CLAPTON
The small parish of Clapton, or Clapton-on-theHill, 819 a. in area, (fn. 1) lies immediately south of
Bourton-on-the-Water, with which it has been
closely associated throughout its history. Its shape is
irregular and elongated: its short eastern and southwestern boundaries are marked, respectively, by the
River Windrush and by the stream along Broadwater Bottom. Part of the northern boundary follows
a water-course draining into the Windrush, and part
of the southern boundary runs along the road that
crosses the Windrush by New Bridge. (fn. 2)
The land rises steeply from under 400 ft. beside
the Windrush to a flat summit of 725 ft. at the centre
of the parish and then falls only a little more gently
towards Broadwater Bottom. The northern edge of
the parish is marked by a steep-sided valley running
down towards Bourton. (fn. 3) The central and southwestern parts of the parish lie on the Inferior
Oolite; to the east, at 650 ft., the Cotswold Sand is
exposed and lower again the Upper Lias, Middle
Lias, and Lower Lias in succession, with alluvium
in the river valley. (fn. 4) The soil is mostly thin and
stony. The agricultural use of the land is relieved by
only two small areas of woodland: in 1540 there was
said to be no wood except in the hedgerows. (fn. 5)
According to Rudder, Clapton has 'nothing worthy
the attention of the naturalist or antiquary'. (fn. 6) The
small village is near the centre of the parish, a little
below and north-west of the highest point, seemingly
remote and exposed. It is mostly on the Cotswold
sand, through which springs emerge. The village
may have been established in the 12th century.
Clapton is not named in the Domesday survey, (fn. 7)
being apparently included with Bourton. Part of the
church derives from a 12th-century building, (fn. 8) and
the first documentary reference to Clapton is apparently in the name of an inhabitant in the late 12th
century. (fn. 9)
Most of the evidence indicates that Clapton was
founded as an offshoot of Bourton. In the Middle
Ages Clapton was included in the manor of Bourton,
and the church at Clapton, so far as is known, has
always been a chapel of ease to Bourton. (fn. 10) Despite
opinions to the contrary, (fn. 11) the area of Clapton was
included in grants of the 8th and 10th centuries of an
estate centred on Bourton, the southern boundary of
which was the southern (not the northern) boundary
of Clapton parish: 'Withigford' is more likely to have
been on the site of New Bridge than 500 yards
upstream; the boundary described in the charter of
949 is too simple for the complex north boundary of
Clapton; the later tenurial connexion of Clapton
and Bourton is unquestionable; and had the charter
of 949 intended to define the north boundary of
Clapton it would have mentioned the water-course
rather than a road (fn. 12) which can be identified with the
road from New Bridge. The identification of Win's
Barrow, which is a landmark in the charter of 779, (fn. 13)
with a barrow near Bourton Hill Farm, on the north
boundary of Clapton, is a result of, not a reason for,
thinking that the charter excluded Clapton; earlier
the name Win's Barrow had been given to another
mound on Clapton's north boundary, until that
mound was discredited as a barrow. (fn. 14) In the charter
of 949 Win's Barrow gives place as a landmark to
'Pippen's pen', (fn. 15) which was near the site of Clapton
village and may have been connected with farm
buildings that foreshadowed the village.
The village is built round a cross formed by two
lanes, with the southern and western arms of the
cross joined by a third lane. The church stands in the
north-east angle, the manor-house in the northwest angle. Possibly the south-west angle was an
open green before two rows of cottages were built
there in the 18th century. In the early years of the
20th century ten cottages were demolished, (fn. 16) and
another eight were pulled down in the years following
the Second World War. (fn. 17) In 1962 the outer row of
cottages in the south-west angle of the village was
being replaced by council houses. From the southern
corner of the village two roads lead off, one towards
Sherborne, meeting the road from New Bridge, the
other, beside which a few 20th-century houses
have been built, joins the road from Sherborne to
Bourton. There are no houses at a distance from
the village: all the farm-houses are in the village, for
the small size of the parish and the small numbers
of estates in it made their dispersal after inclosure
in 1774 (fn. 18) unnecessary.
