WATLING. Thi.s name may have been taken from the celebrated Roman Road, the Watling Street, which led from Dover to London, and thence to Chester, North Wales, and Cumberland. Comp. Dykes, Stonestreet, and Thirlwall, as surnames derived from R,oman works. In the middle ages, so famous was this via, that the Milky Way of the heavens was sometimes known by the same designation : —

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.