Clattercote or Clattercot is 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

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 ...

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 ( ...

, in the Cherwell district, in

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

, England, just over north of

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

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 (officer), 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 Nort ...

granted land at Clattercote to the

Gilbertine Order The Gilbertine Order of Canons Regular was founded around 1130 by Saint Gilbert in Sempringham, Lincolnshire, where Gilbert was the parish priest. It was the only completely English religious order and came to an end in the 16th century at th ...

, 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. They were created by the Catholic Church. Priories may be monastic houses of monks or nuns (such as the Benedictines, the Cistercians, or t ...

dedicated to

Saint Leonard Leonard of Noblac (also Leonard of Limoges or Leonard of Noblet; also known as Lienard, Linhart, Lenart, Leonhard, Léonard, Leonardo, Annard; died 559) is a Frankish saint closely associated with the town and abbey of Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, ...

.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 known for his six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagreement w ...

granted the former priory and its lands to

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

. 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 progressive metal 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 ban ...

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 dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water d ...

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 southern 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 th ...

was being extended southwards past Clattercote from

Fenny Compton Fenny Compton is a village and parish in Warwickshire, England, eight miles north of Banbury. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 808. Its name comes from the Anglo-Saxon ''Fennig Cumbtūn'' meaning "marshy farmstead in a valley". In 14 ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

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 History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

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 it ...

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 rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

ways closed it in 1956. Clattercote was formerly an

extra-parochial tract In England and Wales, an extra-parochial area, extra-parochial place or extra-parochial district was a geographically defined area considered to be outside any ecclesiastical or civil parish. Anomalies in the parochial system meant they had no ch ...

, in 1858 Clattercot became a separate civil parish, on 1 April 1932 the parish was abolished and merged with Claydon to form "Claydon with Clattercot". In 1931 the parish had a population of 5.

Sources

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References

Hamlets in Oxfordshire Cherwell District {{Oxfordshire-geo-stub