Halfway along Stentaway Road sits the grade II listed Stentaway Cottage, this is the old coach house of Stentaway House which was built as a property originally known as ‘Ashleigh’ in 1834.
Stentaway Drive and Close, running eastwards off Stentaway Road are more recent developments but the old road itself is one of the more ancient thoroughfares running through Plymstock.
One of the early occupants (in the 1840s) of Stentaway house was a Plymouth solicitor, John Edward Elworthy, who lived here with his wife Elizabeth (nee Tolcher). Forty years later it was the residence of a Captain Daubeny, who used what is believed to be a redundant Saxon cross from the original chapel in Plymstock, to decorate his garden. The early Saxon wheel-head artefact still stands in a Stentaway Road garden today.
Whether it was this stone, or some other stone feature responsible it is nevertheless quite possible that the name itself is an unusual variation on Stantway or Stanway – that is either a stone way or astony (paved) way.
Curiously enough one of the first roadworthy motor cars ever licensed in the Plymstock area was to a Mr Matthews of Stentaway House – 100 years ago in February 1905.
