Hatcliffe 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 rural

North East Lincolnshire North East Lincolnshire is a Unitary authority area with borough status in Lincolnshire, England. It borders the borough of North Lincolnshire and districts of West Lindsey and East Lindsey. The population of the district in the 2011 Census was ...

, England. It is situated south-west from

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of Linco ...

and west from the

A18 A18 or A-18 is a three-character acronym that may refer to: * A18 road (disambiguation), in several countries * A-18 Shrike, a Curtiss Model 76A twin radial engine monoplane service test aircraft of the mid-1930s * Aero A.18, a Czech fighter aircra ...

. Less than to the north is the neighbouring village of

Beelsby Beelsby is a village in North East Lincolnshire, England. The village is situated approximately south-west from Grimsby. Beelsby population at the 2001 Census was 114, increasing to 119 at the 2011 census. The village is the source for the Ri ...

. Hatcliffe sits in the

Lincolnshire Wolds The Lincolnshire Wolds are a range of low hills in the county of Lincolnshire, England which run roughly parallel with the North Sea coast, from the Humber Estuary in the north-west to the edge of the Lincolnshire Fens in the south-east. They a ...

, an

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of thei ...

History

In ''A Dictionary of British Place-Names'', A.D. Mills suggests the etymology of Hatcliffe to reflect a personal name and a geographic feature to mean 'the cliff or bank of a man called Hadda'. In the 11th century

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 ...

Hatcliffe's population of 9 smallholders and 9 freemen, in 18 households, was considered a 'medium' sized village. The lord of the manor in 1066 was

Ralph the Staller Ralph the Staller (or Radulf Stalre or Ralph l'Écuyer / Ralph the Squire ( 1011 – 1069) was a noble and landowner in both Anglo-Saxon and post-Conquest England. He is said to have been born in Norfolk of high born Breton and English par ...

(or 'Ralp the Constable') and, in 1086, the lord and tenant-in-chief was

Alan Rufus Alan Rufus, alternatively Alanus Rufus (Latin), Alan ar Rouz (Breton), Alain le Roux ( French) or Alan the Red (c. 1040 – 1093), 1st Lord of Richmond, was a Breton nobleman, kinsman and companion of William the Conqueror (Duke William II of No ...

. The manor was long held by the family who bore the Hatcliffe name, including William Hatcliffe who served

Henry VI of England Henry VI (6 December 1421 – 21 May 1471) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. The only child of Henry V, he succeeded to the English thron ...

and

Edward IV of England Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England ...

, as court physician in the 15th century. In the late 1500s, Thomas Hatcliffe, was a Member of Parliament for Grimsby. He was rumoured to be cursed for rebuilding his new manor house in the village from the stones of a demolished church. In the 1960s, American academic

John Leslie Hotson John Leslie Hotson, (16 August 1897 – 16 November 1992) was a scholar of Elizabethan literary puzzles. Biography He was born at Delhi, Ontario, on 16 August 1897. He studied at Harvard University, where he obtained a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. He we ...

, then at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, published his theory that Thomas's son, William Hatcliffe, was the 'Mr W.H.' to whom

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

dedicated his

sonnets A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...

in 1609.

St. Mary's Church

The

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

of St Mary's dates from the 13th century, and contains memorials dedicated to the Hatcliffe family dating to 1525. The former

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

in the centre of the village has been converted to a house, and stands by a small stream with stone bridge crossings.

References

External links

* Villages in Lincolnshire Borough of North East Lincolnshire Civil parishes in Lincolnshire {{Lincolnshire-geo-stub