Blubberhouses

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Blubberhouses
Blubberhouses shown within North Yorkshire
OS grid reference	SE167553
Shire county	North Yorkshire
Region	Yorkshire and the Humber
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Police	North Yorkshire
Fire	North Yorkshire
Ambulance	Yorkshire
European Parliament	Yorkshire and the Humber
List of places: UK • England • Yorkshire

Coordinates: 53°59′37″N 1°44′43″W / 53.99373, -1.74538

Blubberhouses is a small village located in the Washburn Valley in the borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, a county in the north of England. It is situated to the south of the Yorkshire Dales national park, and to the north of a Roman road and Fewston Reservoir.

The village is on the A59 road from Harrogate to Skipton.

The village contains a church, St. Andrew's Church, and is part of the parish of Fewston. See http://www.fewstonwithblubberhouses.org.uk The village has two cricket teams who play at a very scenic ground on the River Washburn.

[edit] Etymology

Several suggestions have been made for the origins of the name Blubberhouses:-

• From the blueberry: Hargrove's History of Knaresborough.
• From the Blue Boar, a former inn.
• Early spellings include "Bluburgh", "Bluborrow", "Bluburhouse", (1172) "Bluberhusum". These may come from:-
  • Anglo-Saxon burh = "fort".^[1]
  • From "Blueberg" = "blue mountain".^[2]
  • Anglo-Saxon bluberhūs = "the house(s) which is/are at the bubbling stream"^[3], with a later regularized plural; the -um form came from the Anglo-Saxon dative plural case æt bluberhūsum = "at the houses which ...".

[edit] References

1. ^ Harrogate and the Forest of Knaresborough by William Grainge, published 1871
2. ^ The Washburn by Tom Bradley, published 1895.
3. ^ Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names" by A.D.Mills, ISBN 0-19-280074-4