West Harptree

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West Harptree
Somerset
West Harptree.jpg
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]

Outside links

Commons-logo.svg
("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