Wetwang is a

Yorkshire Wolds The Yorkshire Wolds are hills in the counties of the East Riding of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire in Northern England. They are the northernmost chalk hills in the UK and within lies the northernmost chalk stream in Europe, the Gypsey Race. ...

village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, often abbreviated to the East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, S ...

, England, west of

Driffield Driffield, also known as Great Driffield (neighbouring Little Driffield), is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The civil parish is formed by the town of Driffield and the village of Little Driffield. By ...

on the

A166 road The A166 road is a trunk road between the outskirts of York and Driffield in the historic county of Yorkshire. The road used to terminate at the seaside town of Bridlington, until the opening of the Driffield by-pass caused the final section to ...

. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 761, an increase on the 2001 census figure of 672.

Name

There are two interpretations of the name. One is from the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

''vaett-vangr'', or 'field for the trial of a legal action'. Another theory is that it was the "Wet Field" compared to the nearby dry field at

. The name is jokingly defined in ''

The Meaning of Liff ''The Meaning of Liff'' is a humorous dictionary of toponymy and etymology, written by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd, published in the United Kingdom in 1983 () and the United States in 1984 (). Content The book is a "dictionary of things ...

'' by

Douglas Adams Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, humorist, and screenwriter, best known as the creator of ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the ...

as meaning "a moist penis". In some varieties of English, ''wang'' or ''whang'' is a slang term for

penis A penis (; : penises or penes) is a sex organ through which male and hermaphrodite animals expel semen during copulation (zoology), copulation, and through which male placental mammals and marsupials also Urination, urinate. The term ''pen ...

. The name Wetwang has frequently been noted on lists of

unusual place names Place names considered unusual can include those which are also offensive words, inadvertently humorous (especially if mispronounced) or highly charged words, as well as place names of unorthodox spelling and pronunciation, including especiall ...

History

The village is known for its

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

chariot burial Chariot burials are tombs in which the deceased was buried together with their chariot, usually including their horses and other possessions. An instance of a person being buried with their horse (without the chariot) is called horse burial. Fi ...

cemetery at

Wetwang Slack Wetwang Slack is an Iron Age archaeological site containing remains of the Arras culture and chariot burial tradition of East Yorkshire. Archaeological investigation took place in 2001 and 2002. The site is in a dry valley on the north side ...

, and it has been speculated that the unlocated

Romano-British The Romano-British culture arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest in AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, ...

town of

Delgovicia Delgovicia or Delgovitia was a Romano-British town in Britain, mentioned by the Antonine Itinerary as being east of Eboracum (Roman York). It is also mentioned by the Geographer of Ravenna as ''Devovicia'' or ''Devovitia''. Its location is curren ...

may have been at what is now Wetwang. Before the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

( TRE) Ealdraed held Wetwang, and it was worth £4 per year in rent. The village is mentioned twice in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086 as ''Wetuuangha''. The lesser mention simply records its existence: "In Wetwang the archbishop

carucates The carucate or carrucate ( or ) was a medieval unit of land area approximating the land a plough team of eight oxen could tillage, till in a single annual season. It was known by different regional names and fell under different forms of tax asse ...

". The mention is under "Warter Hundred" on original folio 381V: East Riding. Earlier in the Domesday Book, there is a fuller description (Folio 302V: Yorkshire) within the listing of the land of the Archbishop of York: A

carucate The carucate or carrucate ( or ) was a medieval unit of land area approximating the land a plough team of eight oxen could till in a single annual season. It was known by different regional names and fell under different forms of tax assessment. ...

is the area of land a man with 8 oxen can plough in a season, sometimes cited as around . In Wetwang there were of them available for the tax take ( "geld"). A "plough" was a carucate which was being ploughed, rather than grazed or fallow. A

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...

is around . After the conquest, Wetwang was waste land held by Archbishop Thomas. St Nicholas's Church is of

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

origin and was restored between 1845 and 1902. In 1966, the church was designated a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. It is on the

Sykes Churches Trail The Sykes Churches Trail is a tour of East Yorkshire churches which were built, rebuilt or Victorian restoration, restored by the Sykes family of Sledmere, Sykes family of Sledmere House in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The tour was devi ...

devised by the East Yorkshire Churches Group. The church has a ring of three bells (tenor in A), the oldest of which (the tenor) dates from . Wetwang was once known for its

black swan The black swan (''Cygnus atratus'') is a large Anatidae, waterbird, a species of swan which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. Within Australia, the black swan is nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent ...

s, after which the village pub, the Black Swan, is named.

Public transport

Until 1950, the village was served by

Wetwang railway station Wetwang railway station () was a railway station on the Malton & Driffield Railway in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It served the village of Wetwang, opened on 19 May 1853, and closed for passengers on 5 June 1950 and goods on 20 Octo ...

, on the Malton to Driffield Line, but this line has closed. The village is now served by an infrequent

East Yorkshire Motor Services East Yorkshire operates both local and regional bus services in the East Riding of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire, England. Prior to acquisition by the Go-Ahead Group in June 2018, the company was known as East Yorkshire Motor Services. History ...

bus.

Honorary mayor

Richard Whiteley John Richard Whiteley (28 December 1943 – 26 June 2005) was an English presenter and journalist, best known for his twenty-three years as host of the game show '' Countdown''. ''Countdown'' was the launch programme for Channel 4 at 4:45 ...

of the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

quiz show ''

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

'' held the honorary title ''

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

of Wetwang'' from 1998 until his death in 2005. On 25 June 2006, local weather forecaster

Paul Hudson Paul David Hudson (born 27 February 1971) is an English weather presenter and environment correspondent for BBC Yorkshire and BBC Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Hudson was born and raised in Keighley, West Yorkshire. He was made an Honorary Fe ...

from

BBC Look North ''BBC Look North'' is a name used by the BBC for its regional news programmes in three regions in the North of England: * '' BBC Look North'' for the BBC North East and Cumbria region * '' BBC Look North'' for the BBC Yorkshire region * '' BBC L ...

was invested as Whiteley's successor.

References

External links

* {{authority control Civil parishes in the East Riding of Yorkshire Villages in the East Riding of Yorkshire