what's in a name - Bradley Stoke and others

correspondence from The Times




Sir, Is the name of a new Bristol suburb, Bradley Stoke, really so “bland and amorphous” as Ross Clark claims ? Surely the name belongs to the ruthlessly self-centred villain of a Victorian novel who will break any woman’s heart and embezzle any man’s money.

Leofranc Holford-Strevens

Oxford

Sir, I vaguely remember the Victorian novel of which Bradley Stoke was the toponymous villain. Didn’t he attempt to ruin the heroine Mavis Enderby, only to be thwarted in the end by the dashing Boothby Graffoe?

J. Burscough

Sir, J. Burscough is correct in recalling the novel featuring Bradley Stoke, Mavis Enderby and Boothby Graffoe. I recall these being portrayed in a mid-1930s British film in which the hero and heroine were played respectively by Christian Malford and Sandy Lane. The villain was played by the then ageing matinee idol Compton Chamberlayne. All three of the actors originated from Wiltshire.

D Blackshaw

Salisbury, Wilts

Sir, Leofranc Holford-Strevens’s suggestion that the place name Bradley Stoke would transfer well to a character in a novel has merit but, even better, would be to use any two of the three elements of his name for a new English village somewhere. In the Quantocks, perhaps?

Brian Parker

Dartmouth, Devon

Sir, With regard to Bradley Stoke, he was apprehended by Charlton Musgrove, the famous detective, and brought before Sir Compton Pauncefoot. Before he could be sentenced, however, he made a dramatic escape from the courtroom aided by his loyal manservant, Hinton Blewett. Incidentally, Bradley is not to be confused with his rather more effete brother, Limpley.

Dante Mansi

London N8

Sir, We in North Yorkshire well remember Bradley Stoke’s effete brother Limpley. He fell in with two of our most licentious luvvies: Ainderby Quernhow and Carlton Miniott.

Their behaviour so outraged the locals that they were eventually arrested by Sheriff Hutton, tried before judge Hanging Grimston at the court in Thwing where they received a suspended sentence.

David Himsworth

Malton, N Yorks