most townships have a lydiate lane what is or was a lydiate?

Answer 1

1. Townships? This is the UK & Ireland site, not South Africa, you know.

2. Inputting Lydiate Lane into Streetmap gets a list of just eight Lydiate Lanes, and all but one are in the Liverpool/Cheshire/Lancashire area.

3. Lydiate means swing-gate, and the name derives from Hlid-Geat in Old English.
http://www.lancslinks.org.uk/linkscontent/mycommunity/localcommunity/westlancs/
http://www.lydiateworld.com/aboutlydiate.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydiate