East Harptree, Somerset
Historical Description
Harptree, East, a village and a parish in Somerset. The village stands near the source of the river Yeo, under the Mendip Hills, 5 miles from Glutton station on the G.W.R. There is a post, money order, and telegraph office under Blag-don. The parish also includes the hamlet of Coley, and comprises 2595 acres; population of the civil parish, 604; of the-ecclesiastical, 571. Harptree Court is a pleasant mansion. The Lamb cavern is in mountain limestone W of the village, and the source of the Yeo is a copious stream gushing from the rock further W. The rocks include manganese and zinc ½ and the subsoil consista largely of a kind of breccia. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Bath and Wells; value, £260 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Bath and Wells. The church is ancient but good, consists of nave, aisle, and chancel, with a tower, and contains a figured altar-tomb of Sir John Newton, who died in 1568. The remains of Richmond Castle, the ancient fortress of the Harptreefr and Goumays, lie about half a mile SW of the church. There are a Roman Catholic church and Free Methodist chapel.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Somersetshire | |
Ecclesiastical parish | East Harptree St. Lawrence | |
Hundred | Winterstoke | |
Poor Law union | Clutton |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
Ancestry.co.uk, in association with Somerset Archives & Local Studies, have images of the Parish Registers for Somerset online.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for East Harptree from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Harptree, East (St. Lawrence))
Maps
Online maps of East Harptree are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Somerset papers online:
- Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette
- Taunton Courier, and Western Advertiser
- Western Gazette
- Wells Journal
- Somerset County Gazette
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitation of Somersetshire, 1623 is available on the Heraldry page.