Ray and Eva Harvey welcomed their second child, Polly Jean Harvey, into the world on October 9, 1969 in Bridport, Dorset.
She was raised on the family farm in Corscombe by her quarrying-owning parents on Ham Hill, which was the location of a major Iron Age hillfort.
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She went to Beaminster School in nearby Beaminster as a child, where she had guitar lessons from folk musician Steve Knightley.
Her parents introduced her to blues, Captain Beefheart, and Bob Dylan, among other artists whose music would eventually have an impact on her work.
As ardent music lovers who frequently hosted gatherings and small performances, her parents counted Ian Stewart among their closest friends.
In his teenage years, Harvey started studying the saxophone and joined the ensemble Bologne, which was led by the musician Andrew Dickson.
She penned some of her earliest songs with the folk duo the Polekats, for which she also played guitar. She enrolled in Yeovil College after graduating from high school and took a foundations course in graphic arts.
