Harpole - the Origins of the Village Name
So how did the village get its name???
The earliest spellings - Horpol and Horepol in the 11th century - indicate a
derivation from horh (dirty or muddy) and pol (both the Celtic and Saxon word
for 'pool' or 'lake').
Whether this referred to the village pond, or to a river
mere in the nearby Nene meadows, is not known.
In 1258 the name was recorded as
Harepol and in 1557 as Happall.
I have a copy of a map of Northamptonshire dated 1610, and the village name is recorded
on this with it's current spelling of Harpole.