Powerstock, County of Dorset, England (United Kingdom), Europe

Powerstock is a village and a civil parish in south-west Dorset, England, and is situated in a steep valley on the edge of the Dorset Downs, 5 miles (8.0 km) north-east of the market town of Bridport The village contains many cottages and inns; the small Mangerton River runs through the valley The civil parish includes the village of West Milton to the west and the summit and northern slopes of Eggardon Hill to the south-east In 2013 the parish had an estimated population of 290; in the 2011 census; figures are published for the Powerstock parish combined with the small parish of North Poorton to the north for a population in this area of 358 The Powerstock name has frequently been misstated (in tree research) as Bridport and as Poorstock (both North and South) and as the inverse of each: Don's tree has attempted to correct such irritations The origins of the name have not been fully determined; the second part derives from the Old English word "stoc", meaning an outlying farmstead, but the first part-similar to the nearby settlement of Poorton-is unresolved. The Domesday Book of 1086 records the area as "Povrestoch" According to source (1), the name was 'Poorstock' until the Bridport Railway was built through the village in 1857, when the change to Powerstock was made to avoid connotations of 'poor (rolling) stock'. However, another source (2) states that the name existed in its current form as early as 1787. The Powerstock railway station and the entire Bridport branch line were closed on 5 May 1975 Sources: 1) Powerstock Station All Change; Diana P Read / ISBN 0-9527522-0-4 2) The Dorset drive: The valleys of the West and the scenic coast road; Matt Wilkinson / Dorset Life Magazine, January 2014 3) Web tag