1) In many parts of Yorkshire the channels which drained riverside land were called ‘gotes’ or ‘goits’, and the goit stocks were probably the wooden parts of the channel in which the water ran.
There is detailed information in papers which relate to lands in Cawood and Wistow, territory which formerly belonged to the Archbishop of York: 1761 a Great many what we commonly call Gotstocks for the dreaning and Conveying the water Cross and out of the Roads and Common landes … must be repaired and amended . The structures demanded large amounts of timber, and eight oak trees were requested on that occasion. William Storr was a tenant of the Archbishop and in his day book he noted that a right to take water out of bishop dike at a goat stock had applied in 1679 and he thought the custom applied more generally at other Stocks.