The name of the Stoke neighbourhood of Plymouth gives us interesting ways to find out about the area’s history. The word Stokeoriginally comes from the Anglo-Saxon description of a fenced or stockade enclosure – and we see this crop up in lots of different places in England, with names that include parts like stoke, stock, stow, stowe, and stol 1– see: Tavistock, Chepstow, Bristol, Basingstoke etc.
We can also find clues of these old Saxon settlements in place names nearby. These are described by local historian David Ayres in his pamphlet “A Short History Of Higher Stoke and Milehouse”2
Swilly is derived from swylle, which is Saxon for “a place by a stream” or more literally, “a hollow place in a gutter washed out by the soil”. The stream was a small one which flowed into Keame (Keyham) Creek. The last Saxon owner of the land was Brismar, whose manor was at Stockes, where Mount Wise now is.
David Ayres (1965) A Short History Of Higher Stoke and Milehouse
In our area, the neighbourhood and village of Stoke is also referred to by its earlier name of Stoke Damerel. This name comes from Robert d’Albemarle3 who took ownership of the area (after the Norman Conquest), and it became known as Stockes d’Albemarle, and then later as Stoke Damerel
Local historian, and publisher of olddevonport.uk, Brian Moseley4 states:
Stoke Damerel was the Ancient Manor and Ancient Ecclesiastical Parish within which the township of Plymouth-Dock, later Devonport, was situated.
At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 it was known simply as “Stoches” and is thought to have been given by King William to one of his Norman supporters, Robert de Albamarla, and in the Devon “Feet of Fines” for 1238 it is recorded against Ralph de Aubemarle. By 1281 the place was known as “Stok Aubemarl”. During the 14thh century it was recorded as “Stokedaumarle” and “Stoke Daumarle”. Although it has been claimed that the name meant a cattle or dairy farm, it is interesting that there were more sheep than cattle in 1086. It is more reasonable to assume that the name indicated a homestead protected by a wooden stockade.
Over the following three centuries the Manor and Parish was held by the families of Courtenay, Kemiell, Branscombe, Britt, and Wise. In 1667 Sir Edward Wise sold the Manor to Sir William Morice, Knight, for £11,500. Sir William had been the Secretary of State to King Charles II and had been instrumental in restoring him to the throne after the Civil War. Upon Sir William’s death his son, also William, succeeded him. There were also two daughters, Catherine and Barbara, the first marrying Sir John Saint Aubyn of Clowance in west Cornwall in 1725 the the second marrying Sir John Molesworth in 1728. When the younger Sir William Morice, Baronet, died in 1749 he had no issue and the title became extinct. His estates were therefore divided and Stoke Damerel passed through his sister, Catherine, to her husband Sir John Saint Aubyn. The Saint Aubyn family has owned it ever since.
Stoke Damerel appears in the General Registrar’s records as a Registration District. It had five sub-districts, Clowance, Morice, Saint Aubyn, Stoke and Tamar. It was allocated volume number IX between 1837 and 1851 and volume 5b from then until the District was renamed Devonport from November 9th 1898.
The Tithe Apportionment Survey for Stoke Damerel and a detailed map and survey of the Manor compiled by Mr Rutger in 1841 is held by the Plymouth and West Devon Record Office.
Brian Moseley(2016) Stoke Damerel – Manor, Parish and Registration District
You can find / read the full Tithe Apportionment Survey for Stoke Damerel online here.
The Stoke Damerel parish was originally part of the historical area of Devonport, until 1914 when the “Three Towns” of Devonport, Plymouth and Stonehouse amalgamated into a single town simply known as Plymouth. Since then, Stoke has been an inner suburb of the city of Plymouth.
For us, in 2023, the naming of the area we are in now (the present day Stoke neighbourhood) might get even more complicated, because we think of areas like Stoke and Devonport (now) as being quite different from how they might be labeled in old maps, or in historical records, as an Old Plymouth Society pamphlet called “Boundary Stones of Devonport”5 explains:
The boundary of what is now thought of as Devonport is the old boundary of the Manor and also of the Parish of Stoke Damerel. Stoke was a Domesday Manor in the ownership of Robert D’Albemarle, whose name is remembered in Damerel. It then passed through various hands, and eventually became the property of the St Aubyn family. Ownership of the Manor and of much of the freehold in the area remained with the St Aubyn family into the twentieth century.
Old Plymouth Society (2014?) Plotting Plymouth’s Past: Boundary Stones of Devonport
We need your help to make this page better!! If you’d like to help us investigate or have some information about this Local Mystery, please get in touch!
References:
- Anglo-Saxon Place Names – https://www.wilcuma.org.uk/wanderings-in-anglo-saxon-britain/anglo-saxon-place-names ↩︎
- David Ayres (1965) A Short History Of Higher Stoke and Milehouse – ↩︎
- David Ayres (1965) A Short History Of Higher Stoke and Milehouse – ↩︎
- Brian Moseley(2016) Stoke Damerel – Manor, Parish and Registration District https://olddevonport.uk/Stoke%20Damerel.htm ↩︎
- Old Plymouth Society (2014?) Plotting Plymouth’s Past: Boundary Stones of Devonport https://www.plymouth.gov.uk/sites/default/files/DevonportBoundaryInformation.pdf – part of a wider project from 2012-14, carried out by The Old Plymouth Society (OPS) who arranged a new survey of surviving stones and markers, supported by an ‘All Our Stories’ grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Read more about the project at https://www.plymouth.gov.uk/boundary-stones ↩︎
Contributors:
- Rachel Dobbs