When I sit here to write this post, I don’t always know what I’m going to write about – sometimes I have a very firm idea, sometimes I have a vague or very vague idea, quite often I have no clue at all! Yesterday I sat down with a very clear idea, I was going to write about where I find the names of my characters and I did. However, yesterday the introductory idea of characters’ names was going to lead into something else. I don’t have a notebook to jot ideas and thoughts into – my writing is indecipherable even to me, but I make notes on my phone – even then, typos occur. This means the odd name I have noted, might not be the actual odd name which I saw, heard, came across.
I had written ‘Mr Stroat’, and I realised that I had probably come across Stroat and thought it sounded like a sinister or odd or dangerous character, so had written it with a Mr, Mr Stroat. It wasn’t supposed to be either Stoat or Roast as my spellcheck tried to suggest, it was definitely Stroat. I googled it and came across nothing, then a memory returned. Daughter and I had been on an adventure, which you can read about here:
https://loiselsden.com/2023/10/20/creepy-eyes-upon-us/
and we went past a sign for Stroat. It’s between Chepstow and Lydney , blink and you’ll miss it. Mr Stroat, if he ever appears, somewhat creepy, in a long belted mac, black shiny shoes, thin and somewhat weedy, black slicked back hair, glasses and a flushed complexion – will be a complete fantasy, a product of my imagination and with no connection to the place, or anyone who has or does exist, it will be merely his name, a fictional name but which is real in a different sense.
Stroat. There is a standing stone at Stroat, if you have a look here, there is a photo and a small drawing of it:
There is a farm at Stroat, called Stroat Farm. There is a beautiful housing development at a place called Pennymoon in or near Stroat. As far as I can tell, Stroat is a small but lovely area in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire.
Maybe my imaginary Mr Stroat has assumed the name of this little piece of Gloucestershire. I search one genealogical site and find few people called Stroat, including brave Thomas Stroat who served in the British forces in the 1914-18 war and died overseas (no record of his birth, marriage, or census record). In the 1871 census, there is a family of Birkenhead Stroats, Phoebe, Mark, Jessie and Helen, and their father Hugh, and another couple, one from Cornwall, one from County Durham.
I search another genealogical site and find more, but not that many. It is indeed a most unusual name, and perfect for a fictional character – whether it is the Mr Stroat I described above, or someone else!
Lois Elsden 