The Name Stichelton

"When we were told that we couldn’t call our cheese Stilton, we spent a lot of time coming up with another name. In the end it was Mr. Arnold who came up with the name Stichelton. He has been a regular and faithful customer at Neal's Yard Dairy for many years, attending numerous tastings and plying us with some of the best wine I have ever had and he also happens to be a member of the English Place Names Society. It was during one of our tastings that he corrected me on the name of Elizabeth Harris’ goats cheese Verulamium. I said that Verulamium was the Roman name for St Albans and from the back of the room there was a roar “Its not Roman it Britonnic”. The conversation that ensued included the fact that we were looking for a name for our cheese and he subsequently suggested several early forms of the name of the village Stilton. The one we chose was originally recorded in the twelfth century Lincoln Rolls, which were an early record of villages rather like the earlier Domesday Book carried out by Lincoln Cathedral. The name is derived for the old English 'Stichl' meaning a style and 'Tun' meaning village or hamlet."