history

ORIGINS

Kelly 1927 - 'East Harptree is in the Frome Parliamentary Division, (in 1953 was in the North Somerset Parliamentary Division, later in Wansdyke Parliamentary Division, but now in the Bath and North East Somerset Parliamentary Division) hundred of Winterstoke, Union of Clutton, Petty Sessional Division and County Council Division of Temple Cloud'. It lies on the north side of Mendip and the parish is a long narrow strip running from the north up the hill to the top of Mendip. It is 8 1/2 miles from Wells, 13 3/4 from Bristol and 16 from Bath.
The origins of the Harptrees, are, as they say, obscure. In other words, no-one really knows. There is plenty of evidence for occupation of the area in the Roman era, and the few thousand years which preceded that, but not much to explain the early days of the Harptree estate or parish/es (East and West) as such. The prehistoric Priddy Circles on Mendip. behind the Castle of Comfort, were formerly in East Harptree's parish, and links with the famous stone circles at Stanton Drew have been suggested by the possible origin of some of the stones from Harptree. There are well-known Roman sites either side of the Harptrees in the lead mines at at Charterhouse and the villa under Chew Valley Lake at Chew Park, and the connecting Roman road, Stratford Lane, passes by West Harptree. By the time of Domesday in 1086, the Harptrees had become two separate estates with West being the larger. Using the formulae quoted in "The Natural History of the Chew Valley" (1987) West Harptree would have been about 1.630 acres and East Harptree about 1.000, but both were valued at 40 shillings. The intriguing name Harptree is quite different to that of most of the neighbouring Saxon estates, which mostly ended in "ton" - eg. Compton Martin), Litton. (Bishop) Sutton. Hinton (Blewett). Chewton (Mendip) and Moreton.
"The Harper's Tree" One suggested explanation for the derivation for the Harptree name is from "hartreg", an Old English word for a grey hollow. However, the leading expert on place names Michael Costen. came up with an altogether more interesting theory when asked for an opinion last week. (Michael Costen's 1992 publication "The Origins of Somerset" deals with one his specialities, the origins of Saxon estates in the Dark Ages). 'Harptree. East and West, would probably have been one estate originally, and the funny thing is, it is probably one of the few names that does mean what it says - the harper's tree. It probably dates from about the second half of the 7th century. and it could have denoted the estate given by a Saxon Lord to a harper for his services.' "A harp player was an important person at that time. not just for playing music but for memorising and chanting stories, and genealogies which gave legitimacy to the Lord's claim of authority. By the fire in the hall, the harpist would elaborate on heroic, and possibly imaginary. deeds of the Lord's ancestors." "The `tree' element in Saxon names can relate to boundary trees in minor place names, but in major names, such as villages, it usually refers to a gallows tree. The Lord at that time would have had the right to hang, and the tree manifested this.

TRINKUM TRINKUMS

19th Century Harptree in the late Nineteenth century is chronicled in a vivid detail in a little book published by Mrs W.Kettlewell or East Harptree Court, in 1922. Titled "Trinkum Trinkums" (the phrase was originally an overheard put-down of her writings!) the book describes the social, cultural and spiritual preoccupations of the villagers from her arrival from her native Donegal in 1875, up to publication date in 1927. A randomly selected episode described in the book: "In 1891 we had five weeks of frost, lasting from the 7th January to the 20th February. The middle pond was well frozen over and there was skating and great fun on the ice. One evening we built a large fire in the centre of the pond and invited the villagers to coffee and cakes. Electric lights were hung about in the trees and our impromptu fete was a great success. There were chairs on runners and the old ladies greatly enjoyed the novelty of gliding over the frozen water"

FOLK SONG AND DANCE

In the book she also reveals that the arrival of Cecil Sharp in Harptree. which was to radically influence the growing perception of English Folk Music. as well as the perception of Harptree's own traditions, was entirely her own work. She saw an item about Cecil Sharp in the BristolTimes and Mirror, and wrote to invite him to Harptree "as we had some fine old singers". The most famous of these. William King (1825-1906), Of Spring Farm, on Mendip, is particularly remembered for the Sheep Shearing Song, written down by Sharp as soon as he heard it. But there were other fine local singers then - Mrs Kettlewell mentions James Bishop, Thomas Wyatt and John Durbin. Sharp wrote later: "I do not think there was a happier spot in my life than those years I spent in Somerset collecting the county songs nor a happier period in than that time than the month I spent at Harptree.' Paradoxically, however. Sharp's visit may have speeded up the demise of a true local tradition, step dancing. and the substitution of a "tradition" that did not actually exist in Harptree. In the eagerness of local schoolchildren to learn the Morris dances he taught them. Sharp's enthusiasm led to a belief that Harptree's later excellence at Morris was traditional. As Wm Kettlewell admits, there had formerly never been any Morris dancing locally - but she does describe the popularity of a local stepper called Korfie.

