A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village.
The word and concept of a hamlet can be traced back to Anglo-Normans, where the Old French hamelet came to apply to small human settlements.
Etymology
The word comes from Anglo-Norman
hamelet, corresponding to
Old French hamelet, the diminutive of Old French
hamel meaning a little village. This, in turn, is a diminutive of Old French
ham, possibly borrowed from (West Germanic) Franconian languages. It is related to the modern French
hameau,
Dutch language heem, Frisian
hiem, German
Heim,
Old English hām, and
Modern English home.
[T. F. Hoad, English Etymology, Oxford University Press, 1993, .]
By country
Afghanistan
In
Afghanistan, the word "hamlet" may be used to translate the term "
Qila" (
Dari language: قلعه,
Pashto: کلي).
The Afghan
qala is a fortified group of houses, generally with a community building such as a mosque but without a marketplace. The qala is the smallest type of settlement in Afghan society, outsized by the village (
Dari language/
Pashto: ده), which is larger and includes a commercial area.
Canada
In Canada's three territories, hamlets are officially designated municipalities.
-
Northwest Territories had 11 hamlets,
-
Nunavut had 24 hamlets,
-
Yukon had two hamlets,
In Canada's provinces, hamlets are usually small unincorporated communities within a larger municipality (similar to civil townships in the United States), such as many communities within the single-tier municipalities of Ontario, Alberta's specialized and rural municipalities,
Canada's two largest hamlets—Fort McMurray (formerly incorporated as a city)
France
A hamlet () is a group of rural dwellings, usually too small to be considered a village. The term
Lieu-dit is also applied to hamlets but it can also refer to uninhabited localities.
During the 18th century it was fashionable for rich or noble people to create their hameau in their gardens. This was a group of houses or farms with a rustic appearance but very comfortable. The best known are the Hameau de la Reine, built by Queen Marie-Antoinette in the park of the Palace of Versailles, and the Hameau de Chantilly, built by Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé in Chantilly, Oise.
Germany
The word "hamlet" may be used to translate the term
Weiler (). Compared to a
Dorf (village), a
has no infrastructure (i.e. no inn, no school, no store, no church). The houses and farms of a
Weiler can be grouped (in the hills and the mountains) or scattered (more often in the plains). In North West Germany, a group of scattered farms is called
Bauerschaft. In a Weiler, there are no street names, the houses are just numbered.
There is no legal definition of a Weiler in Germany. In Bavaria, like in Austria, a Weiler is defined as a settlement with 3 to 9 dwellings, from 10 houses it is called a village.
India
In different states of
India, there are different words for hamlet. In
Haryana and
Rajasthan, it is called
"dhani" (
') or "Thok".[Sukhvir Singh Gahlot: Rural Life in Rajasthan, page 4.Rajasthani Granthagar, Giani Press Delhi 1986][Ashutosh Goyal, 2015, "RBS Visitors Guide India - Rajasthan: Rajasthan Travel guide"., Data & Expo India Pvt Ltd, .][Rann Singh Mann, K. Mann, 1989, "Tribal Cultures and Change"., pp. 23.][S. H. M. Rizvi, 1987 "Mina, the ruling tribe of Rajasthan: socio-biological appraisal"., pp. 34.] In Gujarat, a hamlet is called a "nesada", which are more prevalent in the Gir forest. In Maharashtra, it is called a "pada". In southern Bihar, especially in the Magadh division, a hamlet is called a "bigha". In the state of Karnataka, a hamlet is known by different names like Palya
, Hadi
(Haadi), Keri
, and Padi
(Paadi). In the olden days, the human population of hamlet was less than Halli
(Village) or Ooru''' (Uru). But in the 20th century with the tremendous increase in population, some of these hamlets became villages, towns and cities or merged with them.
Indonesia
All over
Indonesia, hamlets are translated as "small village", desa or
kampung. They are known as
dusun in Central Java and East Java,
banjar in Bali,
jorong or
kampuang in
West Sumatra.
Netherlands
The Dutch words for hamlet are
gehucht or
buurtschap. A
gehucht or
buurtschap has, compared to a
dorp (village), no infrastructure (i.e. no inn, no school, no store) and contains often only one street, bearing the same name. The houses and farms of a
gehucht or a
buurtschap can be scattered. Though there are strong similarities between a
gehucht and
buurtschap, the words are not interchangeable. A
gehucht officially counts as an independent place of residence (e.g.
Wateren), while a
buurtschap officially is a part of another place (e.g.
Bartlehiem, part of
Wyns).
Pakistan
In Pakistan, a hamlet is called a
gaaon گاؤں or
Mouza موضع in
Urdu,
giraaan گراں or
pind پنڈ in
Punjabi language, and
kalay کلې in
Pashto. It is almost synonymous with 'village'.
Poland
In Poland, the law recognises several different kinds of
rural settlement.
