Yorke Way takes it's name from Captain Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke.

Captain Sydney Yorke commissioned the building of Sydney House which stands in the grounds of GE Aviation.

He drowned in 1831 in a boating accident, aged 62, his boat having been struck by lightning.

In the memoirs of Lady Biddulph of Ledbury she records he was found floating and having "a blue line going down his body", presumably caused by the lightning strike.

On hearing of his death Miss Manningham, the sister of Mrs Charles Yorke, fainted. On coming around she said she had seen before her the dripping form of a man whose body was covered with a naval cloak, and although she could not see his face, she knew it to be the body of Sir Joseph Yorke!