Category Archives: Clappers Lane

Fulking 1922-1956

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[The essay that follows was written in 1957 by Edgar Bishop, a central figure in village life during the period that it covers. He lived in Brook House and ran a large market garden from land mostly on the west side of Clappers Lane. Some thirty to forty people worked there and, with Henry Harris, he was one of the two major local employers.]

Devil's Dyke Railway Station (Gothic). Did Mrs Banks run the café?

In looking back over the past thirty four years it is quite astonishing to note the many changes which have taken place in the village life: in 1922 when we came to the district, Fulking and Edburton were very quiet isolated Downland villages, the Dyke Railway being practically the only dependable link with Brighton, barring, of course, one’s legs. I well remember arriving at the Dyke Station in that thick mist, wondering how on earth I was going to find Fulking — but with the friendly help and guidance of a native I was piloted down the hill and arrived safely in the village.

Oil Lamps from the 1914 Gamages catalogue

How things have changed since those days of long ago — paraffin and colza [rapeseed] oil was the only means of light so that the most important morning task of every housewife was the cleaning, trimming and refilling of the lamps. Telephones did not exist and when the G.P.O. started encouraging people to use them it was largely a question of getting a sufficient number of subscribers together to warrant the main lines being laid — in the end thirteen of us grouped together and agreed to have the phone installed, this being the minimum number acceptable to the G.P.O. Then came the difficulty of getting the Brighton Corporation to lay cables for electricity and here it was only with considerable and joint pressure from both the Poynings and Fulking inhabitants that the Corporation agreed to extend the mains through from the London Road side.

The one and only school — the Church School (now Boundary House) provided the education but unfortunately disagreement arose between the East and West Sussex Authorities over the administration, and the church lost the School. Incidentally the School had been given under a deed of trust by Lord Leconfield but unfortunately it lapsed and so bureaucracy stepped in and the school was closed.

Battery powered crystal receiver

Wireless was in its infancy — we all remember the elusive crystal — entirely dependent on batteries which required constant renewal — and television was of course unknown. Very few motor cars passed through the villages and there was no motorised farm machinery, with the exception of steam engines — the mechanised plough consisted of two steam engines posted on opposite sides of a field with the plough being drawn across by means of a cable.

Steam drawn plough

The present Mission Church of the Good Shepherd in Fulking was then the men’s ‘Club Room’ and library and the Village Hall did not exist. It should be remembered that it was only due to the unceasing efforts of the then Rector, the Reverend Evans, who was responsible for obtaining a grant from the Chichester Diocesan Finance Board, that sufficient money was made available to build the Church Hall, after which the ‘club room’ was altered and devoted entirely to church services.

The Dennis 30cwt bus, Amberley Museum

When the Southdown Bus service started — I cannot remember in which year that was — what a revolution ensued: villagers hitherto confined to their homes now trooped into Brighton, especially on Saturdays, for the first time. It was not long after the advent of cars and buses that the Dyke Railway ceased to function.

More recently, I believe it was in 1952, main water was brought to the village, thereby doing away with the water supply from the spring and pumped up to the storage tanks by the Ram: this has been instrumental in bring water to almost all the houses and cottages and is obviously the forerunner of main drainage. It is gratifying to know that the Crown who now own the Ram House, has undertaken to maintain it in a good state of repair.

Looking back over these years one cannot help somewhat regretting the passing of so much that was valuable in the life of our villages, and wonder whether all the modern means of comfort and transport have brought a real increase of happiness to the country folk.

Looking at Fulking particularly, especially on a Sunday, it seems to have become a thoroughfare for hundreds of motorists, motorcycles and coaches, which tear through our old time village, very often at most dangerous speeds. We are all caught up in a social revolution but whether it is leading to the greatest happiness of the greatest number, only time will tell.

