Why is Bear Lane, Ashwell, Herts., so named? Was there a bear in Ashwell?

Question:Aha !
I used to live in Ashwell, in DIxies Old Granary just off the high Street, converted into nice houses. A fine place to live.
Bear Lane was therefore just down the road. I have a 1820 map of Ashwell, and it transpires that Bear Lane was the track leating to Bear Farm
The Farmer was a Mr Charles Bear

There you go > see you in the 3 Tuns !

Bob
So I suppose you could say there was a bear in Ashwell !

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Aha !
I used to live in Ashwell, in DIxies Old Granary just off the high Street, converted into nice houses. A fine place to live.
Bear Lane was therefore just down the road. I have a 1820 map of Ashwell, and it transpires that Bear Lane was the track leating to Bear Farm
The Farmer was a Mr Charles Bear

There you go > see you in the 3 Tuns !

Bob
So I suppose you could say there was a bear in Ashwell !

There could of been dancing bears there , I doubt enough to name a lane after or it could be a corruption of bear maybe there was a brewery or a lot of pubs.

more likely bear baiting took place there it was pretty common in days of yore.

Lots of those old names come from what was there before. It is probabaly a corruption of a word like 'bear' - many Anglo Saxon words and early English (influenced heavily by Latin and French) mean something entirely different to what they mean now. Look up the etymology of the word 'bear' online and see what it once meant.

For example I looked it up and found examples of it meaning
'bring' or 'wear', and 'the brown one'.