Calvert is a village in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

, England, near the village of

Steeple Claydon Steeple Claydon is a village and civil parish in the Buckinghamshire district of the ceremonial county of Buckinghamshire, England. The village is about south of Buckingham, west of Winslow and northwest of Waddesdon. The 2011 Census recorde ...

. Originally named after a wealthy local family who had inherited property at Claydon House, Middle Claydon, on condition that they changed their surname to Verney, the village was founded as a

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

in the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...

to house workers for the

brick works A brickworks, also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock (the most common material from which bricks are made), often with a quarry for cl ...

that were constructed in the area. The Calvert Brickworks was opened in 1900 by Arthur Werner Itter, a brickmaker from the Peterborough area, but have since been closed in 1991 and turned into a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

( Calvert Jubilee) and

landfill A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...

. All that remains of the hamlet is a small group of

red brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...

terrace house A terrace, terraced house ( UK), or townhouse ( US) is a type of medium-density housing which first started in 16th century Europe with a row of joined houses sharing side walls. In the United States and Canada these are sometimes known as row ...

s. At the start of the 21st century a new

housing estate A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision (land), subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to count ...

was built called Calvert Green, greatly enlarging the original village. In 2007 Calvert Green was detached from Charndon and formed into a new

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. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

. At the 2011 Census the population of the village was still included in the civil parish of Charndon.

Former claypits

Three of the former

clay pit A clay pit is a quarry or Mining, mine for the extraction of clay, which is generally used for manufacturing pottery, bricks or Portland cement. Quarries where clay is mined to make bricks are sometimes called brick pits. A brickyard or brickwor ...

s for the brickworks have become flooded. One is called Grebe Lake, and is used for sailing,

boating Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat, or the recreational use of a boat whether powerboats, sailboats, or man-powered vessels (such as rowing and paddle boats), focused on the travel itself, as well as sports activities, suc ...

angling Angling (from Old English ''angol'', meaning "hook") is a fishing technique that uses a fish hook attached to a fishing line to tether individual fish in the mouth. The fishing line is usually manipulated with a fishing rod, although rodless te ...

and

kayak ] A kayak is a small, narrow human-powered watercraft typically propelled by means of a long, double-bladed paddle. The word ''kayak'' originates from the Inuktitut word '' qajaq'' (). In British English, the kayak is also considered to be ...

ing. One is called Itter's Pit, and is used for angling, mainly for carp and pike by the Calvert Angling Club, but also contains perch, roach, rudd and catfish. The other pit is a nature reserve for wildfowl. Another of the clay pits is now a

site. Waste is collected from

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

and London each day and transported using rail via

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery and the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, Waterside Theatre. It is located in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wycombe and Milt ...

to Calvert. The site has a

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

capable of producing 14 MWe of electricity from

landfill gas Landfill gas is a mix of different gases created by the action of microorganisms within a landfill as they decompose organic waste, including for example, food waste and paper waste. Landfill gas is approximately forty to sixty percent methane, ...

, coming from the decomposition of organic matter to convert it into renewable electricity MW.

Railways

The

Buckinghamshire Railway The Buckinghamshire Railway was a railway company in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, England that constructed railway lines connecting Bletchley, Banbury and Oxford. Part of the route is still in use today as the Oxford to Bicester Line. H ...

opened its east–west route between

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

and

Bletchley Bletchley is a constituent town of Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England, in the south-west of the city, split between the civil parishes in England, civil parishes of Bletchley and Fenny Stratford and West Bletchley, which In 2011 had a com ...

in 1851, passing just north of the village; a route which would later become known as the

Varsity Line The Varsity Line was the main railway line that linked the English university cities of Oxford and Cambridge, operated by the London and North Western Railway. In World War II, the line became a strategic route for freight avoiding London, a ...

as it continued to

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

. Stations were provided nearby at Claydon and Marsh Gibbon, but not at Calvert. In 1899 the

Great Central Railway The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its Great Central Main Line, London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company ...

built its north–south main line to

London Marylebone Marylebone station ( ) is a London station group, Central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the Marylebone area of the City of Westminster. On the National Rail network, it is also known as London Marylebone a ...

past the village and opened Calvert railway station.

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

ways closed Calvert station in 1964. The east–west

continued in operation until 1967 before services were withdrawn and the route mothballed, thereafter seeing only occasional traffic, with the last service operating in 1993. The

East West Rail East West Rail (or the East West Main Line, EWML) is a strategic aim to establish a new main line railway between East Anglia and Oxfordshire. The immediate plan is to build (or rebuild) a line linking Oxford and Cambridge via Bicester, Mi ...

project, announced in 2011, is expected to see the line reopen in 2025, with the closest station at Winslow. The currently under construction

High Speed 2 High Speed 2 (HS2) is a high-speed railway which has been under construction in England since 2019. The line's planned route is between Handsacre – in southern Staffordshire – and London, with a Spur line, branch to Birmingham. HS2 is to ...

(HS2) will run along the Great Central Railway north–south corridor in this area, to the east of Calvert. The phase one Infrastructure Maintenance Depot will be located north of Calvert. No passenger interchange between East West Rail and HS2 is proposed, since stopping high speed trains 'too often' reduces their high speed benefits, although in February 2017, the local MP called for the station to be built at the junction between East West Rail and the HS2 line, serving both lines.

Trunk roads

Calvert sits in the strip of land which the Government announced in 2018 as its 'preferred route' for the new Oxford-Cambridge Expressway road, which would link the A34, M40, and M1 trunk roads. It has been noted that the convergence of HS2, East-West Rail, and the Oxford-Cambridge Expressway at this location would offer opportunities for future provision of a key regional facility, such as an airport, or a

New Town New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz * New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** New (Paul McCartney song), "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * New (EP), ''New'' (EP), ...

References

{{Aylesbury Vale Hamlets in Buckinghamshire Civil parishes in Buckinghamshire Landfills in the United Kingdom