West Harptree, Somerset

Historical Description

Harptree, West, a village and a parish in Somerset. The village stands 1 mile N by W of East Harptree, and about 5 miles from Clutton station on the G.W.R., and contains the old manor houses of Gournay and Tilly, now converted into farm dwellings. There is a post office under Blagdon; money order and telegraph office, East Harptree. Acreage of the civil parish, 3046; population, 347; of the ecclesiastical, 327. The manor of Gournay belongs to the Prince of Wales, and that of Tilly to the Newtons. A wooded hollow called Haydon's Gully, in a hillside, derives its name from having been the hiding-place of Colonel Haydon, a partisan of the Duke of Monmouth. The living is a vicarage-in the diocese of Bath and Wells; gross value, £260 with residence. Patron, the Prince of Wales. The church is ancient, was restored in 1864, and a transept added, at a cost of £1500, and comprises nave, aisle, and porch, with-tower and spire.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

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.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for West Harptree from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Harptree, West (St. Mary))

Maps

Online maps of West 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.