his friend and associate who built houses and often worked with Norman. “He did all my chimneys,” he said. “He did just about every firework.”

Onorato said Norman was good at his craft. He was “an excellent mechanic,” he said.

But, in addition to building chimneys, Norman was also a land developer. Among the neighborhoods he developed is the so-called Sherwood Forest area off Whalehead Road.

“I think a lot of his street names came out of books,” Onorato said. “He was an avid reader.”

This is certainly the case for Sherwood Forest, whose streets bear such names as Friar Tuck Drive, Maid Marion Drive, Nottingham Court, and Queen Eleanor Drive – likely a nod to his wife.

“He took the names for Sherwood Forest right out of the tale,” said Eleanor Norman, Irving’s widow. “He would just try to find names that weren’t already in the town, or anywhere else.”

Another of Norman’s developments is the Presidential Estates area near Hyde Park Drive. The streets here, of course, recall the homes of presidents. Mount Vernon Drive takes its name from the Virginia home of George Washington. There is Monticello Drive, a reference to Thomas Jefferson’s estate, and Hermitage Drive, named for Andrew Jackson’s home in Tennessee.

Norman gave other streets names of a more personal significance. Growing off Route 12 and King’s Highway, one neighborhood includes Richard Drive, Barry Drive, and Patricia Court – each named after Norman’s children.

Not all the peculiar street names in Gales Ferry are found in Norman’s developments. In the neighborhood called Bird Land, all the streets are named for birds. Among them are Blue Bird Drive, Lark Lane, Warbler Way, Osprey Drive, Bobwhite Trail, Whippoorwill Drive, Eagle Ridge Drive, Partridge Hollow Road, Quail Meadow Road, and Pheasant Run Drive.

Another set of streets also have presidential names: Kennedy Drive, Lincoln Drive, and Washington Drive, all nestled around the corner of Long Cove Road and Vinegar Hill Road.

Ledyard may not have an Easy Street, but it has an Adios Lane. It may not have a Lovers Lane, but it has an Abbey Road. Not every town can say as much.