A
hamlet is usually a
rural
settlement which is too small to be
considered a
village, though sometimes the
word is used for a different sort of community. The name comes from
Anglo-Norman hamelet(t)e;
Old French hamelet, the
diminutive of OF
hamel of Germanic origin, cognate with
Dutch heem,
German Heim, Old English
hām and
Modern English
home, all derived from the Proto-Germanic
*kham-.
Historically, when a hamlet became large enough to justify building
a church, it was then classified as a village. One example of a
hamlet is a small cluster of houses surrounding a mill.
United Kingdom
In the
United
Kingdom
, the word 'hamlet' has no defined legal meaning,
although hamlets are recognised as part of land use planning policies and
administration. A hamlet is traditionally defined
ecclesiastically as a village or settlement
that usually does not have its own
church, belonging to a
parish of another village or town. In modern usage it
generally refers to a secondary settlement in a
civil parish, after the main settlement (if
any). Hamlets may have been formed around a single source of
economic activity such as a farm, mill, mine or harbour that
employed its working population. Some hamlets, particularly those
that have a
medieval church, may be the
result of the
depopulation of
a village.
The term hamlet was used in some parts of the country for an
geographical subdivision of a parish (which might or might not
contain a settlement). Elsewhere, these subdivisions were called
"townships" or "tithings".
In
Scotland
the term of
Gaelic derivation, clachan, is often
preferred to the term "hamlet".
In
Northern
Ireland
the common Irish place name element baile
is sometimes considered equivalent to the term "hamlet" English,
although baile would actually have referred to what is
known in English today as a townland -- a
geographical locality, not a small village.
Romania
In
Romania
hamlets are called cătunuri (singular:
cătun), and they represent villages that contain several
houses at most. They are legally considered villages, and
statistically, they are placed in the same category. Like villages,
they do not have a separate administration, and thus are not an
administrative division, but are part of a parent
commune. Their locations are always
marked by road signs.
United States
New York
In
New
York
, hamlets are unincorporated settlements within
towns. Hamlets are usually not legal entities and have no
local government or official boundaries. Their proximate location
will often be noted on road signs, however.
A hamlet usually depends upon the town that contains it for
municipal services and government. A hamlet could be described as
the rural or suburban equivalent of a neighborhood in a city or
village. The area of a hamlet may not be exactly defined and may
simply be contained within the ZIP code of its post office, or may
be defined by its school or fire district. Some hamlets proximate
to urban areas are sometimes continuous with their cities and
appear to be neighborhoods, but they still are under the
jurisdiction of the town.
Some hamlets -- for example, Hauppauge
, with a population of over 20,000 -- are far more
populous than some incorporated cities in the state.
Oregon
In
Oregon
, specifically in Clackamas
County
, a hamlet is a form of local government for small
communities, which allows the citizens therein to organize and
co-ordinate community activities. Hamlets do not provide
services such as utilities or fire protection, and do not have the
authority to levy
taxes or fees.
The first hamlet to be
created in Oregon was the Hamlet of Beavercreek
which was organized as a hamlet in
2006.
Canada
In
numerous provinces in Canada
, there are
officially designated municipalities
generally smaller than villages, classified as hamlets.
Hamlets
are usually small communities situated in remote areas, like
Cape
Dorset
in Nunavut
, and Enterprise
and Tulita
in the Northwest Territories
, or are smaller communities within a rural area of
an incorporated
town or city, such as the many communities within the single-tier municipalities of
Ontario
. Every province contain a number of hamlets,
all of which are
unincorporated.
In Canada's northern territories, they are incorporated
municipalities.
However, in Alberta, they are unincorporated settlements, as in New
York.
Sherwood Park, Alberta
, which has a population of more than 50,000—well
above that needed for city status—has nonetheless retained hamlet
status. Fort McMurray, Alberta
used to be a city, but has now been amalgamated
into the Regional
Municipality of Wood Buffalo, thus making it a
hamlet.
See also
References
- T. F. Hoad, English Etymology, Oxford University
Press, 1993, ISBN 0-19-283098-8.
- Kain R J P, Oliver R D, Historic Parishes of England &
Wales,HDS, 2001, ISBN 0954003209, p 12
- see http://www.dsl.ac.uk/
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