Clovenfords is a village in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

area of Scotland, north of the

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 ...

of Caddonfoot and west of the town

Galashiels Galashiels (; , ) 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 history in the textile in ...

. 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, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

was opened in Clovenfords in 2012, replacing the old building at Caddonfoot which dated back to 1840. The school roll at September 2015 is 93 pupils, and there are 5 teachers. The current

Headteacher A headmaster/headmistress, head teacher, head, school administrator, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school. Role While s ...

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 and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

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 poetry, Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romanticism, Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Balla ...

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 Formation dance, progressive patterns. A dance consists of a sequence of figures. T ...

yoga Yoga (UK: , US: ; 'yoga' ; ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as pra ...

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

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