The Village

Stoke Golding lies in the heart of England, on the southwestern edge of Leicestershire, close to the Warwickshire border. Within two miles is the market town of Hinckley and 16 miles away is the City of Leicester.

This village has a most unusual claim to fame, in that in 1485 the people of the village witnessed the rural coronation of the first Tudor monarch, Henry VII. His defeat of the last of the Plantagenets, King Richard III, at the Battle of Bosworth Field marked the end of the Wars of the Roses and heralded the accession to the throne of three Tudor Kings and two Queens, culminating in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Read more about villagers’ experiences of the battle here.

In the early part of the last century Stoke Golding was a small village, self-sufficient in every way, with small factories making a variety of wares, including socks, stockings and shoes. A number of small shops, now mostly gone, served the community, as did three public houses. Goods could be brought to and from the village either by the Ashby canal, or the railway which connected Stoke Golding to Nuneaton, Coalville and the North.

Nowadays, the village shops have been reduced to one, although the three pubs and Stoke Golding Club remain. The railway has long since gone and the canal is now used purely for recreational purposes. The village has grown in size, with the building of housing estates around its perimeter and its residents commuting to work in the nearby towns. Much of the local industry has gone too, but a small trading estate flourishes, comprising of a number of small companies. Details of local businesses and organisations can be found in the village directory.

The Name “Stoke Golding”

The puzzle of the place name has not yet been satisfactorily solved. Stoke is a Saxon name, which means log or stockaded abode. A family called Stoke or de Stoke had settled in the village by 1150. Whether they gave their name to the village or took their name from the place is not known. Recent research has suggested that Stoke was part of a large Saxon estate and that Stoke was the dairy farm for the estate.

Golding does not appear until about 1570 and there are several possible suggestions for its origin. Golding is believed to be an obsolete word, which signified ‘crowning’, and there was, in 1604, a field known as ‘Le Gulden’ – The Golden. In 1505, a subsidy roll gave the name as Stoke Mansfield, thought to have been an abbreviation of ‘Richmondsfield’. Another suggestion is that ‘Golding’ had its origin from the prevalence of bright yellow flowers, which grew in the neighbourhood. The most likely suggestion is that ‘Golding’ is a corruption of ‘Stokeholden’. In 1605 there were known to be two fields called ‘The Oulden’, lying on the boundary of the parish. Hence Stoke Holden, then Stoke Golding.

– Historical research by Jill Webster, local historian