_Stoke_ (Vol. v., pp. 106. 161. 213.).--I think that the towns and
parishes of _Tawstock_, _Culmstock_, _Tavistock_, _Plymstock_, _Stockton
on Tees_, _Severn Stoke_, _Stoke in Teignhead_, _Stoke on Tern_, _Stoke
on Trent_, must have received their names from a _stockade_ of some kind
_in_ the rivers near which they are situated. There is at a ford across
the river Severn, about half a mile from Welsh Pool, a weir made of
stakes and brushwood erected a few yards above the ford, for the sole
purpose of diminishing the force of the current, and spreading the water
into a stream of an uniform depth. I conjecture that in ancient times
the fords of our larger rivers were kept in a passable state during the
winter season by weirs of this description, and that there were fords in
the rivers at the places above mentioned. There is near Nuneaton the
chapelry of _Stock in Ford_, but I am not sufficiently acquainted with
that place to be able to conjecture from what circumstance it may have
derived its name. I infer that one meaning of the word _stoke_ is _wood_
of any kind, from the fact that the opening through which coals are
introduced under the larger boilers in our houses is called a
_stoke-hole_, from the wood formerly used for fuel.