Sir,—Although, as Mr. Rutter remarks, the application of port to a walled town or market town is difficult to explain, it is certainly a striking coincidence, almost amounting to proof, that the majority of inland place-names embodying the word “port” in various forms are still, or once appear to have been, townships of some consideration, holding, or once likely to have held, markets. I do not find that they were necessarily subject to circumvallation.
Newport (Isle of Wight) and Newport (Salop) have their coats of arms (the latter three fishes upon a field azure). Newport, near Saffron Walden (Essex), though now a large-sized village with a great church far too big for its present needs, is plentifully endowed with quaint old buildings that carry the mind back to former times of opulence. Its appearance as you travel through it on the great road to Cambridge fully speaks of its having experienced more spacious times.
Such thriving towns as Stockport (Cheshire), Dudley Port (Staffs.), and Stourport (Worcestershire) are yet well-known
manufacturing and trading centres, each holding important sheep and cattle fairs. It is worthy of note that the
so-called Port Meadow at Oxford, which is nearly five miles long, has long been a free pasture ground for the exclusive
use of the citizens, and it is hardly extravagant to associate this name with the important cattle market in that city.
Between Wareham and Weymouth, in Dorset, near
BreadwardineUsually spelt Bredwardine,
in Herefordshire, near the city of Hereford, and again near
Ludlow, are to be found other instances of Portways, which generally seem to have the characteristics of Roman roads or
early British trackways.
Yours faithfully,
Alan B. Anderson.
Chackmore, Buckingham,
October 30, 1922.
Source info: MS note by AW “Observer”; letter is dated “October 30, 1922”.