Blubberhouses
| Blubberhouses | |
| Yorkshire West Riding | |
|---|---|
 St Andrew's church | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SE167553 |
| Location: | 53°59’35"N, 1°44’42"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 40 (2015) |
| Post town: | Otley |
| Postcode: | LS21 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Harrogate |
Blubberhouses is a small village located in the Washburn Valley in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The population as at the 2011 Census was not specifically recorded as it was less than 100. It is in the Claro Wapentake.
Te village is on the A59 road linking Harrogate to Skipton. It is to the south of the bound of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. To the south runs a Roman road and in that direction too is the Fewston Reservoir
The name of the village derives from the Anglo-Saxon bluberhus, meaning ‘house(s) at the bubbling stream",[1] It is recorded in the dative plural as æt bluberhusum. Later forms of the name on record include "Bluburgh", "Bluborrow", and "Bluburhouse".[2]
History
There is no record of Blubberhouses in the Domesday Book, but it is recorded in 1172 as Bluberh(o)usum, in the lower division of the wapentake of Claro.[3]
A forge was recorded at Blubberhouses in 1227, and in the 16th century, the village had a metal smelter for lead and iron ore. The lead was mined locally around Fewston.[4] The other major industry in the area was cloth-working with Westhouse mill being located just across the A59 road from the church. Westhouse opened in the 1790s to process flax, but closed in 1877 and the stone from the mill was used in the construction of the dam wall of Fewston Reservoir.[5]
The road through Blubberhouses, what is now the A59, running in an east/west direction, was first turnpiked in the 1770s.[6] The section to the west of Blubberhouses towards Skipton goes over Blubberhouses Moor, and between 1823 and 1827, a new cut was made to the south with a gentler grade, but following the contours of the hill.[7][8] The 19th century section has suffered many landslips, and so a new bypass, following the route of the original turnpike is due to open in 2025.[9][10]
In July 2014, Stage 2 of the 2014 Tour de France from York to Sheffield, passed through the village. It was also the location of the first climb of the stage, the Category 4 Côte de Blubberhouses, at the 29-mile point. It was a mile long at an average gradient of 6.1%.
Parish church
The Anglican village church of St Andrew's was designed by Edward Buckton Lamb and was built in 1851. It is now a grade II listed building.[11] It is part of the ecclesiastical parish of Fewston, and is maintained by the Friends of Blubberhouses Church, after is was decided to keep the church open in 2015 in spite of the need to repair the church roof at quite a cost.[12][13] The village has a cricket team who play in the Theakston Nidderdale League, and their ground is alongside the River Washburn in the village.[14][15]
In music
Blubberhouses is used as a key setting for local composer Andy Tillison's composition Le Sacre Du Travail,[16] a five movement electric sinfonia recorded by the progressive rock ensemble The Tangent. The work is, according to the CD sleeve notes, loosely based around Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre Du Printemps (The Rite Of Spring). One section of the second movement is named "Dawn At Blubberhouses" and the village is mentioned by name in the lyrics/libretto.[17] A short story in the CD sleeve describes the journey of a man travelling to work through the village in the small hours of the morning. The CD album was released in 2013 by the German record label Inside Out Music.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Blubberhouses) |
- Landslide near Blubberhouses September 2010: British Geological Survey
References
- ↑ Mills, Anthony David: 'A Dictionary of British Place-Names' (Oxford University Press, 2003) ISBN 978-0-19-852758-9
- ↑ Ekwall, Eilert, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 4th edition, 1960. p. 47 ISBN 0198691033
- ↑ Smith, A.H.: 'Place-Names of West Riding of Yorkshire , Part' (English Place-Names Society, 1961-3)
- ↑ Jennings 1967, pp. 62, 67, 69.
- ↑ "Village Focus: Blubberhouses, North Yorkshire". The Yorkshire Post. 28 February 2019. https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/village-focus-blubberhouses-north-yorkshire-1777138.
- ↑ Muir, Richard (1997). The Yorkshire countryside : a landscape history. Edinburgh: Keele University Press. p. 235. ISBN 1853311987.
- ↑ Jennings 1967, p. 195.
- ↑ "Blubberhouses Moor". https://getoutside.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/local/blubberhouses-moor-harrogate.
- ↑ "Blubberhouses, North Yorkshire". https://www.bgs.ac.uk/case-studies/blubberhouses-north-yorkshire-landslide-case-study/.
- ↑ Newton, Grace (23 February 2023). "A59 in North Yorkshire to be re-routed and new road built between Skipton and Harrogate to bypass landslip-prone Kex Gill". The Yorkshire Post. https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/transport/a59-in-north-yorkshire-to-be-re-routed-and-new-road-built-between-skipton-and-harrogate-to-bypass-landslip-prone-kex-gill-4037711.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1150451: Church of St Andrew (Grade II listing)
- ↑ "Blubberhouses: St Andrew". https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/6841/about-us/.
- ↑ "Fewston with Blubberhouses | Friends of Blubberhouses Church". https://www.fewstonwithblubberhouses.org.uk/our-churches/blubberhouses/friends-of-blubberhouses-church/.
- ↑ "Blubberhouses Cricket Club". http://www.blubberhousescc.co.uk. Retrieved 10 June 2008.
- ↑ Howell, Rhys (16 May 2022). "Theakston Nidderdale League: Blubberhouses CC end Killinghall's winning start". Harrogate Advertiser. https://www.harrogateadvertiser.co.uk/sport/other-sport/theakston-nidderdale-league-blubberhouses-cc-end-killinghalls-winning-start-3696493.
- ↑ ’’Le Sacre Du Travail|’’; The Tangent; UPC
- ↑ "Prog rock is alive and well in Otley". The Yorkshire Post. 28 February 2019. https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/arts-and-culture/prog-rock-alive-and-well-otley-1862717.
- Jennings, Bernard (1967). A history of Nidderdale. Huddersfield: Advertiser Press. OCLC 18034728.
