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
