Booze is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

Arkengarthdale Arkengarthdale is a dale, or valley, on the east side of the Pennines in North Yorkshire, England. Running roughly north-west to south-east, it is the valley of the Arkle Beck, and is the northernmost of the Yorkshire Dales. It is a subsidiary ...

, in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

, England. It is about east of Langthwaite. There are 11 households in the hamlet. There is a

riding school An equestrian facility is created and maintained for the purpose of accommodating, training or competing equids, especially horses. Based on their use, they may be known as a barn, stables, or riding hall and may include commercial operations de ...

nearby.

Name

The earliest record of the name is from 1473, in the form ''Bowehous''. The name is derived from the

Old English Old English ( or , or ), 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 developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

''boga'' 'bow' and ''hus'' 'house', and thus means 'house by the bow or curve'. The reference is possibly to the curved hill above Slei Gill and

Arkle Beck Arkle Beck is the stream running through the valley of Arkengarthdale in the Yorkshire Dales, England. It is a tributary of the River Swale, which it joins just past Reeth at Grinton Bridge. The beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Cam ...

, on which the hamlet is situated.

History

The original community depended on hill farming and mining. The hamlet overlooks Slei Gill which contains several

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

mining levels. Following the collapse of the lead mining industry in North Yorkshire at the end of the 19th century one of the mines, the Booze Wood Level, continued to be used as a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

mine until the beginning of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

Chert Chert () is a hard, fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, the mineral form of silicon dioxide (SiO2). Chert is characteristically of biological origin, but may also occur inorganically as a prec ...

was mined on Fremington Edge, south of Booze, until the beginning of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The 1851 census counted 41 houses in Booze. A local tragedy occurred during the eighteenth century when a group of miners working underground near Boldershaw blasted into an underground lake. Twenty-four miners and two pit ponies were drowned in the flood that followed. Eighteen of the dead came from Booze. The vein became known as the Water Blast Vein. Modern researchers have failed to find any record of this event in Parish records, though an accident involving the death of three miners may have been the origins of this story. From 1974 to 2023 it was part of the district of

Richmondshire {{Infobox settlement , name = Richmondshire District , type = Non-metropolitan district , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_caption = , image_blank_emblem= Richmondshire arms.png , blank_em ...

, it is now administered by the unitary

North Yorkshire Council North Yorkshire Council, known between 1974 and 2023 as North Yorkshire County Council, is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of North Yorkshire, England. Since 2023 the council has been a unitary authority, being a county coun ...

Access

The only road access to Booze is by a steep and narrow single-track road from Langthwaite. In July 2008,

Royal Mail Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels) ...

announced it was withdrawing postal services from the hamlet on health and safety grounds because access to it involves an "excessively steep" rural track. This left local families to make a one-hour round-trip into

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

and back to collect their mail. Postal services to the hamlet were restored after North Yorkshire County Council made road improvements.

References

External links

*{{Genuki, county=NRY, Arkengarthdale, , Booze Hamlets in North Yorkshire Arkengarthdale