Clapper Gates are a distinctive type of self-closing double gate, unique to the navigable reaches of the

River Trent The Trent is the third-longest river in the United Kingdom. Its source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midlands. The river is known for dramatic flooding after storms and ...

. They were erected along the

towpath A towpath is a road or trail on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The purpose of a towpath is to allow a land vehicle, beasts of burden, or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge. This mode of transport w ...

of the river in the 18th century, and allow people and horses to pass through the field boundaries on the river bank, but prevent

livestock Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animal ...

from straying.

History

A horse towing path (or haling path) along the navigable Trent, from

Shardlow Shardlow is a village in Derbyshire, England about southeast of Derby and southwest of Nottingham. Part of the civil parish of Shardlow and Great Wilne, and the district of South Derbyshire, it is also very close to the border with Leice ...

Gainsborough Gainsborough or Gainsboro may refer to: Places * Gainsborough, Ipswich, Suffolk, England ** Gainsborough Ward, Ipswich * Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, a town in England ** Gainsborough (UK Parliament constituency) * Gainsborough, New South Wales, ...

was approved as part an Act of Parliament in 1783. But unlike canal towing paths, towpaths along rivers were not usually fenced off from the land alongside and required these self-closing gates where the path crossed the field boundaries.

Construction

Always painted white, the normal construction is of square timber rails, with three horizontal metal rods, and a single diagonal bracing rod. The design of the gate also includes an angled upright or stile, with the post on which the gates are parked, angled in the same way. The two gates are hinged at the top and base using a metal band attached to a large post. This heel post is inclined slightly forward, which ensures that the gates are self-closing by their own weight. The name comes from the fact that once released after opening, the gate comes together with its gate post making a sharp sound or 'clap' as it shuts. This is unlike a

kissing gate A kissing gate is a gate that allows people, but not livestock, to pass through. The normal construction is a half-round, rectangular, trapezoidal or V-shaped part-enclosure with the free end of a hinged gate trapped between its arms. When the ...

, which only 'kisses' or lightly touches its frame.

Heritage

They are seen as a key heritage feature of the River Trent bankside landscape, and efforts are being made to record and preserve them, in the Trent Valley between Farndon in Nottinghamshire and Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. The

Trent Valley Way The Trent Valley Way is a waymarked long-distance footpath in England following the River Trent and its valley in the counties of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. Originally created in 1998, to mark the centenary of the Nottinghamshire Coun ...

, a long distance footpath which follows the Trentside tow path for some of its length, passes through many of these gates on its route between Nottingham and Gainsborough.

Gallery

References

* * {{reflist Types of gates