Upleatham Explained

Country:England
Region:North East England
Static Image Name:UpleathamChurch(HughMortimer)Dec2003.jpg
Static Image Caption:The very small church at Upleatham
Population:
Population Ref:
Population Density:
Unitary England:Redcar and Cleveland
Lieutenancy England:North Yorkshire

Upleatham is a village in the civil parish of Guisborough, in the unitary authority area of Redcar and Cleveland and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. The village was mentioned in the Domesday Book[1] and the name derives from Old English and Old Norse as Upper Slope, in that it was further up the hill than Kirkleatham.[2]

In 1951 the parish had a population of 121.[3] On 1 April 1974 the parish was abolished and merged with Guisborough.[4]

An ironstone seam that was 13feet thick was worked beneath the village which meant that some dwellings were lost to subsidence. The mine operated between the 1850s and 1924 with reserves of ironstone being estimated at a little over .[5] The landowner of the time, the Earl of Zetland, allowed the mining company to extract the ironstone from underneath the village provided that the area around the church was left undisturbed. This is why the conservation area in the village is just a small selection of buildings clustered around the church.[6] The arrival of the ironstone mine increased the population of the village from 204 in 1841 to 1,007 in 1861.[7]

It has a small grade II listed church, believed by some to be the smallest in England,[8] although Bremilham Church in Wiltshire is actually slightly smaller.[9] The village is located near New Marske, between Saltburn and Guisborough; there are a few rows of houses which are adjacent to Errington Woods.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Powell-Smith. Anna. Upleatham Domesday Book. opendomesday.org. 28 October 2017.
  2. Book: Ekwall. Eilert. The concise Oxford dictionary of English place-names. 1960. Clarendon Press. Oxford. 0-19-869103-3. 487. 4.
  3. Web site: Population statistics Upleatham Ch/CP through time. A Vision of Britain through Time. 3 December 2023.
  4. Web site: Cleveland Registration District. UKBMD. 3 December 2023.
  5. Web site: Durham Mining Museum - Upleatham (Ironstone). www.dmm.org.uk. 28 October 2017.
  6. Web site: Upleatham Conservation Area Appraisal. redcar-cleveland.gov.uk. 28 October 2017. 9. PDF. 2011.
  7. Web site: History of Upleatham, in Redcar and Cleveland and North Riding Map and description. www.visionofbritain.org.uk. 28 October 2017.
  8. Web site: The old church of St Andrew, Upleatham. cumbrianchurches.blogspot.co.uk. 9 January 2017.
  9. Web site: Upleatham Church (almost) the smallest in Britain.. Hidden Teesside. 9 January 2017.