Bishop's Stortford

The story

Uncertain. Possibly the Saxon settlement derived its name from 'Steorta's ford' or 'tail ford', in the sense of a 'tail', or tongue, of land. The town became known as Bishop's Stortford due to the acquisition in 1060 by the Bishop of London. The River Stort is named after the town: 16th-century cartographers assumed that the town must have been named after the ford over the river.