Clattercote or Clattercot is a

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 ...

Claydon with Clattercot Claydon with Clattercot is a civil parish in the Cherwell district, in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It was formed in 1932 by merger of the parish of Claydon () with the extra-parochial area of ClattercoteCrossley, 1972, pages 194-197 () ...

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

, just over north of

Banbury Banbury is a historic market town on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. It had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding area of north Oxfordshire ...

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

History

In the 12th century

Robert de Chesney Robert de Chesney (died December 1166) was a medieval English Bishop of Lincoln. He was the brother of an important royal official, William de Chesney, and the uncle of Gilbert Foliot, successively Bishop of Hereford and Bishop of London. Educate ...

Bishop of Lincoln The Bishop of Lincoln is the ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury. The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and ...

granted land at Clattercote to the

Gilbertine Order The Gilbertine Order of Canons Regular was founded around 1130 by Gilbert of Sempringham, Saint Gilbert in Sempringham, Lincolnshire, where Gilbert was the parish priest. It was the only completely England, English religious order and came to an ...

, on which they founded a small

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of mon ...

dedicated to Saint Leonard.Crossley, 1972, pages 194-197 The priory was dissolved in 1538 in the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1551

King Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disag ...

granted the former priory and its lands to

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

. The college was still the freeholder in 1969. The Priory seems to have had a leper's pool in which

leprous Leprous is a Norwegian rock band from Notodden, formed in 2001. The group was founded by singer and keyboardist Einar Solberg and guitarist Tor Oddmund Suhrke. After releasing several demos with relatively unstable lineups, the band released th ...

inmates were bathed. Remains of a paved walk around the former pool have been discovered. By the 18th century the leper's pool was known as the "great fish pond". The priory was extensively rebuilt as a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

ed farmhouse, Priory Farm. The eastern range of the farmhouse includes parts of the priory dating from late in the 13th or early in the 14th century. By 1614 the remainder of the priory had been demolished and replaced with a large L-shaped house. The central wing of this house survives but by 1717 the west wing had been demolished. The present west wing had been built in its place by 1729. In 1777 the

Oxford Canal The Oxford Canal is a narrowboat canal in central England linking the City of Oxford with the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury (just north of Coventry and south of Bedworth) via Banbury and Rugby. Completed in 1790, it connects to the River Thame ...

was being extended southwards past Clattercote from

Fenny Compton Fenny Compton is a village and parish in Warwickshire, England, about eight miles north of Banbury. In the 2001 census the parish had a population of 797, increasing to 808 at the 2011 census. Its name comes from the Anglo-Saxon ''Fennig Cumbtū ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

Cropredy Cropredy ( ) is a village and civil parish on the River Cherwell, north of Banbury in Oxfordshire. History The village has Anglo-Saxon origins and is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. The toponym comes from the Old English words ''cropp'' ...

in Oxfordshire,Compton, 1976, page 25 and the canal company enlarged the great fish pond to form Clattercote Reservoir to feed the canal. In 1787 the company enlarged the reservoir to its present area of . There is a Clattercote Wharf on the canal about east of Priory Farm. In 1852 the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

built its

Oxford and Rugby Railway The Oxford and Rugby Railway was promoted by the Great Western Railway as a means of connecting to the West Midlands and the north of England, by joining existing railways at Rugby. It was authorised in 1845, but the GWR soon decided to make its ...

from to past Clattercote, passing just west of Priory Farm. Clattercote's nearest station was to the south at , until

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

ways closed it in 1956. In 1932 Clattercote and the neighbouring village of Claydon to the north were incorporated into the new

Sources

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References

{{Oxfordshire-geo-stub Hamlets in Oxfordshire