Clavering
| Clavering | |
| Essex | |
|---|---|
 Fordkeeper's cottage in Clavering | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TL473318 |
| Location: | 51°57’54"N, -0°8’42"E |
| Data | |
| Population: | 1,238 (2011[1]) |
| Post town: | Saffron Walden |
| Postcode: | CB11 |
| Dialling code: | 01799 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Uttlesford |
Clavering is a village and parish in the Clavering Hundred of north-west Essex. The name 'Clavering' means 'place where clover grows'.[2]
Location and local area
Clavering is situated 20 miles south of Cambridge on the River Stort, close to the border with Hertfordshire. Local towns are Saffron Walden, which is just over six miles north-east of the village, and Bishop's Stortford, eight miles to the south. The closest railway stations are at Newport and Audley End. Clavering is located 10 miles from Stansted Airport.
Today Clavering is a large and scattered village community that encompasses seven 'greens' and three 'ends', which are: Hill Green, Stickling Green, Starlings Green, Roast Green, Sheepcote Green, Birds Green, Deers Green, Mill End, Ford End and Further Ford End. It retains many old timber-framed and thatched buildings. The oldest remaining parts of mediæval Clavering's village centre are located at Church End and Middle Street, close to the church and the river.[2]
Village amenities
The village has a large playing field, called Jubilee Field, with bowls and tennis facilities and children's play area. Adjoining Simon's Wood provides access to many countryside walks. The area has several accessible fishing lakes, which attract keen anglers. These include Clavering Lakes – a series of five purpose-built lakes created in 1991.[3] Clavering has a primary school and large village shop with post office on Stortford Road, and there is a long-established garden centre/nursery on Hill Green called FW Whyman.
Village clubs and societies include Clavering Players, an amateur drama company that began life in 1945 as Cheerio's Concert Party.[4] Clavering Cricket Club plays on Hill Green and has done so since the turn of the 20th century. The pavilion was built in 1950 and features seating from Lord's, the home of cricket.
Chef and TV presenter Jamie Oliver comes from and lives in Clavering. His father Trevor runs one of the two village pubs, The Cricketers.[5] The Fox and Hounds[6] is located at the other end of the village opposite the River Stort. Both the Fox and The Cricketers attract people from nearby villages such as Arkesden, Wicken Bonhunt and Langley Upper Green as well as Clavering residents.
Places of historic interest
Notable sites in Clavering include Clavering Castle and the former Clavering guildhall – now known as The Bury. The remains of the castle are now just ringworks and earthworks. The castle is believed to date from pre-Norman times. The former guildhall is a mediæval Grade-II* listed building. Constructed in the early 14th century, it was restored following a fire in December 1991.
The parish church of St Mary & St Clement is largely 15th-century, but contains some features from a pre-mediæval church that stood on the site. Notable objects include the carved Elizabethan pulpit and stained glass.[7] There is a memorial in the church to Mary Wales, whose brother Charles Green and husband William Wales sailed on Captain James Cook's first and second voyages.[2]
Two other church buildings stand in Clavering. There is a brick-built Primitive Methodist chapel (now a private home), dating from 1877–8 on Hill Green.[2] Clavering Christian Centre, now an ecumenical church/community centre, is on Stortford Road in a building that originally housed a Congregational church.[2]
The Moat Farm Murder and 'Sally Arsenic'
Two notorious murder cases are part of the village's history. The Moat Farm Murder in 1903 attracted scores of sightseers after the body of Camille Cecile Holland was dug up in the grounds of Moat Farm, the place of residence she had acquired whilst presenting herself as the wife of Samuel Herbert Dougal. Dougal was actually married to another woman by the name of Sarah (nee Sarah Henrietta White) who, once Miss Holland had been disposed of, took up residence at the Moat Farm pretending, initially at least, to be Dougal's daughter. This pretence nevertheless was soon dropped when she started wearing clothes known to have been the property of Miss Holland. [8][9] Samuel Herbert Dougal was hanged for the crime yet Sarah escaped all scrutiny and disappeared from all records from that time onward. Some 50 years earlier Sarah Chesham (known locally as 'Sally Arsenic') was hanged for the attempted murder of her husband. Previously she had been tried and acquitted for the murder of her two sons. This case influenced a change in the law on selling arsenic – requiring vendors to make a note of the purchaser's name, address and reason for needing poison.[10][11]
Notable people
- Jamie Oliver, celebrity chef
Gallery
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View from The Bury down the church drive towards Middle Street -
'Fox and Hounds' pub, viewed from High Street, Clavering -
St Mary & St Clement Church
References
- ↑ "Parish population 2011". http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11122037&c=Clavering&d=16&e=62&g=6426295&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1443265444030&enc=1. Retrieved 26 September 2015.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "Local History". Claveringonline.org.uk. Archived from the original on 27 November 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20111127022245/http://www.claveringonline.org.uk/Local%20History%20Frame.htm. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
- ↑ "Home : Clavering Fishing Lakes & Lodge, Essex". Clavering-lakes.co.uk. http://www.clavering-lakes.co.uk/index.php. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
- ↑ "Welcome Page". Clavering Players. Archived from the original on 8 July 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110708163647/http://www.claveringplayers.com/index.html. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
- ↑ "The Cricketers, Clavering". Thecricketers.co.uk. http://www.thecricketers.co.uk. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
- ↑ "The Fox and Hounds". Foxandhoundsclavering.co.uk. http://www.foxandhoundsclavering.co.uk/. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
- ↑ "Clavering Local History Essex". Recordinguttlesfordhistory.org.uk. http://www.recordinguttlesfordhistory.org.uk/clavering/claveringhistory.html. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
- ↑ W., Oldridge, M. (2012). The Moat Farm mystery : the life and criminal career of Samuel Herbert Dougal. Stroud: History Press. ISBN 9780752466293. OCLC 795181831. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/795181831.
- ↑ "Retrieved 24 February 2013". Hertsandessexobserver.co.uk. Archived from the original on 20 April 2013. https://archive.is/20130420214633/http://www.hertsandessexobserver.co.uk/News/Uttlesford/New-books-delves-into-Claverings-murderous-past-27092012.htm. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
- ↑ "Retrieved 24 February 2013". Waymarking.com. http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMAX33_Ponds_Manor_Clavering_Essex_UK_Sarah_Chesham_Sally_Arsenic. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
- ↑ "Retrieved 24 February 2013". Capitalpunishmentuk.org. http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/chesham.html. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Clavering) |