Surrey Historical Society prepares book on road names used before 1957

The Surrey Historical Society is preparing a book documenting road names used in the city before 1957, when Surrey switched to a numbered system. Roads had mostly been named for pioneer families. Some earlier names remain on heritage signs, including Hall's Prairie Road, Bose Road and Latimer Road, while other parts of that history have been lost. The society began looking into the missing road-name history in early 2025. The book is titled “Driving in Surrey - A History of Surrey Roads Prior to 1957.”

Society president Evelyn Wedley told the Cloverdale Reporter that members had spent close to two years gathering information and researching. A launch event was held Sept. 26, before the book was printed. Wedley said the soft launch went “really well” despite a few snags. She showed attendees slides of images planned for the book and excerpts from the manuscript. She said quite a few people are interested, and the society is working to get the materials to the publisher for printing. A few matters remain to be resolved, which the society hopes to address over the next several weeks.

Wedley did most of the work on the book. She said the society will publish it because many people contributed, and it will not carry an individual author’s name. The book will be dedicated to the late Jack Brown, whose research the society is drawing on. Brown created surreyhistory.ca and wrote extensively about families who settled in the area and built the first roads. Wedley also thanked society member Roger Bose for providing substantial information about families from the Cloverdale area.

The idea for the book began when someone in Ireland asked about a relative who had lived in Surrey and thought Thomas Road, now 182nd Street, had been named for that person. Wedley said society members initially struggled to find information. Staff at the Surrey Archives then conducted an in-depth search and located the person. Wedley said that experience led them to recognize that some local history had been lost or was difficult to find, and that they should try to address the gap. The society hopes to publish the approximately 200-page book before Christmas. More information is available on the Surrey Historical Society’s Facebook page.