West Stockwith is a village within the Bassetlaw district of

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

, England. The population at the 2011 census was 327. it lies on the west bank of the

River Trent The Trent is the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, third-longest river in the United Kingdom. Its Source (river or stream), source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midland ...

, north-west of

Gainsborough Gainsborough or Gainsboro may refer to: Places * Gainsborough, Ipswich, Suffolk, England ** Gainsborough Ward, Ipswich * Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, a town in England ** Gainsborough (UK Parliament constituency) * Gainsborough, New South Wales, ...

and east of Misterton. West Stockwith is an

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 the Church of England

Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham The Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham is a Church of England diocese in the Province of York, headed by the Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham. It covers all the English county of Nottinghamshire and a few parishes in South Yorkshire. It is b ...

with the parish church of

St Mary the Virgin's Church, West Stockwith St Mary the Virgin's Church, West Stockwith is a Grade II* listed parish church in the Church of England in West Stockwith, Nottinghamshire, England. History The church dates from 1722 and was built for William Huntington. It is part of a join ...

being built in 1722.

East Stockwith East Stockwith is a village within the civil parish of East Stockwith, in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It lies on the River Trent, north-west of Gainsborough. The River Trent Aegir, a tidal bore, reaches the village. In ...

is a settlement on the other side of the Trent, but within the county boundaries of

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

. The two villages were once linked together by a passenger ferry.

Etymology

Unlike other places in the region which have "with" in their names, which is usually from

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

''víðr'' "wood",

cognate In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...

with

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 ...

''wudu'' "wood", the second element here is Old Norse ''vað'' "ford, river crossing", as seen in

Wath upon Dearne Wath upon Dearne (shortened to Wath or often hyphenated) is a town south of the River Dearne in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, north of Rotherham and almost midway between Barnsley and Doncaster. It had a po ...

. The first element is less clear: it is either Old English stocc "tree-trunk" or stoc "village, outlying

farmstead A homestead is an isolated dwelling, especially a farmhouse, and adjacent outbuildings, typically on a large agricultural holding such as a ranch or station. In North America the word "homestead" historically referred to land claimed by a set ...

" (as seen in

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...

and

Stoke Poges Stoke Poges () is a village and civil parish in south-east Buckinghamshire, England. It is centred north-north-east of Slough, its post town, and southeast of Farnham Common. Etymology In the name Stoke Poges, ''stoke'' means " stockaded (p ...

. The name was recorded as ''Wessockiv'' in 1139.

West Stockwith today

Today West Stockwith is a village with one main street and a few side roads, one cul-de-sac of former farm-workers' houses and another the former vicarage. There are signs still of its industrial past with the well-preserved Water Lanes which allow access from the road to the banks of the

, even via a ginnel under part of one property. The industry related to the River has gone, so too the original work related to the

Chesterfield Canal The Chesterfield Canal is a narrow canal in the East Midlands of England and it is known locally as 'Cuckoo Dyke'. It was one of the last of the canals designed by James Brindley, who died while it was being constructed. It was opened in 1777 a ...

which reaches the Trent at the Basin. This is now the home of river cruisers and narrow boats for hire and for leisure. The river was once home to many of the workers and there were once more than eleven public houses, many in the front rooms of today's cottages, which still contain evidence of their past use. Only two pubs remain although the Yacht Club in the basin caters to boat owners and holds various events over the year. The Hospital Day which was traditionally held in July to raise money by children dressing up and decorating floats, usually farmers' wagons, is no more. Of the industry that replaced that related to the water, there are local grass and potato merchants and the former Trent-side Chemical works is now an industrial park with a variety of businesses, from engineering and motor-cycle related works to some boat building enterprises. The White Hart public house opened the Idle Brewery in 2007
'Idle Brewery at the White Hart pub in West Stockwith' – article in Gainsborough Standard, retrieved 16 July 2012. and sells to other pubs in the area and elsewhere. The school has also closed and both that building and the former masters' premises are now private houses.

References

External links

{{authority control Villages in Nottinghamshire Civil parishes in Nottinghamshire Bassetlaw District