Punctuate appropriately

 Fifteen years ago when the title of this website and of the two volumes of the book were being considered, I, as author, was determined to use part of a quotation spoken by a well-known St Albans' councillor of the time – 1912.  He had described the growing development of Fleetville as being part of "St Albans' Own East End".

My publisher advised that I should avoid any title which included an apostrophe, for specific reasons that search engines are, well, specific and that "most searchers would not bother to include an apostrophe in their search term."  The second alleged fact may well be true.  In fact, the first may also be true in some cases.  Computer search engines may, indeed, be confused by apostrophes – or other punctuation as well – but designers of software are surely more intelligent and so their software should be able to handle punctuation as part of their searches where required.

The author won in the battle of apostrophe or no apostrophe!

A North Yorkshire street plate, traditionally set with an apostrophe.  Last week North Yorkshire
decided to banish apostrophes on new street plates.  Within a matter of days the authority had
changed its collective mind in the face, apparently, of public opposition.
COURTESY BBC/NAJMODAK

You may recall that recently the North Yorkshire local authority, responsible for the naming of streets and the fitting of appropriate street plates.  It appears the authority has recently declared street names which require the inclusion of apostrophes would have to be displayed without them, on the rather dubious grounds that computer finding and sorting aids can't locate streets in their indices "because those same computer lists do not include them; they therefore can't be found!"  Existing plates will remain with apostrophes or without them as initially made and not replaced.  But in future streets would definitely remain sans apostrophe.

The new policy did not last long; barely a week in fact.  Announced, published in the press and pilloried by local residents who had fully learned such usual grammar and did not wish to tut-tut every time they walked past St Michaels Lane or Butchers Walk.  Others may prepare themselves armed with black permanent pens to add or otherwise alter an errant sign, possibly even adding "gr" as a correction mark!  The NY authority turned its back on the new policy as quickly as it had been invented; and all is back to normal.

This most certainly IS St Albans, located adjacent to Jersey Lane.  I have no knowledge of
Jodie and presumably the creator of the plate had received no instruction concerning an apostrophe.

Now, what about St Albans?  There are well over three hundred named streets in St Albans' Own East End, and fortunately for those who are obliged to manage the "house style" these days only thirty would require the use of an apostrophe, if only its application was not ignored.  The latest installation appears to be Jodie's Court – though I am still attempting to discover who Jodie is or was.  This road is displayed completely without an apostrophe.

Now here's an interesting set of installations: you might imagine that a long road equipped with a full set of six street plates all or most of these in Marshal's Drive would be completely lacking in apostrophes.  However, the opposite is true: only one plate is missing its apostrophe; hooray!

Proof that online or computer created indexing can indeed work with apostrophes.  Google located
Marshal's Drive correctly and showed the reference on screen.
COURTESY GOOGLE STREETVIEW

Five out of the six Marshal's Drive signs carry an apostrophe; this one is at the top
end of the road.

Its nearby companion was originally spelled with a double L, but careful use of white paint
obliterated the second L with the exception of a comma shape left in black to form an
apostrophe.

Meanwhile, at the lower end of the road one plate was manufactured with no apostrophe, no
doubt as a later replacement.

But in an intriguing error, one sign was originally manufactured with a double L but no apostrophe.  At some time after being located at the upper end, white paint was applied to obliterate the second L, but part of the top of this letter was shaped to form a pseudo apostrophe! Inventiveness!

On an example of other signs, in Hatfield Road outside St Paul's Church is a grammatically correct
St Paul's Church sign header, above ...

... and nearby the notation is minus the word Church and minus an apostrophe; oh, but it does
include an abbreviation stop, which is missing from the first panel.

But away from street plates there are a few inconsistencies elsewhere  too.  Walk along Hatfield Road and you will find two signs on the frontage of St Paul's Church.  One says St Paul's Church; the other just plain St Pauls (but without the word Church).  Did the signwriter decide, no church so no apostrophe?  Or were there deeper meanings at play?  Just one example, but I am sure there are others if we were to search for them.