WI History of East Harptree

In 1953 East Harptree Womens institute compiled a "History Of East Harptree", and in it a contributor comments on the benefits for posterity of recording the present - it would be history in a mere 50 years' time. Twelve years later, in 1965, the village school's headmistress Mrs Gladys Blake (head at the school from 1942 to 1973) and other WI members. took up the challenge of recording a year's activities. This they did in a scrapbook which is now of immense interest - full of photographs and details of agriculture, wildlife, sports (a wonderful year for East Harptree FC, in the first division of the local league. played 24 won 22!), timetables, weddings, food prices, fashion trends, etc. One of the items is the half-yearly statement of the East Harptree Co-operative Society Ltd, up to September 18th 1965 (membership 918, so, obviously going well beyond the village, and dividends payable on November 11th!). By March 1995, eighteen of East Harptrees 32 Council houses have been sold (according to a Wansdyke DC report), and as good houses with enviable views they now command substantial prices an the open market..For an update on the Parish Council's attempts to redress the consequent shortage of available housing for locals, with affordable housing, see the Gazette's Council Review.

POPULATION

The population of East Harptree has stayed quite steady over the past 200 years. From a peak of 772 in 1841 it gradually declined to 595 in 1901, and advanced by two to 597 by 1 951 . It was up to 660 by 1991 .8 council houses were built in Church Lane in 1926, and another 8 in Middle Street in 1933, then in 1950 another 16 down by the playing field. The population has not varied much in the last 150 years: the 'Victoria History of the County of Somerset' gives the following data:-

Date	Population	Date	Population	Date	Population
1801	467	1841	772	1881	655
1811	502	1851	722	1891	602
1821	627	1861	657	1901	595
1831	695	1871	675	1953	597

THE HARPTREE HOARD

In November 1887, while searching for the source of a spring, a labourer put his pick into a pewter vessel full of Roman coins. The jar was six inches below the surface in swampy ground. It contained 1,496 coins, five ingots of siver and a ring. The coins were all struck around A.D.375, and the best twentyfive were selected by the British Museum, and can still be seen there. In 1922 more were given to the museum, and the rest were kept in the jar in the church. Unfortunately these were stolen from the North Aisle in recent times.

WATER, ELECTRICITY AND GAS

In 1884 a doctor noticed the symptoms of lead poisoning in the faces of the people, so the Kettlewells brought in a douser who found a spring thirty feet down in the Minedry woods. The water from the spring was piped to the village until mains water arrived in 19--. The village was connected to mains drainage in 1990, but amny people continue to use septic tanks, particularly in outlying farms. Harptree Court was the first place in the neighbourhood to use electric light, in 1889. The village and the court are now supplied by the South Western Electricity Board. Mains gas was brought into the village in 1993.

PRE-HISTORIC FINDS

Unlike much of Mendip, the parish of East Harptree has little recorded pre-history, although it is likely that the area was occupied or visited by people of the Neolithic period (c………)Typically, however, pre-historic man has left few tangible remains of his long presence in Britain except for burial mounds (mainly tumuli and barrows on Mendip), religious sites and, of course, stone tools.With the paucity of information on "finds" from the Parish, Nick Roberts has been examining any ploughed fields with interest, either to eliminate them as potential occupation sites, or to confirm the presence of prehistoric remains such as flints.The first "find" was made in 1990 on a footpath close to Western Lane, when a small patinated flint blade was found in an arable crop at ST558553. This was of a shape and size not typical of a particular stone-age culture. It could have been struck by its manufacturer any time between the Upper Paleolithic (c11000 to 8000 BC) and the Bronze Age. With no other associated dateable finds this flint must remain unidentifiable in terms of culture or age.The second finds were not made until 1998 when a series of exciting discoveries were made in the large field to the south-west of the church. This had been ploughed for the first time for many years, and an examination along the footpath revealed a fine flint scraper and an assortment of flint flakes and chips. The centre of the scatter lies at ST564559 and the suggests a small chipping floor where a "knapper" manufactured some tools. The scraper is typical of the Neolithic and Bronze Age period and its distinctive size and shape give rise to the common archaeological term thumbnail scraper.Prior to the sowing of the crop a more thorough fieldwalk of the plough revealed another, more extensive scatter, very close to the field edge, at ST563560. Here the flints were more widespread, some being patinated, and the parent material varying from honey flint to grey flint. This suggests different origins and, perhaps, a longer period of knapping on the site. Two further thumbnail scrapers were found amongst the scatter, together with blades and pieces of core.To date, no other flint tools have been found in East Harptree, but at least we have evidence that the Parish has been occupied for at least the last five thousand years!

Nick Roberts April 1999

ehhigh2sm.jpg (20130 bytes) ehhighsm.jpg (19223 bytes)