Editing Stiffkey (section)

==Etymology and geology==
Stiffkey is first evidenced in the [[Domesday Book]] of 1086, and means 'stump island, island with stumps of trees'.<ref name="Sti" />

The local historical pronunciation of the village is 'Stiff-key' and not ‘Stew-key’. The mis-pronunciation is primarily due to the underlying [[Glauconite|glauconitic]] clays (blue-green clays – formerly Blue Marl), BGS lexicon [[Lithology|lithological]] description: Pale to dark grey or blue-grey clay or mudstone, glauconitic in part, with a sandy base. Discrete bands of phosphatic nodules (commonly preserving fossils), some pyrite and calcareous nodules. In Norfolk, the [[Cretaceous]] Gault Formation becomes [[calcareous]] before passing northwards into the [http://www.bgs.ac.uk/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?pub=HUCK Hunstanton Formation] ("Red Chalk"). In places thin, variable junction beds at the base include some [[limestone]]s. (BGS lexicon: [http://www.bgs.ac.uk/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?pub=GLT Gault Formation] which belongs to the [http://www.bgs.ac.uk/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?pub=SELB Selbourne Group]).

The blue clays are known locally as 'Norfolk Stew', hence{{dubious|date=July 2020}} the name 'Stew-Key' [Stew-quay] as the flats there and the quays use the underlying blue clays (muds) weathered from Cretaceous bedrock. As already noted the local fauna of cockles can be stained with relation to their habitat. Glauconite is an iron- and potassium-rich mineral and the solid phase reactions can produce the iron- and potassium-rich dye [[Prussian blue]].

The correct and locally used pronunciation is ‘Stiff-key’. In the Domesday book it is spelt ‘Stiucai’, when this was written there weren't separate letters for ‘V’ and ‘U’. All names with a ‘V’ sound were spelt with a ‘U’. It is thought that ‘Stew-key’ arose from the mis-reading of the Domesday spelling.

Later on English spelling evolved, and by 1300 the spelling ‘Styfkey’ appeared in documents, which is pretty hard to mid-represent. [Stiffkey with Cockthorpe: A story of Norfolk People, 2013].