Cottam is a
hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
in the
East Riding of Yorkshire
The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...
, England. The hamlet is west of the
B1249 Skipsea
Skipsea is a village and civil parish on the North Sea coast of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately south of Bridlington and north of Hornsea on the B1242 road at its junction with the B1249 road.
The civil par ...
to
Staxton
Staxton is a village in North Yorkshire, England, part of the civil parish of Willerby, and situated approximately 8.2 miles from Scarborough town centre.
Until 1974 the village lay in the historic county boundaries of the East Riding of York ...
road, and in the
Yorkshire Wolds. It is north from the
county town
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a county town is the most important town or city in a county. It is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county and the place where the county's members of Parliament are elect ...
of
Beverley
Beverley is a market town, market and minster (church), minster town and a civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The town centre is located south-east of York's centre ...
, and approximately east from the village of
Sledmere
Sledmere is a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, about north-west of Driffield on the B1253 road.
The village lies in a civil parish which is also officially called "Sledmere" by the Office for National Statistics, although th ...
.
The civil parish is formed by the hamlet of Cottam, and
Cowlam
Cowlam is a hamlet in the Cottam civil parish of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, and in the Yorkshire Wolds. The hamlet is on the B1253 Bridlington to North Grimston road, north from the county town of Beverley, east from the villa ...
to its north-west. According to the
2011 UK census
A census of the population of the United Kingdom is taken every ten years. The 2011 census was held in all countries of the UK on 27 March 2011. It was the first UK census which could be completed online via the Internet. The Office for National ...
, Cottam parish had a population of 108,
an increase on the
2001 UK census
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194.
The 2001 UK census was organised by the Office for National ...
figure of 74, which was the lowest population figure of any East Riding of Yorkshire civil parish in 2001.
History
According to ''A Dictionary of British Place Names'', Cottam derives from the
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
'cot' (plural: cotum), meaning "a place at the cottages or huts". In the ''
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...
'' the
manor
Manor may refer to:
Land ownership
*Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England
*Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism
*Man ...
is written as 'cottun' Cottam was in the
Hundred of Toreshou, of nine geld units—taxable units assessed by
hide area—and contained five
ploughlands. In 1066 the
lordship was held by Ulf of Carlton, who held sixteen manors in the north of Yorkshire, transferred in 1086 to the
Archbishop of York
The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers th ...
,
Thomas of Bayeux
Thomas of Bayeux (died 1100) was Archbishop of York from 1070 until 1100. He was educated at Liège and became a royal chaplain to Duke William of Normandy, who later became King William I of England. After the Norman Conquest, the king ...
, who was also
Tenant-in-chief
In medieval and early modern Europe, the term ''tenant-in-chief'' (or ''vassal-in-chief'') denoted a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as op ...
to king
William I
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087 ...
.
Cottam was previously an Anglo-Scandinavian medieval village that was deserted. All that remains today is the now derelict Church of Holy Trinity which was rebuilt in 1818 and again . The font of the first
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
church on the site is now in
Langtoft church.
In 1823, ''
Baines
Baines is a surname of English, Scottish or Welsh origin. It shares many of the same roots with the British surname Bains.Reaney, P.H. ''A Dictionary of British Surnames'' Routledge & Kegan Paul, 2nd edition (1976)Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Di ...
'' recorded that 'Cotham' was in the parish of Langtoft, the
wapentake
A hundred is an administrative division that is geographically part of a larger region. It was formerly used in England, Wales, some parts of the United States, Denmark, Southern Schleswig, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Bishopric of Ösel–Wiek, C ...
of
Dickering
In the social sciences, bargaining or haggling is a type of negotiation in which the buyer and seller of a good or service debate the price or nature of a transaction. If the bargaining produces agreement on terms, the transaction takes pla ...
, and the
liberty
Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom.
In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...
of
St Peter's, and noted a
chapel of ease
A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently.
Often a chapel of ea ...
to the parish church at Langtoft. The population of sixteen included a curate and a gentleman farmer.
[ Baines, Edward (1823)]
''History, Directory and Gazetteer of the County of York''
p188
RAF Cottam was built as a bomber airfield in the Second World War but was never used for flying.
Later the runways were used for bomb storage and the buildings were demolished in 1980.
[
]
References
*
External links
*
{{East Yorkshire, state=collapsed
Civil parishes in the East Riding of Yorkshire
Deserted medieval villages in the East Riding of Yorkshire