Clovenfords is a village in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders ( sco, the Mairches, 'the Marches'; gd, Crìochan na h-Alba) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, West Lothi ...

area of Scotland, north of the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

Caddonfoot Caddonfoot ( gd, Bun Chadain) is a village on the River Tweed, in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland, on the A707, near Galashiels. The village is at the mouth of the Caddon Water Other places nearby include Boleside, Broadmeadows, Scott ...

and west of the town

Galashiels Galashiels (; sco, Gallae, gd, An Geal Àth) is a town in the Scottish Borders with a population of around 12,600. Its name is often colloquially shortened to "Gala". The town is a major commercial centre for the Borders region with extensive ...

. The village sits on undulating grasslands and surrounding rolling hills. The 2011 census gave it a population count of 562 people.

History

Clovenfords began on the stagecoach route between Carlisle and Edinburgh. The village boasted a smithy, a post office and a handful of cottages when Galashiels was only a hamlet dependent on Clovenfords for its mail deliveries and news from the outside world. The first expansion of the village took place when William Thomson established the Vineries where he grew table grapes which were sold throughout the country. They traveled by overnight train to London to be sold in Covent Garden Market and Harrods. Some were taken on board American bound ocean liners. His book, "A Treatise on the Growing of the Grapevine", was taken worldwide to all the major grape growing areas of the world and was available in public libraries in California, France, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand etc.

School

A new

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

was opened in Clovenfords in 2012, replacing the old building at

which dated back to 1840. The school roll at September 2015 is 93 pupils, and there are 5 teachers. The current

Headteacher A head master, head instructor, bureaucrat, headmistress, head, chancellor, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the teacher, staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school ...

is Kerry Collins.

Hotel

Clovenfords Hotel is a focal point of the community. It first opened , known as Whytbank Inn.

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...

stayed frequently at the hotel after he was appointed a sheriff in 1799, and the poet

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

and his sister Dorothy stayed there in 1803. In 2016, the hotel underwent extensive refurbishment.

Village hall

Caddonfoot Hall is located south of Clovenfords and hosts regular activities for the people of the village, including

Scottish country dancing Scottish country dance (SCD) is the distinctively Scottish form of country dance, itself a form of social dance involving groups of couples of dancers tracing progressive patterns. A dance consists of a sequence of figures. These dances are ...

yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciou ...

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

and a children's playgroup. The hall was given to the people of Caddonfoot Parish in 1929 by Lady Louisa Mary Anderson of Yair House, and is managed by a committee of user group representatives.

References

External links