In the 14th century Clapton was one of the smaller
villages in the area, with 13 people assessed for the
subsidy of 1327 (fn. 19) and 23 people for the poll tax of
1381, (fn. 20) and from the mid-17th century the population remained small. There were said to be 15
families in 1650, (fn. 21) 17 households in 1672, (fn. 22) and 18
houses c. 1710. A slight rise in population may have
continued in the 18th century, (fn. 23) and from 103 in
1801 the population rose to 138 in 1871 before
falling to below 100 in 1921. In 1951 it was 95. (fn. 24)
The buildings in the village are mostly of stone
with Cotswold stone roofs. Two of the farm-houses
date from the 17th century: Manor Farm (the
manor-house) and Church Farm have mullioned
windows and dormers; Manor Farm, which in the
late 17th century contained 5 hearths (fn. 25) and was
clearly the largest house in the village (fn. 26) but a
hundred years later was considered unsuitable as a
residence for its owner, (fn. 27) also has stone chimneys
with moulded capitals, and has undergone alterations at various dates from the 17th century to the
20th. Upper Farm and Newbridge Farm form together an L-shaped block built mainly in the 17th
and 18th centuries. At the east end of Upper Farm
an addition dated 1790 has wide architraves, keystones, long and short quoins, and a bracketed stone
hood over the doorway. The cottages of the 18th
century mostly have timber lintels to doors and
windows, but there are several cottages with arched
stone openings apparently of the early 19th century.
The buildings of the village include several substantial barns. Some of the stone used in building
the village may have come from quarries in the west
of the parish; at inclosure in 1774 1¾ a. was set
aside for a public quarry. (fn. 28)
Clapton is not served by 'buses. Electricity became
available in 1954 and main water at about the same
time. (fn. 29) One native of Clapton is known to have
achieved national renown: William Fox (1736–
1826), founder of the Sunday School Society, who
left home at 16, later became lord of the manor, was
a benefactor to the village, and lived there for one
year of his old age. (fn. 30)
Manor.
In the Middle Ages Clapton was part of
the manor of Bourton-on-the-Water, which belonged
to Evesham Abbey. (fn. 31) In 1540 the Crown granted the
rents and other profits from the abbey's tenants
in Clapton, together with Farmington manor, to
Michael Ashfield, of Northleach, (fn. 32) who died the
same year. His son Robert, aged 6 in 1540, (fn. 33) may
have been the Robert Ashfield who died at Farmington in 1616 holding the same estate, to be succeeded
by his son John. (fn. 34) By 1620 this estate was regarded
as the manor of CLAPTON. (fn. 35) From the Ashfields
the ownership passed in a way that has not been
discovered to William Powell, who in 1660 sold the
manor to John Woodman of London, (fn. 36) though
members of the Powell family continued to live and
own land in Clapton. (fn. 37) John Woodman died in 1700
and was buried at Clapton; (fn. 38) he was succeeded by
his son Philip, and Philip by his son Haynes Woodman by 1711. Another Philip, son and heir of Haynes,
was succeeded in 1773 by his son Philip, who in 1795
sold the manor to William Fox, (fn. 39) mentioned above.
The manor had passed by 1805, before Fox's death,
to Vernon Dolphin of Eyford, (fn. 40) whose grandfather
John Dolphin had acquired an estate in Clapton
c. 1770. (fn. 41) In 1840 the manorial estate, comprising
nearly 500 a. (fn. 42) and heavily mortaged, was bought by
George Bennett, who sold off some of the land. (fn. 43) By
1870 the owner of Clapton manor was Horace
Townsend (d. by 1885), from whose trustees the
manor was acquired by Col. H. Cholmondeley of
Keyham Old Hall (Leics.). From 1906 to 1919 (fn. 44) the
lord of the manor was George Frederick Moore of
Bourton-on-the-Water, who owned or rented nearly
all the land in the parish. By 1923, however, the
ownership of the land was divided between the
several farmers. (fn. 45) The manor-house and Manor farm
changed hands frequently up to 1954 when they
passed into the ownership and occupation of
Commander and Mrs. A. B. MacBrayne. (fn. 46)
Economic History.
In the late 12th century
Clapton was said to contain 5½ hides. (fn. 47) This assessment survived almost unchanged, for in 1540 (fn. 48) and
1621 there were c. 23 yardlands (fn. 49) and in 1736 the
tithes of Clapton were valued on a computation of
235/8 yardlands. (fn. 50) From the size of the parish, and
allowing for closes, waste, common meadow, and
common down, each yardland can be assumed to
have contained c. 20 a. or less of open arable land,
much the same as in neighbouring parishes. Since
the number of lands or field-acres in a yardland was
c. 40, not counting odd butts, fardels, and leys, (fn. 51) the
land or field-acre was half a statute acre or less.