Edgar H. Bishop

[This essay first appeared in issue 35 of St. Andrew’s Quarterly, July 1957. For more information about the author, see Anthony R. Brooks (2008) The Changing Times of Fulking & Edburton. Chichester: RPM Print & Design, pages 64, 81, 83, 165, 180, 345 and 347.]

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Road Closures

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Road_Closed_Sign

Carriageway Patching to_Clappers Lane. Fulking: ref#_9110137

West Sussex Highways will shortly be improving the surface of Clappers Lane. This work will commence on the 25th February 2013 and will last 2 days.

This process will involve removing the surface layer of tarmac, then replacing with new material.

Due to the large plant used to surface the carriageway a road closure will be in operation to enable us to safely carry out these works in a timely manner. This closure will be in place along the whole length of Clappers Lane, and will be in force between 0800 and 1700. A signed diversion via A281, Poynings Road will be in place.

Before the work starts ‘advance warning’ signs will be erected stating the start date, duration and marking the extent of the works. We shall do our utmost to minimise the impact of the works and you can help us by following this advice:-

  • On the day of the works please don’t park on the road unless you have off street parking.
  • Access to your properties will be maintained where possible: however during periods when materials are being laid access may be limited
  • For safety and cleanliness reasons please do your utmost to keep children and pets away from the area of work
  • When driving on the new surface please keep to the signed temporary speed limits and avoid heavy braking to allow the surface to stabilise

Whilst work is being carried out we would ask that you follow any instructions given by the expert personnel on site. If you have any concerns about access please speak to the site foreman who will be happy to help you.

Please note that the date of this work may change in exceptional circumstances.
Yours faithfully
West Sussex Highways

Knole House

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Edburton Tithe Map 1842

Knole House is the red square near the top of this 1842 map excerpt.

Prior to the twentieth century, there was very little housing in Clappers Lane. The present Knole House is built on one of the oldest residential sites. There was a small cottage on the site in 1701 and the cottage was probably built some time before 1650. That cottage seems to have endured for three centuries. On the north side there is an old droveway which originally linked farms in Poynings with Clappers Lane. There was a small orchard in the southern part of the grounds, which is gault clay. There were still about forty fruit trees there in the early 1950s. Immediately due south of the property is a field called The Knoll.

Census records show that the cottage was occupied by the Hurssey family in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1841, Daniel Hurssey, his wife, and two adult sons are listed at Clappers, but this is most probably a reference to the area rather than the to house of that name, which was just across the road from Knole House. By 1851 one of the sons had married and fathered a child. All six were living in Knole House and the occupation of each of the three adult males is listed as market gardener. In 1861, Daniel, now aged 74, has become a widower and is living in Knole House with an adult grandson and a female servant from the Beard family. One of his sons is living elsewhere in the village with wife and child.

By 1871, all the Hursseys have left the parish and Henry Sayers, a widower, has moved into Knole House with three children and a housekeeper. Like Daniel Hurssey, Henry was a market gardener and he had already been living in Fulking for at least twenty years. By 1881 he had remarried and he and his second wife remained at Knole House until at least 1901, when Henry was 79.

Nowadays, Knole House is shielded by trees and cannot be easily seen from the lane. But the location is explicitly marked and named in many old maps. This example from a 1898 guide book to Sussex suggests that it was a landmark at that time. It may be that the adjacent ford provided a watering place for horses.

At some point during the early years of the twentieth century, the cottage passed into the hands of Henry Young, a builder whose firm was called ‘H.Young & Son’. He was contracted to construct Fulking Village Hall in 1925/26. Henry’s son Sid and his wife May subsequently inherited the cottage and lived there. May Young, a pleasant, cheerful lady with a good sense of humour was the district nurse for the local villages, who at first made her calls on a bicycle, but was later provided with a car to make her rounds. In those days there was no local health centre with up to date facilities nearby. A visit to the doctor had to be paid for and admission to hospital cost a great deal of money. Nurse Young was thus the first person to receive a cry for help for any medical emergency. Even today, some of the older village residents recall being told that they were delivered at home with her assistance. The Youngs also sold fruit from the trees in the garden. When Sid Young died, May moved initially to Primrose Cottage, and later to Teapot Row, in The Street, Fulking. She put Knole House on the market, but it remained empty for some time.

