Stokstraat 

Fig. 37: Location of the Stokstraat

It was actually called Grote (Large) Stokstraat, also called Stockstraat or Rue Bâton in the French era. Ad Truncum in Latin, after stick or trunk. This is where there would have been an old tree (a trunk) where justice was administered, whereas legal sentences were spoken at the old town hall on the Kersenmarkt. The Kersenmarkt was an open square that ran from the current café Au Mouton Blanc to the Havenstraat in the east. The name Stokstraat may also refer to the cellars where evildoers were “closed in stock”. Then 'stock' refers to repository or prison (house of detention). East of the current Church of Our Lady, the Stokstraat didn’t used to be called Stokstraat, but Graanmarkt or Korenmarkt. In the fourteenth century, several bathing establishments or bathing stoves (Latin: stupae) could be found in this part of the street. In stoves or ‘stuven’ loose women worked. The bathing stoves were therefore public houses, or brothels.

Fig. 49: The Stokstraat today.

Reference: 

Schaepkens van Riemst, J., “Eenige bijzonderheden omtrent straten, pleinen en bewoners van het oude Tricht”, in: Publications de la Société Historique et Archéologique dans le Limbourg, 43 (1907), 39-369; PSHAL 67 (1931), 187-232; PSHAL 68 (1932), 71-112; PSHAL 69 (1933), 63-86.