Though one piece of the glebe in 1584 was 4 a. (or
four ridges) (fn. 52) there is little evidence of any consolidation of open-field arable before inclosure in
1774, and the evidence that is available suggests
rather that nearly all the land of each holding lay in
single ridges. The arable was divided into furlongs,
but there is no evidence of the grouping of furlongs
into distinct fields. (fn. 53)
In the late 12th century two of the 5½ hides in
Clapton were distinguished as former demesne, the
tenants of which owed no boon services. (fn. 54) With the
commutation of labour services, probably in the 13th
century as at Bourton, the distinction between the
former demesne and the customary land disappeared:
the two freehold tenants in 1540 held little land in
Clapton and had the major part of their holdings in
Bourton. Nearly all the land in Clapton, 21 yardlands, was held by six copyholders and one leaseholder, in holdings of from one to four yardlands;
the way in which the holdings were recorded and
named suggests that holdings of two yardlands had
for long been not uncommon. Heriots, mostly in
kind, were due on the leasehold as well as on the
copyholds. (fn. 55) The absence of any reversionary
interest suggests that the copyholds were heritable.
In the early 17th century the holdings of land in
Clapton were described much as in 1540: perhaps
there had been little change, but because they had
been separated from their original manor the copyhold tenures had changed their character; (fn. 56) one at
least was converted into a freehold in 1620, (fn. 57) and
another had undergone the same change by 1665. (fn. 58)
By this period the manorial estate included four
yardlands of demesne, (fn. 59) and in 1690 the lord of the
manor held more land in Clapton than any other
landholder. (fn. 60) When 140 a. of downland was inclosed by agreement in 1711 eight owners including
the Rector of Bourton were involved: 40 a. were
assigned to the lord of the manor, and two other
owners received more than 20 a. each. (fn. 61) Under
the parliamentary inclosure award of 1774, which
affected 612 a., again eight owners including the
rector received allotments. Philip Woodman and
John Dolphin each received c. 130 a. and there were
six allotments of 30–90 a. No cottager received land
to replace rights of common. (fn. 62) About 100 a. remained commonable after the inclosure of 1774, (fn. 63)
and it is not known when the commoning rights
were finally extinguished.
Before inclosure the type of agriculture practised
was presumably a conventional open-field, sheepand-corn husbandry. In 1540 a house for a town
herdsman was planned, (fn. 64) and the downland inclosed in 1711 had evidently been a sheep-pasture,
for the landowners undertook to abate one sheepcommon on the open fields for each acre of inclosed
downland. (fn. 65) In the fields a three-course rotation was
used, with fallow every third year, in 1690. (fn. 66)
Inclosure in 1774 was followed, perhaps as a result,
by the extinction of the smaller estates, for by the
early 19th century the manor estate was much enlarged, including both Woodman's and Dolphin's
allotments of 1774. (fn. 67) The proportion of arable land
may have decreased: Bigland and Rudge reported
an equal division of the parish between pasture and
arable; (fn. 68) in 1801 a third of the parish was sown, with
a high proportion of oats and turnips (fn. 69) for winter
feed; and in 1832 about a third of the two farms that
comprised the manor estate was arable land, including still some fallow. (fn. 70)
In 1831 there were four farms, (fn. 71) and the number
remained at four or five in the later 19th century. In
1939 there were two farms of over 150 a. and three
others, (fn. 72) and in 1962 there were three of c. 200 a.
and two of c. 50 a. (fn. 73) In 1935 about half the parish
remained arable, an unusually high proportion, (fn. 74)
and in 1962 only a little over half was permanent
grass. The farming then was mainly beef, sheep,
and dairying. In 1897 an allotment scheme was
started, (fn. 75) and after the Second World War further
land was made available as allotments. This became
more than normally important in the twenties when
the growing of strawberries on a commercial scale
began. Although high and stony, the land produces
good crops which, having a later season than those
from the Vale of Evesham and elsewhere, are
financially rewarding, and about half of the allotment
land is devoted to strawberries. (fn. 76)
Agriculture has been almost the sole occupation of
the people of Clapton. A smith is recorded in 1608, (fn. 77)
and a smith's shop in 1832; (fn. 78) a carpenter in 1608 (fn. 79)
and in 1856–1906. From 1885 the carpenter also
kept a shop, and by 1906 there was also a carrier who
kept the post office. (fn. 80) In 1962 the post office retained some marginal trade as a shop. Apart from
occupants of Manor Farm, gentry are unknown as
residents of Clapton, and in 1962 none of the inhabitants had retired to the village from elsewhere. (fn. 81)
Local Government.
