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 (t...@compton.nu)
http://compton.nu/
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