Octon 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 shrunken medieval village 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.

History

Octon is recorded 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 ...

'' as "Ocheton". The village contained a chapel dedicated to St. Michael (noted in 1327). After around 1400 no records exist relating to the chapel, and the village is thought likely to have been depopulated as a result of the

Black Death The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...

. By the 19th century the village was reduced to a small farming hamlet. In 1823 three farmers and a gamekeeper were recorded as resident in Octon, with a further two farmers at Octon Grange just over to the north. The extent of the hamlet remained unexpanded throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The modern village is at the same location as the reduced medieval village; earthworks of the medieval church and village were scheduled as an ancient monument in 1994. The 'Old farmhouse' at Glebe farm, Octon, a cruck framed longhouse dating from the 17th century is a Grade II*

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 ...

Geography

Octon is located approximately west of Thwing in the civil parish of Thwing. It is situated in the

Yorkshire Wolds The Yorkshire Wolds are low hills in the counties of the East Riding of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire in north-eastern England. The name also applies to the district in which the hills lie. On the western edge, the Wolds rise to an escarpment wh ...

at a height of over above sea level approximately 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 ...

on the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

coast. The village includes a large house 'Octon Manor'.Ordnance Survey. 1:25000. 2009

Notable people

Thomas Lamplugh Thomas Lamplugh (1615 – 5 May 1691) was an English churchman who became Archbishop of York. Life He was the son of Christopher Lamplugh of Thwing, East Riding of Yorkshire, Yorkshire and his wife Anne, daughter and coheir of Thomas Roper of ...

, archbishop, was born in Octon in 1614.

References

Sources

External links

* {{authority control Villages in the East Riding of Yorkshire Deserted medieval villages in the East Riding of Yorkshire Thwing and Octon