The View from Knole House

The view of Wolstonbury Hill from Knole House around 1990, much as it would have been 300 years earlier.

When the Youngs lived in the cottage, they used the adjacent stream as their water supply just as all the previous residents had. There was no electricity (or gas) so lighting required candles or oil lamps. There was no sanitation. Nothing much had changed since the cottage was built — except that the quality of the water available from the stream had deteriorated thanks to chemical run-off from the fields. Furthermore, the foundations of the cottage, which sat on greensand, were unsound and needed serious attention. Despite the idyllic location, it is little wonder that the cottage remained empty — it was not in a condition that would have attracted domestic buyers in the 1950s.

Two mid-C20 snaps of Knole House

Two snaps of Knole House as it was prior to Ray Nobbs’s reconstruction in the mid-1950s. Note the porch, the steeply pitched slate roof, the small-pane windows, and the very distinctive patterned tile hanging. The young man in the picture on the right is Ray’s son Chris.

Knole House was purchased in 1954 by Ray Nobbs. Ray was a builder who had the skills that were needed to rescue the cottage, and the vision to see what it could become. He demolished much of it but then rebuilt it on sound foundations in exactly the same location. Parts that were retained, including at least one of the end walls and the associated fireplace and chimney stack, had to be excavated and then underpinned with concrete. The original cottage had had a roof with a relatively steep pitch with slates at the front and tiles at the back. The rebuild had a roof with a shallower pitch and tiles throughout. Chris Nobbs notes:

During renovations Dad unearthed what we thought was a fourteenth century window, from looking at old churches. This was at the back of the house where the old walls were massive and built of flint cobbles, previous occupants had a kitchen here of sorts, it had a very old sink anyway. Down a few steps from here was a kind of cellar with grills to the outside admitting a little light, there were several rings in the floor and we thought that long ago livestock may have been kept. That is actually below the present kitchen extending to the conservatory. The wall at the front was old tiles and brick but beneath that we discovered the original massive oak beams which formed the superstructure and between were laths plastered with wattle and daub.

An immediate priority was the water supply: Ray enlisted the services of Mr Spronket, water diviner, and then dug a well in the grounds, a well which still functions today. And, in the 1960s, Ray was instrumental in securing a mains water supply for the houses in Clappers Lane. In his reconstruction, Ray used materials salvaged from the original cottage and from various old houses and churches in the Brighton and Hove area that had been demolished. As a consequence the house has many interesting features including an old gallery staircase; large, very heavy, solid wooden doors; and a unique front door, along with beams and attractive arches in the hall. One feature that he restored was the linhay, a lean-to shed attached to the north end of the house. This linhay was to assume an interesting role in the subsequent history of the house.

Knole House as it was in 2007

Knole House as it was in 2007. Note the conical porch, the shallow pitch Keymer-tiled roof, the first floor hanging tiles, the distinctive windows with their gothic sidelights, and the side-wall of the linhay on the right.

In 1987, Ray Nobbs and his wife moved to a bungalow in Hassocks. They sold Knole House to Jill and Nick Bremer. The Bremers made some further architectural changes, most notably restoring Keymer tile-hanging to the front of the house (which had been left rendered by Ray). They retained the unusual conical porch that Ray had installed. They converted the attic over the garage, formerly the shed for a carriage, into a proper room with a view over the fields. The linhay had been in use for storage and as a utility room. The Bremers doubled its size, re-roofed it with glass, and converted it into an artist’s studio. When the Bremers sold the house in 2007 and moved to Devon, the buyer was another professional artist, one who continues to use the linhay as his studio.

