Talk:River Stort

Name of the river

I have corrected an inadequately-sourced and dubious statement:

From:

River Stort takes its name from Bishop's Stortford, a town through which it flows. It was given the name in the 16th century.

To:

The River Stort flows through the town of Bishop's Stortford. It is unclear whether the name of the town comes from river, or the name of the river from the town. In the 11th century the manor here was named Esterteferd.

The original reference does not support the statment that the river's name comes from the town.

The article for Bishop's Stortford gives more information, but is unsourced:

A new Saxon settlement grew up on the site, named Steort-ford, meaning "tail ford", "ford at tongues of land". In 1060, William, Bishop of London, bought the Stortford manor and estate for eight pounds, leading to the town's modern name.

This supports the theory that the river's name comes from the town, but we should not claim this without a solid reference.

I plan to remove the statement in the Bishop's Stortford article about the name of the river, for the same reasons. Verbcatcher (talk) 16:33, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

I have looked at this again and have undone my edit. I was not looking at the correct reference. The reference had link rot, and was pointing to the wrong page. I have corrected the link. However, I am still sceptical. The refererence given is to a town history website which does not itself cite a source. The referenced page also claims:

Not until the 16th century did the river flowing through Bishop’s Stortford finally acquire a title

It is very unlikely that the Iron Age tribes in the area did not have a name for this river, and this may have been the origin of the present name.Verbcatcher (talk) 16:58, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

References