338 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
NOTES ON 
THE EARLY HISTORY OF STOREHOUSE. 
BY R. N. WORTH, F.G.S. 
(Read 11th November, 1886.) 
A very important fragment of the early history of Stonehouse is 
embodied in its name. The first allusion to the place is found in 
Domesday, where it appears as Stanehvs. This is, of course, simply 
an older form of the modern title, which indicates the presence at 
the spot, before the Conquest, of what was then a somewhat 
notable thing — a dwelling of the kind the old writers were fond 
of calling "stane and lime." Hence, compared with the adjacent 
manors, Stonehouse, eight centuries since, possessed an important 
distinctive feature. Why so substantial a structure should have 
been erected there we may speculate, but cannot know ; and it is 
only a suggestion which can have no definite authority, that the 
great natural strength of the duplex peninsula led to its selection 
for such a residence ; while it must always have had a special 
importance from its nearness to the opposite shore, long ere that 
contiguity developed into the establishment of Cremill ferry. 
And at this early date the site of what is now Stonehouse was 
far more peninsular than now. Stonehouse Pool, or Stonehouse 
Lake, extended along the western and northern boundary, as at 
present ; but Millbay long afterwards stretched through an inner 
reach, under the name of Surpool, to the foot of the present Stoke 
Road, at the corner of the Royal Naval Hospital wall; and while 
its waters also extended westward, nearly on the line of Union 
Street, those of Stonehouse Pool expanded eastward on the same 
line. Thus the bold limestone hill to the south of Union Street 
was connected to the higher slate ridge of the North Road by a 
comparatively narrow isthmus, rising a very few feet above high- 
