Stockport was recorded as "Stokeport" in 1170. The currently
accepted etymology is Old English stoc,
a market place, with port, a
hamlet (but more accurately a minor settlement within an estate); hence, a
market place at a hamlet. Older derivations include stock, a stockaded place or castle, with port, a wood, hence a castle in a wood. The castle probably
refers to Stockport Castle, a 12th-century motte-and-bailey first
