Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Stombelhole 1281 Norfolk

• Stombelhale 1332 SR

• Stumbleholt 1823 Br

Etymology

Stumbleholt (6″) is Stombelhole 1281Norfolk (p), Stombelhale 1332 SR (p), Stombilhol 1381, Stumbelhole 1448Norfolk , Stumbleholt 1823 Br. This name must be taken along with Stumblehole infra 299, West Humble supra 82 and Stumbleholm (PN Sx 208). As shown in PN Sx loc. cit., there was a ME  word stumbel , probably denoting a stump of a tree. The three places are comparatively close together, and as the forms are, except for those of Stumblehole in Leigh, of comparatively late date, and, in all the earliest forms, derived from personal names, the probability is that we have to deal with one name rather than three, the other two being manorial in origin. With regard to the significance of the name, the places might be said to lie in slight hollows, but they are hardly perceptible, and it would seem better to take the original significance of the name to have been 'stump-hollow,' the farm having been so named from some ancient tree then reduced to nothing but a hollow stump.