Ecclesiastically, and
until 1540 manorially, Clapton belonged to Bourtonon-the-Water. No separate manor court for Clapton
is known to have existed. Ecclesiastically, however,
Clapton achieved a measure of independence; it had
two churchwardens of its own in 1584 (fn. 82) and in 1661, (fn. 83)
though only a single 'chapelwarden' by 1784. (fn. 84) For
civil purposes Clapton achieved complete independence as a parish. No parochial records of civil
government survive, the chapelwarden's book of
1795–1909 (fn. 85) recording only the ecclesiastical business of the vestry. A constable and a tithingman for
Clapton were appointed in the court leet at Stow, (fn. 86)
where in the 18th century defects in the stocks, the
pound, and the hedges of Clapton were presented. (fn. 87)
In 1802 there was a single overseer, (fn. 88) and it is not
clear whether the chapelwarden had any poor-law
function, though presumably the 17th-century
churchwardens did in theory. Perhaps as a result of
the beneficence of William Fox, who is said to have
clothed all the poor of the village, (fn. 89) parish expenditure on the poor increased in the years up to
1803 much less than in other parishes of the district; (fn. 90)
in 1812–15 Clapton was remarkable for the small
number of families on permanent relief. (fn. 91)
Clapton became part of the Stow-on-the-Wold
Poor Law Union under the Act of 1834, (fn. 92) of the
Stow-on-the-Wold highway district in 1863, (fn. 93) and of
the Stow-on-the-Wold Rural Sanitary District under
the Act of 1872 (being transferred to the newly
formed North Cotswold Rural District in 1935.) (fn. 94)
In 1895 the parish meeting received the powers of a
parish council, enabling it to administer allotments; (fn. 95)
in 1962 it administered not only the allotments
owned by the county council but also those that were
privately owned. (fn. 96)
Church.
Architectural evidence indicates that
Clapton church existed by the late 12th century; the
absence of any medieval documentary reference to it
is explained by the fact that it was a chapel of ease
to Bourton-on-the-Water. The Rector of Bourton
received the small tithes and one-third of the great
tithes in Clapton, (fn. 97) valued at £30 in the 17th
century; (fn. 98) the remaining two-thirds belonged to
Evesham Abbey and later, apparently, to the owners
of Clapton manor, for although by 1703 some landowners owned tithe on their lands (fn. 99) the lord of the
manor received an allotment for tithe on seven yardlands at inclosure in 1774. The rector then received
allotments for tithe for both new and old inclosures, (fn. 100)
the minor inclosure of 1711 having left tithe unaffected; (fn. 101) by 1736 a modus of 16s. a yardland was
paid for all tithe due to the rector. (fn. 102) The rector's
glebe in Clapton was half a yardland in 1584, (fn. 103) for
which 23 a. were allotted in 1774. (fn. 104)
In 1636 the inhabitants of Clapton complained
that although the sacraments had been administered
in the chapel time out of mind the rector, Dr.
Thomas Temple, had neglected his duties, had
sworn that there should be no prayers said there,
and had offered £5 to have the chapel pulled down. (fn. 105)
The rector's attitude helps to explain why in 1650
the inhabitants requested that Clapton become
independent of Bourton church. (fn. 106) In 1660 there was
a curate apparently for Clapton alone, but he was
ejected and joined the Baptists. (fn. 107) Thereafter Clapton
either shared a curate with Lower Slaughter, where
the curate lived from the mid-19th century, (fn. 108) or had
to rely on the personal ministrations of the rector.
