West Harptree

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West Harptree
Somerset

West Harptree
Location
Grid reference: ST561568
Location: 51°18’31"N, 2°37’45"W
Data
Population: 439  (2011)
Post town: Bristol
Postcode: BS40
Dialling code: 01761
Local Government
Council: Bath & NE Somerset
Parliamentary
constituency:
North East Somerset

West Harptree is a small village in the Chew Valley of Somerset beneath the Mendip Hills, and in the county's Chewton Hundred.[1] It is a little place with a parish population of just 439 recorded in 2011.

The village is found in the very north-east of the county, eight miles south of Bristol and ten miles from Bath. It sits just south of Chew Valley Lake, along the A368 road.

The village has a pub and several shops including a post office. With its close neighbour East Harptree the villages are collectively known as ‘the Harptrees’.

History

The Domesday Book of 1086 lists Herpetreu as a manor, and the name, it has been suggested, is form the Old English herepaþtreow, indicating a 'military road by the wood'.[2]

Between 1154 and 1172 an estate at West Harptree was granted by William FitzJohn to the Knights Templar.[3]

The shape of some of the existing fields with cross-slope and down-slope field banks and cultivated ridges forming an interleaving irregular mosaic suggest they are of mediæval origin.[4]

Parish church

St Mary's Church

The Church of St Mary dates from the 12th century, although the tower is a much later addition,[5] and is a Grade II* listed building[6]

Sights abou the village

Gournay Court

Gournay Court is a Grade II* Country house built around 1600.[7] The entrance Gates and railings are Grade II listed,[8] as are the gatepiers to the west.[9]

Grade II listed buildings

  • Barn to north west of Gournay Court[10]
  • Tilley Manor Farmhouse[11] and
  • Parsonage Farmhouse[13]
  • The Old Vicarage[14]
  • Turnpike Parish Boundary Marker[15]
("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about West Harptree)

References

  1. ↑ "Somerset Hundreds". GENUKI. http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/SOM/Miscellaneous/. Retrieved 8 October 2011. 
  2. ↑ Robinson, Stephen (1992). Somerset Place Names. Wimbourne: The Dovecote Press Ltd. ISBN 1-874336-03-2. 
  3. ↑ Faith, Juliet. The Knights Templar in Somerset. The History Press. pp. 90–91. ISBN 9780752452562. 
  4. ↑ "Mendip Hills An Archaeological Survey of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty". Somerset County Council Archeological Projects. http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/archives/hes/downloads/HES_MendipAONB.pdf. Retrieved 16 January 2011. 
  5. ↑ Reid, Robert Douglas (1979). Some buildings of Mendip. The Mendip Society. ISBN 0-905459-16-4. 
  6. ↑ {{NHLE|1017180|Church of St Mary, West Harptree
  7. ↑ National Heritage List 1020367: Gournay Court
  8. ↑ National Heritage List 1019447: Entrance Gates and Railings
  9. ↑ National Heritage List 1018934: Gatepiers to west of Gournay Court
  10. ↑ National Heritage List 1018935: Barn to north west of Gournay Court
  11. ↑ National Heritage List 1017181: Tilley Manor Farmhouse
  12. ↑ National Heritage List 1017182: Gatepiers to boundary wall, south of Tilley Manor Farmhouse
  13. ↑ National Heritage List 1018936: Parsonage Farmhouse
  14. ↑ National Heritage List 1019016: The Old Vicarage
  15. ↑ National Heritage List 1019017: Turnpike Parish Boundary Marker