Blubberhouses

Blubberhouses is a small village and civil parish in the Washburn Valley in North Yorkshire, England. The population as at the 2011 Census was less than 100, so details were included in the civil parish of Fewston. In 2015, North Yorkshire County Council estimated the population of the parish to be 40. Blubberhouses is within the Nidderdale National Landscape and is east of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It lies on the A59 road linking Harrogate to Skipton, and to the north of a Roman road and Fewston Reservoir.

==History== The name of the village derives from the Anglo-Saxon bluberhūs = "the house(s) which is/are at the bubbling stream", with a later regularised plural; the -um form came from the Anglo-Saxon dative plural case æt bluberhūsum = "at the houses which ...". Later forms of the name on record include "Bluburgh", "Bluborrow", and "Bluburhouse". A forge was recorded at Blubberhouses in 1227, and in the 16th century, the village had metal smelters for lead and iron ore. The lead was mined locally around Fewston. The other major industry in the area was cloth-working with Westhouse mill being located just across the A59 road from the church. Westhouse opened in the 1790s to process flax, but closed in 1877 and the stone from the mill was used in the construction of the dam wall of Fewston Reservoir.