Wizarding World | United Kingdom

iv. little hangleton

     Little Hangleton is a small village located somewhere in Yorkshire or Lancashire. A town of massive importance to recent wizarding history and yet unknown to most modern wizards, Little Hangleton is found about six miles from its neighbor, Great Hangleton, and is the location of the Riddle House, where Tom Marvolo Riddle killed his father, Tom Riddle, and his grandparents in the summer of 1943. It is also the location of the graveyard where Voldemort regained his body in 1995.

     Nearby, in a copse on the hillside, was the Gaunt House, wherein lived the Gaunt family, the last remaining descendants of Salazar Slytherin.

Locations in Little Hangleton

the Gaunt House

     Located in the woods just outside Little Hangleton, the Gaunt House was home to Marvolo Gaunt and his two children, Morfin and Merope. The last remaining descendants of Salazar Slytherin, they lived there in poverty, speaking Parseltongue to each other and living in deplorable conditions.

     Eventually, after the Gaunts had all died and the house was left deserted, Voldemort concealed one of his Horcruxes – Marvolo’s ring – in the ruins of the house. It remained until Dumbledore returned to the site, recovered the Horcrux, and destroyed it.

     Though Voldemort did not return to the house for many years, he did fly back once more when he discovered that Harry had stolen another of his Horcruxes. He soon discovered that the ring was gone and quickly took off in search of the others. Harry saw this happen through Voldemort’s eyes, prompting him to hurry his search for the final Horcrux, at Hogwarts.

Hanged Man

     The “village pub” in Little Hangleton, this is the place where the villagers gathered the night Tom Marvolo Riddle killed his father and grandparents, to gossip about the murders. Among the villagers present that evening were the Riddles’ cook and Dot, who remained permanently convinced that gardener Frank Bryce was to blame for the deaths.

Little Hangleton Graveyard

     After Voldemort killed his father and paternal grandparents, they were buried in the graveyard by the church in Little Hangleton. This, then, is also where Harry was taken by Portkey, saw Cedric Diggory killed and Voldemort reborn, and duelled Voldemort in 1995.

Riddle House

     Though few wizards realize it, the Riddle House holds an important place in wizarding history. Located on a hill overlooking Little Hangleton, it was the home of Voldemort’s grandparents, and the place where his father, Tom Riddle, lived both before and after Voldemort’s birth at the end of 1926.

     The summer after Tom Marvolo Riddle’s fifth year at Hogwarts, he discovered that his mother’s family – the Gaunts – lived in a house across town; upon arriving there he learned of his father and grandparents and murdered them in their drawing room. Their bodies were soon discovered by the family maid. Frank Bryce was originally implicated in the crime by Muggle police while wizarding authorities blamed Morfin Gaunt, though of course both were innocent.

     Ownership of the house changed hands several times in the following years, but nobody stayed for long as they all agreed it had “a nasty feeling about it,” and we don’t know who owns it now, though the Muggles in town believe the owner is a wealthy man who keeps it “for tax reasons.” Whether the owner is a Muggle, a Death Eater, or Voldemort himself, it has been sitting abandoned for years; the inside now has a “smell of decay” and a layer of “dust that lay thick upon the stone”.

     In the summer of 1994, Voldemort returned to the house with Wormtail and Nagini to use it as a makeshift headquarters. The night they entered the house, Frank Bryce saw light on inside and came to investigate; it was then that Voldemort murdered him. Voldemort probably remained there for some time but we don’t know for sure. When he regained his body the following year, it was in the nearby town graveyard.

Riddle House Caretaker's Cottage

     Frank Bryce, caretaker of the Riddle House, lived in a run-down cottage on the property.

     Bryce had a bad leg from World War II and wanted to be left alone by the other villagers of Little Hangleton. But when the three members of the Riddle family dropped dead one night, he became the main suspect, and everyone in town thought he was "odd" anyway. Yet when the medical report came out, there was no clear cause of death and nothing to connect Frank to the murders, which were actually perpetrated by young Tom Marvolo Riddle.

     When Voldemort returned to the Riddle House with Wormtail, Bryce saw a light on from the cottage kitchen window while filling his teakettle. He thought boys had broken into the house and went to investigate, where he met his death from the Killing Curse.