Last update: March 2010.

FEATURED IN: The Iron Legion, The Tides of Time, Stars Fell on Stockbridge, The Stockbridge Horror, Endgame, Oblivion, The Stockbridge Child,

There is a real village called Stockbridge in Hampshire. However, the village so beloved of the Doctor is clearly defined (twice) in Stars Fell on Stockbridge as being in Gloucestershire.

It had long been a source of fan debate that the village we see the Doctor visiting in The Iron Legion was, in fact, Stockbridge. This speculation arose because of the similarities in the church tower in this story and the Fifth Doctor strips. It would not be until 2008’s The Stockbridge Child that this debate would be conclusively settled as the shop visited by the Fourth Doctor in The Iron Legion, J. Grubb General Store, was shown to be part of the village. This makes Stockbridge not only the single-most visited fictional location in the entire history of the comic strips (his cottage probably coming a very distant second), but also the place visited over the greatest span of time. Indeed, the TARDIS, unbeknown to the Doctor, and possessed by an elemental being, travelled back five hundred million years to where Stockbridge quarry would one day be and left an impression in what would later become limestone rock.

The village is not named in The Tides of Time.

During the Medieval period, Sir Hector of Richmond presumably lived close by, as Sir Justin was heading to meet him in combat before being transported through time to Wells Wood. After giving his life to defeat Melanicus, the church in Stockbridge was named St Justinian’s by Merlin in honour of the brave knight, which presumably means that the church had previously been called something different but the timeline adjusted to allow for this new name. It was also during the Middle Ages that the Lokhus fell to Earth (The Stockbridge Child).

According to The Tides of Time, during World War II, an Army base resided on the Stockbridge village green.

The Fifth Doctor spent at least one long summer in Stockbridge playing on the local cricket team, and neglecting the TARDIS, as he stayed at the Green Dragon Inn in the heart of the village, which was run by Mrs Withers. It was probably during this time that he also became head of the Stockbridge Chess Society, as mentioned in the Tenth Doctor IDW strip Fugitive.

In these early stories, we learn that Stockbridge is situated close to Wells Wood, there are at least three pubs in Stockbridge, these being The Fox Inn, the Redfern Inn and the Green Dragon Inn (though this last one may just be a guest house), Limestone Lane is bordered by meadows, and the Stockbridge Limestone Co Ltd quarry is located a short bus ride outside the village with Wells Wood between the two.

Years later, the Eighth Doctor returned to Stockbridge in Endgame, where the Doctor again met Maxwell Edison. This time, the Celestial Toymaker had trapped the village, frozen in time, inside a macro-dimensional linkage device, and replaced it with a twisted copy populated by dolls.

Here we learnt that Stockbridge is in a valley with the meadows (and presumably therefore Limestone Lane) above it. The Doctor intends to visit the Wisteria Tea Rooms, run by old Mrs Parkhouse (at least during the 1980s), who baked scones. There is a butchers, a bakers, a bookshop and, somewhat  improbably, a candlestick-maker, though at least one of these might be an invention of the Celestial Toymaker. We also learn that the whole village and surrounding valley occupies less than a five-mile area.

Izzy joined the Doctor’s travels at this point, which is later identified in Oblivion as 19 December 1996, the exact time and place that the Doctor later returned her to following her many adventures aboard the TARDIS.