In 1736 the inhabitants remembered weekly
services and complained that they had been reduced to one a month or less, with Communion
only once a year, and the rector was said to have
refused sometimes to come to bury in the graveyard. (fn. 109) In the early 18th century marriages were
celebrated at Clapton; (fn. 110) at the end of the century
only a few families were said to have right of burial
there. (fn. 111) In 1743, 1750, and c. 1805 services were
still held only once a month, the appropriation of the
south aisle of Bourton church to the inhabitants of
Clapton allegedly making more frequent services
unnecessary. (fn. 112) By 1825 services were held every
third Sunday, with Communion three times a year, (fn. 113)
and in 1851 (fn. 114) (as in 1962) (fn. 115) there were services every
Sunday.
The church or chapel of ST. JAMES (fn. 116) is among
the smallest in the Cotswolds, comprising chancel,
nave, north vestry, and south porch. (fn. 117) The floors of
chancel and nave are on the same level, but the nave
is both wider and higher than the chancel. Most of
the fabric may be of the late 12th century, the date of
the responds of the chancel arch, the south doorway
with its lintel and small tympanum hidden by
plaster, and the plain tub font. (fn. 118) On the chamfered
abacus of the northern respond of the chancel arch
is a two-line inscription of an elegiac couplet in
Lombardic lettering that reads:
Qui ter devote pater ave genebus ipse
Dixerit, en merces sunt sibi mille dies. (fn. 119)
The chancel arch itself was added in the 13th century, as were the south porch and the two surviving
lancets, one over the altar and the other to the west
of the south door. Another feature of the medieval
building is the aumbrey to the right of the east
window.
In the early 18th century the church was said to
have been newly built in 1670, (fn. 120) which is plainly
wrong. It may have been at that date that the surviving roof was built, the one- and two-light squareheaded windows in the chancel and nave were made
or altered, and the squat bell-turret, its sides as
well as its pyramidal roof covered with Cotswold
stone tiles, was put up over the east end of the nave.
The roofs have unusually wide stone copings at the
gable-ends, with finial crosses of the 17th century or
earlier. The chapel was repaired in 1795, new seats
were provided in 1830, (fn. 121) and the north vestry was
built in 1912. (fn. 122)
In the nave are floor slabs from the late 17th
century to members of the Woodman and Wise
families. There is one bell, made by Henry Bagley in
1743. The plate includes an Elizabethan chalice and
paten, the paten inscribed IC 1609. (fn. 123) The registers
begin in 1873; earlier entries were made in the
Bourton registers until 1813 and then in the Lower
Slaughter registers.
Nonconformity.
The curate of Clapton who
was ejected at the Restoration and became a Baptist
was Thomas Paxford, (fn. 124) presumably of the same
family as William Paxford, the first person buried in
the Baptist graveyard at Bourton. (fn. 125) In 1676 Clapton
had a fairly high proportion of dissenters, (fn. 126) two of
whom were fined in 1685. (fn. 127) In 1736 the rector's
neglect of Clapton was said to have turned many to
dissent, (fn. 128) and in 1797 a house was registered for
nonconformist services, (fn. 129) apparently Baptist. In
1851 the Baptist minister from Bourton held
Sunday evening services in a house at Clapton. (fn. 130) A
permanent branch chapel was built in 1908 (fn. 131) and
continued in use in 1962.
Schools.
William Fox started and supported a
free day school c. 1795 (fn. 132) but it is not clear whether
there was any continuity between it and the day
school for 11 children paid for by the rector in
1825. (fn. 133) A Church of England Sunday school survived in 1851, with 15 children, (fn. 134) but no more is
known of the Church of England day school. In
1863 a school which was later a British school was
started in a former cottage; in 1883 it had an
attendance of 21 children paying fees of 1d., and
a single uncertificated mistress. The building belonged to one of the landowners, (fn. 135) and the school
was run by private managers. (fn. 136) From 1887 the
teacher was certificated, (fn. 137) but in 1893 a school
board for the parish was formed and took over the
British school. The school was moved to a new
building in 1896, (fn. 138) and had an attendance of 24 in
1904. (fn. 139) Attendance remained at about that figure, (fn. 140)
but the school was closed in 1933, (fn. 141) the younger
children going to Sherborne, the older children to
Bourton or Northleach.
Charity.
Under a Scheme of 1865 Clapton
receives one-fifth of the benefit of Dorothy Vernon's
charity for Bourton-on-the-Water. (fn. 142)