Forgotten Place Names

Forgotten Place Names: "The Puzzle or Packman's Puzzle was the name given to the collection of streets off North Street, Langley Mill, which includes West Street, Orchard Street, Regent Street and Hampden Street. This is one of the oldest residential parts of Langley Mill, these small terraced houses being developed from the 1860's onwards. Prior to being given street names, each row of houses had its own name, such as Williamson's Row, Taylor's Row and Erewash Row.
How the area became known as Packman's Puzzle is open to discussion - one theory is that the numbering of the properties in this mass of terraced houses was so confusing for door-to-door salesmen (packmen). A related explanation (which was passed to us by a former resident) is that when the packman appeared in the area, each house would signal next door by banging on the wall, and the packman was puzzled as everyone knew he was there before he even reached their house. Since the term packman could be used for anyone going door-to-door, including debt-collectors, another possibility was that the packman was confused as to why nobody was ever in when he visited (using the same signalling system as mentioned!)
In the 1880's, the Criterion Hotel, a temperance establishment, was opened on West Street, but does not appear to lasted twenty years. It had been planned to extend the residential area across the other side of North Street, and reference has been found to a proposed East Street, but this never materialised, and that side of the road became totally industrialised."