Clavering is a village and also a parish in north-west

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

in England. It is about from

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

and from

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

. The name 'Clavering' means 'place where clover grows'.

Location and local area

Clavering is situated 20 miles (32 km) south of

on the

River Stort The River Stort is a river in Essex and Hertfordshire, England. It is 24 miles (38 km) long and flows from just south of the village of Langley to the River Lea at Hoddesdon. The river's name is a back-formation; the town of Bishop's Sto ...

, close to the border with

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. It is one of over 100 villages in the district of

Uttlesford Uttlesford is a local government district in Essex, England. Its council is based in the market town of Saffron Walden. At the 2011 Census, the population of the district was 79,443. Other notable settlements include Great Dunmow, Elmdon, Stebbi ...

. Local towns are

Saffron Walden Saffron Walden is a market town in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and north of London. It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. The population was 15, ...

, which is just over six miles north-east of the village, and

Bishop's Stortford Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, just west of the M11 motorway on the county boundary with Essex, north-east of central London, and by rail from Liverpool Street station. Stortford had an estimated po ...

, eight miles to the south. The closest railway stations are Newport and

Audley End Audley End House is a largely early 17th-century country house outside Saffron Walden, Essex, England. It is a prodigy house, known as one of the finest Jacobean houses in England. Audley End is now one-third of its original size, but is st ...

. Clavering is located 10 miles from

Stansted Airport London Stansted Airport is a tertiary international airport serving London, England, United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England, northeast of Central London. London Stansted serves over 160 destinations acros ...

. 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

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

Clavering's village centre are located at Church End and Middle Street, close to the church and the river.

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

angler Angler may refer to: * A fisherman who uses the fishing technique of angling * ''Angler'' (video game) * The angler, ''Lophius piscatorius'', a monkfish * More generally, any anglerfish in the order Lophiiformes * '' Angler: The Cheney Vice Pres ...

s. These include Clavering Lakes – a series of five purpose-built lakes created in 1991. Clavering has a primary school and large village shop with the post office being 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. 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 Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

, the home of English cricket. Chef and TV presenter

Jamie Oliver James Trevor Oliver MBE OSI (born 27 May 1975) is an English chef, restaurateur and cookbook author. He is known for his casual approach to cuisine, which has led him to front numerous television shows and open many restaurants. Oliver reache ...

comes from and lived in Clavering until he sold his compound to

Daisy Ridley Daisy Jazz Isobel Ridley (born 10 April 1992) is an English actress. She rose to prominence for her role as Rey in the ''Star Wars'' sequel trilogy: ''The Force Awakens'' (2015), ''The Last Jedi'' (2017), and ''The Rise of Skywalker'' (2019) ...

in 2019. Jamie's parents Trevor and Sally ran one of the two village pubs, The Cricketers, from the 1970s until 2021. The Fox and Hounds is located at the other end of the village opposite the

. 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 Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

times. The former guildhall is a medieval

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. 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 hallmarks from a pre-medieval church that stood on the site. Notable objects include the carved

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...

pulpit and stained glass. There is a memorial in the church to Mary Wales, whose brother Charles Green and husband William Wales sailed on

Captain James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and ...

's first and second voyages. Two other church buildings stand in Clavering. There is a brick built

Primitive Methodist The Primitive Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination with the holiness movement. It began in England in the early 19th century, with the influence of American evangelist Lorenzo Dow (1777–1834). In the United States, the Primiti ...

chapel (now a private home), dating from 1877 to 1878 on Hill Green. Clavering Christian Centre, now an

ecumenical Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...

church/community centre, is on Stortford Road in a building that originally housed a

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

church.

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 (née 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. 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 and the illegitimate son of a neighbour and this "bad character" led to the police and coroner disregarding the initial inquest's findings that there was insufficient evidence to bring the case to trial. Unlike the previous three trials, Sarah did not have legal counsel in this final trial and was left to defend herself from the dubious account put forward by an old friend she had fallen out with (a friend who was also dubbed Sally Arsenic!), the assertions of a well respected expert, who himself had admitted in a letter that the amount of arsenic present in Richard's body was not enough to bring a case to trial, and a jury influenced by sensationalised media coverage that had persisted since the original three trials. Unsurprisingly, the illiterate wife of a farm labourer was unable to convince the jury of her innocence. However, in 2019 the conviction was deemed unsafe on the BBC TV show Murder Mystery in my Family, during which programme, even the barrister acting for the prosecution advised the judge that Sarah should not have been found guilty. Of course this was not known at the time and 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.

Governance

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

in the same name exists. This ward had a population of 1,461 at the 2011 Census. It is located in the local government district of Uttlesford and within the Saffron Walden (UK Parliament constituency).

Notable people

, celebrity chef (formerly of the village)

Gallery

File:Clavering Essex view down "The Bury" from church.JPG, View from The Bury down the church drive towards Middle Street File:Clavering Essex, view from castle mound to church.JPG, St Mary & St Clement Church viewed from the site of Clavering Castle File:Clavering Essex 'Fox & Hounds' pub.JPG, 'Fox and Hounds' pub, viewed from High Street, Clavering File:Clavering Essex church.JPG, St Mary & St Clement Church

References

External links

Clavering village website
{{authority control Villages in Essex Civil parishes in Essex Uttlesford