Tony Brooks

Maps

  • The Edburton Tithe Map, 1842 [digitised by the West Sussex Record Office, Chichester].
  • Map of the Brighton area by J. Bartholomew and Co., reproduced in A.R. Hope Moncrieff (1898) Black’s Guide to Sussex and its Watering Places. London: Adam and Charles Black, facing page 30.

With thanks to Chris Nobbs for reminiscences of his time at Knole House and to Jill and Nick Bremer and to James Lightfoot for their help with source materials for this post.

[Copyright © 2013, Anthony R. Brooks. Adapted from Anthony R. Brooks (2008) The Changing Times of Fulking & Edburton. Chichester: RPM Print & Design, pages 84-85.]

Updated to include reference to Henry Young, 9th February 2015.

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Village Clear-up Sunday 24 March 2013 from 10.30a.m.

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tidy-up2

First group starts at the corner of Clappers/Holmbush Lane and moves South.

tidy-up
Second group starts at the corner of The Street/Clappers Lane and moves North.

Third group meets at the Ram House by the Shepherd and Dog and moves up The Street via North Town Field.

Bring suitable gloves and bin liners. If this time is not convenient, choose you own, but please do your bit.

FPC Planning Meeting – 21st November 2012

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Fulking Parish Council will hold an Planning Meeting
ON
Wednesday 21st November 2012 at 6.30pm
In the Village Hall

TO CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING PLANNING APPLICATIONS:-

SDNP/12/02439/LIS & SDNP/12/02438/HOUS

1 Septima Cottages The Street Fulking Henfield West Sussex BN5 9LU

Single storey extension to existing detached out building to form games room.

Plans available for viewing on the South Downs National Park Website (this is a direct link to the application and plans).

SDNP/12/02754/HOUS

15 Clappers Lane Fulking Henfield West Sussex BN5 9ND

Ground and first floor extensions.

Plans available for viewing on the South Downs National Park Website (this is a direct link to the application and plans).

Members of the Public and Press are invited to attend.

Members of the public are entitled to speak at the meeting for two minutes, by prior arrangement with the Clerk Mrs. Andrea Dickson , tel 01444 451060 at least 1 hour before the meeting. No more than two speakers for each application and two against.

Andrea Dickson
Clerk to Fulking Parish Council
12 Turners Mill Road
Haywards Heath
West Sussex
RH16 1NN
andreadicksonfpc@gmail.com

FPC Planning Meeting – 31st October 2012

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Fulking Parish Council will hold an Extraordinary Planning Meeting
ON
Wednesday 31st October 2012 at 6.30pm
In the Village Hall

TO CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING PLANNING APPLICATION:-

SDNP/12/02406/LDP

Brook House, Clappers Lane,Fulking,Henfield,West Sussex, BN5 9NH
Single storey extension

Plans available for viewing on the South Downs National Park Website.

Members of the Public and Press are invited to attend.

Members of the public are entitled to speak at the meeting for two minutes, by prior appointment with the Councillor Pam Rowland , tel 01273 857271. At least 1 hour before the meeting. No more than two speakers for each application and two against.

Andrea Dickson
Clerk to Fulking Parish Council
12 Turners Mill Road
Haywards Heath
West Sussex
RH16 1NN
andreadicksonfpc@gmail.com

2012 10 11 PC Minutes

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Minutes of Ordinary Parish Council Meeting at 7.30pm on 11 October 2012 held at the Village Hall

Present: Chairman Ms K. Watson, Vice Chairman Mr M Trist Councillors Ms L. Dyos, Mrs P. Rowland and Clerk to the Council Mrs Andrea Dickson. Chairman of Mid Sussex Council Mandy Thomas-Atkins, MSDC Councillor Colin Trumble, West Sussex District Councillor Peter Griffiths and 12 members of the public

1. Chairman welcomed the members of the public and introduced Chairman of Mid Sussex Council — Councillor Mandy Thomas-Atkins

2. Apologies: None

3. Declaration of Interest: None

4. The minutes of the previous meeting held 12 July 2012 having been previously circulated, were taken as read and approved and signed by the Chairman.

