Harpham is a small village 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. It is located just south of the A614 road, approximately north-east of

Driffield Driffield, also known as Great Driffield, is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The civil parish is formed by the town of Driffield and the village of Little Driffield. By road, it is north-east of Leeds ...

and south-west of

Bridlington Bridlington is a coastal town and a civil parish on the Holderness Coast of the North Sea in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is about north of Hull and east of York. The Gypsey Race enters the North Sea at its harbour. The 2011 Cen ...

. The civil parish is formed by the village of Harpham and the

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 ...

s of

Lowthorpe Lowthorpe is a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately north-east of Driffield town centre and south-west of Bridlington town centre. It lies south-east of the A614 road and just north-west of the York ...

and

Ruston Parva Ruston Parva is a hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately south-west of Bridlington and lies just north of the A614. It forms part of the civil parish of Harpham. In the '' Domesday'' account the villag ...

. 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 ...

, Harpham parish had a population of 303, a decline 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 318.

History

The village appears 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 ...

as belonging to King William, and having 29 ploughlands. The name of the village is thought to derive 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 ...

of ''Hearpe-hām''; the Salt-Harp village or farmstead. Although not on the coast, the proximity of the Holderness coastline is thought to be the influence of the salt. Three Roman mosaics were found near Harpham in 1905, and three more were discovered in 1950. The first three are now in the

Hull and East Riding Museum The Hull and East Riding Museum is located in the Museums Quarter of the Old Town in Kingston upon Hull, England. It dates back to 1925 as the Museum of Commerce and Industry in a former Customs House but acquired its present name in 1989 with ...

. They are simply patterned. One represented a rectangular maze, one of only five examples known in Roman mosaics in Britain. It is here that

St John of Beverley John of Beverley (died 7 May 721) was an English bishop active in the kingdom of Northumbria. He was the bishop of Hexham and then the bishop of York, which was the most important religious designation in the area. He went on to found the town ...

was born in the 7th century; he became the

Bishop of Hexham The Bishop of Hexham was an episcopal title which took its name after the market town of Hexham in Northumberland, England. The title was first used by the Anglo-Saxons in the 7th and 9th centuries, and then by the Roman Catholic Church sinc ...

as well as the

Bishop 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 ...

. The church is dedicated to him and was designated a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

in 1966 and is now recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

, maintained by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

. The Well of St John, the local well, is named after him and is believed by many to have healing powers. The well is designated as a Grade II listed building. In 1823, Harpham was a civil parish in 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. The St Quintin family were

lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or ar ...

s of Harpham. The foundations of the St Quintin mansion were recorded as being to the west of the church. The church contains St Quintin burials in the north

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...

and a

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

window to Sir William St Quintin, twenty-eighth in succession, who died in 1777. ''

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 ...

'' also notes the village as being wholly agricultural, with a population of 251. Occupations included eight farmers, two grocers, two shoemakers, a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

, a

wheelwright A wheelwright is a craftsman who builds or repairs wooden wheels. The word is the combination of "wheel" and the word "wright", (which comes from the Old English word "''wryhta''", meaning a worker or shaper of wood) as in shipwright and arkw ...

, a tailor, a butcher, and the

landlord A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant (also a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). When a juristic person is in this position, the ...

of the St Quintin Arms

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

. There was also a

linen Linen () is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. Linen is very strong, absorbent, and dries faster than cotton. Because of these properties, linen is comfortable to wear in hot weather and is valued for use in garments. It also ...

manufacturer. A carrier operated between the village and Bridlington once a week. The nearest railway station was at on the Hull to Scarborough line, but this closed in January 1970. Now, the nearest station is at . The village gave its name to HMS ''Harpham'', a

Ham class minesweeper The Ham class was a class of inshore minesweepers (IMS), known as the Type 1, of the British Royal Navy. The class was designed to operate in the shallow water of rivers and estuaries. All of the ships in the class are named for British place nam ...

References

External links

* * {{authority control Villages in the East Riding of Yorkshire Civil parishes in the East Riding of Yorkshire