Albermarle Villas

Over the years names get corrupted in a variety of ways, so that a single name can spawn a number of variations. Such is the case with ancient manor of Stoches, or Stoke, in Plymouth, which after the Norman Conquest was given by William to fellow Norman, Robert de Albermala. Thus under its new owner the area became known as Stoches de Albermal, an unwieldly piece of Anglo-French which in time was transmuted into Stoke Damerel.

Meanwhile, when the time came to christen the new, single sided road sporting a number of fine pre-Victorian properties, designed by the Three Town's celebrated architect John Foulston, the name plucked out of the ether was Albermarle Villas (the same spelling incidentally is employed in the naming of a city in South Carolina, in the United States.

EH March 1, 1997