5. Matters Arising.
Planning: Old Pump House — In July 2012 enforcement order that was lodged in October 2011 was upheld by the planning inspector. A period of 9 months has been given to cease residential use and one extra month to remove the caravan and tidy up the land.

Market Garden — The PC met with Nick Rogers (Development Manager) and Steven King (Team Leader) planning investigation and enforcement, both Mid Sussex planning, at the end of August. Market Garden and other general planning queries were discussed. Progress with Mid Sussex planning will be monitored. The PC will be writing to MP Nick Herbert to ask for his help in addressing various issues relating to travellers. The PC was disappointed to hear that some residents did not feel that it had pulled its weight over the Market Garden issue. The councillors felt it needed to go on record that a large amount of work goes on behind the scenes and that they felt very frustrated over the issue. The public could comment on this matter at the end of the evening when comments are invited from the floor.

Preston Nomads — Only 4 (possibly 2) of the initial 6 people are still interested in the parking spaces. Residents who wish to take up the parking spaces need to collect padlock keys, those who do not intend taking up the spaces need to return the post keys. If anybody knows of anybody else that may be interested in a space please contact the Clerk. The car park area will be planted this month with indigenous plants. The possibility of filling in the potholes in the bridleway immediately outside the entrance is being looked into by Preston Nomads. The PC wish to thank Paul Hird for his work on this matter. (Clerk) A reminder that planning applications which fall within the SDNP are now posted on the South Downs website rather than Mid Sussex.

Highways: A meeting was held with highways on the 25 September to discuss ongoing problems.

Shepherd & Dog — A temporary cure is in place; however with autumn approaching it is felt that more work needs to be carried out. WSCC have investigated and will submit a request for further works, after which the PC will look at turfing the banks to complete the works. Stones have been washed down from the bridleway onto the highway by The Shepherd & Dog. Highways are going to discuss this with the bridleway owner and public rights of way.

Lady Brook Spring — A works order has been raised by WSCC to fence the spring. As a temporary solution the bollards will be replaced with a fibreglass plate over the entrance. A notice will be placed in Pigeon Post to gauge interest in making a feature of the spring. (Clerk)

Four Acres Corner — The drain & pipe have been flushed through. The size of the sump should have been increased at the same time — this was not done. Tim Boxall WSCC will chase this up. Once this work has completed the PC will monitor the situation.

Clappers Lane banking — The condition of the banking is the responsibility of the adjoining landowners. Highways have written to them but received no response. Highways suggested that the PC write to the Landowner & the person responsible for the damage Grange Farm and Badgerswood respectively. (Clerk).

Clappers Lane road surface — Highways will write to the landowner opposite The Sands to request that the ditches be cleared/kept clear. Highways were on site earlier today with Drainage Strategy team to look at the north end of the road. Contrary to what the PC had previously been told, it appears that no works order had been placed for the road surface to be repaired prior to that meeting. Highways suggested that all landowners be reminded to cut back hedges as winter approaches- this should be a request in Pigeon Post. A suggestion was made at the Village Plan meeting that signs could be placed at the north end of Clappers Lane saying something like “do not follow SatNav – unsuitable for large vehicles” Highways and PC will look for suitable signage for each end of the village.

Footpath 4f — This is still with the legal department; the order is expected to be made in the near future. The PC will be advised and then there will be a 28 day statutory objection period.

Stiles & Gates — The repair and maintenance of stiles and gate on public rights of way are the responsibility of the landowner over which the route crosses. This is also the case for trees, hedges, side vegetation and fences. The only exception are bridges which are the responsibility of Highways.

Ram Pump House — The National Trust have completed the work on the door and lock. Kate Watson and the National Trust are the key holders.

North Town Field — This will be addressed as a separate agenda item.

Councillor Vacancy — There is still a vacancy so please ask around.

