[Talk-GB] Village, Hamlet and populations ...

[Tom Hughes]

On 14/09/15 08:53, Mark Goodge wrote:

> Historically, the distinction between a hamlet, a village and a town was
> based on ecclesiastical parishes. A village was a populated area
> comprising a parish of its own, with one parish church. A town was a
> contiguous populated area comprising multiple ecclesiastical parishes,
> while a hamlet was a populated area too small to have its own parish
> (and thus being contained within another one, either a village parish or
> an outlying area of a town parish).

I'm not sure I believe that with regard to towns at least.

Many of the classic "market towns" would only have been a single parish.

To go back to the example of the town where I grew up, namely 
Wotton-under-Edge in Gloucestershire. That is a single parish and has a 
current population of 5627 according to wikipedia, which also points out 
that it had a municipal corporation until 1886 when it was abolished 
following the Municipal Corporations Act of 1883. It now has a town council.

Certainly it has had a charter for a market for over 750 years and seems 
to be consistently described as a town in historical sources such as 
those at http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/11480.

Hell, try http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/1009 where I now live 
which wasn't even a parish in it's own right until 1844 but was almost 
certainly considered a town before that, as a coaching stop on the main 
road from London to Cambridge.

Until 1844 it was split between the parishes of Broxbourne and Great 
Amwell, neither of which has a significant high street, while it has has 
a market charter wince 1253 and has a high street which clearly dates 
back some centuries.

Tom

-- 
Tom Hughes (tom at compton.nu)
http://compton.nu/