Stockingford is a suburb of the town of

Nuneaton Nuneaton ( ) is a market town in the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth in northern Warwickshire, England, close to the county border with Leicestershire and West Midlands County.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : Nuneaton's ...

, in the county of

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

, England, about west of the town centre. Stockingford first appeared in records in 1157, named ''Stoccingford'', derived from the

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''Stocc''; to root up trees. It therefore has its origin as a clearance in a wood, by a

ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

across a stream. It was historically a small hamlet within the old

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

of Nuneaton. In the early 19th century the area became industrialised, with several

collieries Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

and

brickwork Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called '' courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by s ...

s, and the population expanded rapidly. In 1824, the church of St Paul's was built, originally as a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ea ...

to the main church in Nuneaton. Stockingford became a separate

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish priest ...

in 1846, and St Paul's church became a

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

. Stockingford was served by its own railway station on the Birmingham to Nuneaton line from 1864 until 1968. There have been proposals to reopen the station in recent years. Stockingford was mentioned in George Eliot's novel

Scenes of Clerical Life ''Scenes of Clerical Life'' is George Eliot's first published work of fiction, a collection of three short stories, published in book form; it was the first of her works to be released under her famous pseudonym. The stories were first publis ...

as 'Paddiford Common'. The area is adjacent to

Whittleford Park Whittleford Park is a 43 hectare greenspace located between Stockingford and Camp Hill in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Although its development as a public park by Warwickshire County Council only started in 2005, it has a long industrial history, be ...

, a public park and nature reserve, reclaimed from former industrial land in the 2000s.

References

External links

Stockingford archives – Our Warwickshire
Areas of Nuneaton {{Warwickshire-geo-stub