Bishop's Stortford
Major Settlement in the Parish of Bishop's Stortford
Historical Forms
- Storteford 1086 DB 1200 Cur 1428 FA
- Stortesford 1287 Ass
- Estorteford 1085–7 Dugdale, Hist. of St Pauls
- Sterteford 1198 Fees 1305 Ass
- Sterdeford 1280–5 Ipm
- Stortford 1338 Pat 1428 FA
- Stortford al. Bysshops Stortford 1587 Recov
- Bushoppes Stortford 1591 Sess
- Stratford 1493 Pat
- Strotford 1560 FF 1619 Sess
- Storford 1525 FF
- Starford 1630 StJohns
- Bishop Stafford 1710 ib
- Stourtford al. Stotford 1564 Recov
Etymology
The river Stort is probably a back-formation from Stortford, v. supra 5 and Ekwall RN 378. Ekwall (loc. cit .) compares Stortencumb (BCS 500) and suggests a personal name Steorta , perhaps found in steortan leage (BCS 731) and to be connected with OE steort, 'tail.' The difficulty about this is that though we have numerous examples of steort in place-names, nowhere else does it show any sign of becoming stort , and indeed such a development in early times would be quite irregular. It may be that side by side with steort from *stert , there was in OE a form stort from *sturt , such as has to be assumed to explain some of the early forms of the verb start (cf. NED s. v .). The Bishop of London held the manor in DB.