Przysiółek (which can be translated as "hamlet") refers to a cluster of farms.
Osada (which is typically translated as "settlement" but also can be translated as "hamlet") includes smaller settlements especially differing by type of buildings or inhabited by population connected with some place or workplace (like mill settlements, forest settlements, fishing settlements, railway settlements, former State Agricultural Farm settlements). They can be an independent settlement, or a part of another settlement, like a village.
Romania
In
Romania, hamlets are called
cătune (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.
Spain
In
Spain, a hamlet is called
lugar,
aldea or
cortijada (). The word comes from the
Spanish language term
cortijo («estate»). In the South of Spain, the term
caserío () is also used for designating small groups of rural dwellings or farmhouses.
A hamlet in Spain is a human settlement, usually located in rural areas, and typically smaller in size and population than a village (called in Spain, pueblo ). The hamlet is a common territorial organisation in the North West of Spain (Asturias, Cantabria and Galicia) dependent on a larger entity (e.g. parish or municipality).
In Spain, the hamlet is one of the categories in the official gazetteer of population entities. In the Royal Order and Instruction of the 8 of March 1930,
Switzerland
In the four national languages, hamlets are known as
Weiler (German),
hameaux (French),
frazioni (Italian) and
fracziun (
Romansh language). A hamlet is always part of a larger municipality or may be shared between two municipalities. The difference between a hamlet and a village is that typically a hamlet lacks a compact core settlement and lacks a central building such as a church or inn. However, some hamlets (
Kirchwiler) may have grown up as an unplanned settlement around a church.
No population limit defines a hamlet and some hamlets have a larger population than some of the smallest municipalities. Generally, there are no street names in a hamlet; rather, addresses are given by hamlet name and a number. House numbers might start at one side of the hamlet and continue to the other side or may have no clear organization.
A hamlet may form or have formed a Bürgergemeinde (legal place of citizenship regardless of where a person was born or currently lives) and may own common property for the Bürgergemeinde.
United Kingdom
England
In
England, the word
hamlet (having the French origin given at the top of this article) means (in current usage) simply a small settlement, maybe of a few houses or farms, smaller than a village. However, traditionally and legally, it means a village or a town without a church,
although hamlets are recognised as part of land use planning policies and administration. Historically, it may refer to a secondary settlement in a civil parish, after the main settlement (if any); such an example is the hamlet of Chipping which is the secondary settlement within the civil parish of Buckland. 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 may be the result of the depopulation of a village; examples of such a hamlet are Graby and Shapwick. Because of the hilly
topography of the parish, the village of
Clent, situated on the
Clent Hills, consists of five distinct hamlets.
Northern Ireland
In
Northern Ireland, the common Irish place name element
baile is sometimes considered equivalent to the term
hamlet in English,
baile would actually have referred to what is known in English today as a
townland: that is to say, a geographical locality rather than a small village.
Scotland
In the Scottish Highlands, the term
clachan, of Gaelic derivation, may be preferred to the term
hamlet.
Also found in
Scotland more generally is
ferm toun, used in the specific case of a farm settlement, including outbuildings and agricultural workers' homes.
Wales
The term hamlet was used in
Wales to denote a geographical subdivision of a parish (which might or might not contain a settlement). Elsewhere, mostly in England, these subdivisions were called "townships" or "tithings".
[Kain R J P, Oliver R D, Historic Parishes of England & Wales, HDS, 2001, , p 12] The
Welsh language word for "hamlet" is pentrefan
(also pentrefyn). Both these words are diminutives of
pentref ("village") with the loose meaning of "small village".
United States
Mississippi
In
Mississippi, a 2009 state law (§ 17-27-5) set aside the term "municipal historical hamlet" to designate any former city, town, or village with a current population of less than 600 inhabitants that lost its charter before 1945. The first such designation was applied to Bogue Chitto, Lincoln County.
New York
In New York, hamlets are unincorporated settlements within towns. Hamlets are not legal entities and have no local government or official boundaries. Their approximate locations will often be noted on road signs, however, a specific service, such as water, sewer, or lighting provides only that hamlet with services. 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; it may be designated by the Census Bureau, or it may rely on some other form of border (such as a
ZIP Code, school district or fire district for more urbanized areas; rural hamlets are typically only demarcated by speed zones on the roads serving them). Others, such as Forestville, New York, will be the remnants of former villages, with borders coextant with the previously defined borders of the defunct or dissolved village. 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 localities designated as hamlets, such as Levittown in the Town of Hempstead, with a population of over 50,000, are 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 that allows the citizens therein to organize and coordinate community activities. Hamlets do not provide services, such as utilities or fire protection, and do not have the authority to levy
taxes or fees. There are four hamlets in Oregon: Beavercreek, Mulino, Molalla Prairie, and Stafford.
See also
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Developed environments
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Dhani and villages
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Frazione
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Manorialism
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Types of inhabited localities in Russia
External links