PC Official documentation — The Standing orders, Financial Regulations, Code of Conduct and Declaration of Interest are all available via the Website, or as a hard copy from the Clerk.

Training Courses — The Clerk is half way through the first module of the Working with your Council Course. The clerk is also attending a networking day in November.

Joint Parish Meeting — This was held at Albourne in September. Councillors were present from Albourne, Poynings, Twineham and Woodmancote. Disappointingly nobody from MSDC planning attended the meeting, even though they were invited as a large part of the meeting revolved around planning. Councillor Sue Seward has asked to be copied in on any planning issues, and she will try and arrange a meeting with the planning dept to discuss concerns. All councils will review in six months and decide the way forward. Faster Broadband was discussed at the meeting; Fulking had a good response with 66 households expressing an interest in faster broadband. Please encourage anybody who has not already signed up to the scheme to do so. Suppliers are being invited to tender by the summer of 2013 with the faster broadband being in place by 2015.

Website — The new website is up and running and very easy to use. The new website address is fulking.net.

WSCC Councillor Peter Griffiths gave a brief report. He apologised for his absence from recent meeting; this is due to a clash of duties. In the future the two main costs to West Sussex will be care of the elderly and the cost of waste disposal. Providing these services will mean that other services will need to be reduced. It was suggested that an article be placed in the Pigeon Post with regards to the mobile library service. (Clerk)

6. Councillor Colin Trumble MSDC gave a brief report: Council Tax changes to benefits consultation will be completed by December. Auditing of single occupancy claims will be carried out to ensure it is fair. E-bills will be available to those who wish to pay that way, it is envisaged that this will save a lot of money. Grants to community groups that do not need matched funding. Money may still be available, but would have to be spent within the current financial year. Colin to provide more information on this. Budget Work has started on this for 2013/2014. Travellers were mentioned briefly and Councillor Linda Dyos said that he would be hearing from the PC shortly on the matter. Councillor Colin Trumble left the meeting 7.45pm for other commitments.

7. Financial Matters. The following payments were agreed and cheques signed: 100582 SALC Clerk’s networking day 60.00; 100583 Clerk’s salary & expenses 934.77; 100584 Councillor expenses 11.20. Cheque stubs were cross checked with the cheque list and both signed. The quarterly bank reconciliation was checked and signed. It was agreed that the Financial Regulations would be changed to state Internal audits would be carried out Annually rather than regularly as previously stated. (Clerk) It was agreed that the PC would look into setting up E banking (Chair)

8. Winter Management: The winter management plan is well underway. A meeting will be held in the next few weeks with WSCC to discuss the plan. Once it has been finalised a copy will be posted on the website and on the parish notice board. (Clerk) Farmer David Ellin still has an agreement with WSCC for the loan and use of the snow plough .(Michael Trist will contact the farmer when it is necessary to use the snow plough ). The clerk attended the Mid Sussex Emergency Planning liaison Group meeting in September and had nothing to report back from the meeting. It was felt that as Fulking is a small parish, the meeting would not have much relevance and therefore apologies would be sent for future meetings.

9. Risk Assessments: The Financial risk assessment and risk assessment having previously circulated were agreed and adopted. They will be placed on the website or hard copies available via the clerk. (Clerk)

10. Playground inspection review: The annual Rospa inspection was carried out in June; this highlighted a low risk of entrapment in the gate. The PC asked if anybody had any ideas how this risk could be eliminated? Mark Stepney will carry out the remedial work on the trip hazard and the moss which were also highlighted in the annual inspection. The weekly inspection rota needs to be updated. (Clerk). New inners for the bins in the playground need to be purchased (Clerk)

11. Community Bus: Has provided a service to Fulking for 20 years two days per week. It is free to bus pass holders, otherwise journeys will cost between 1-2 depending on the length of the journey. The PC agreed to give a contribution of 100 for this financial year. This will be reviewed annually. An article will be put in Pigeon Post to give details of the service provided. (Clerk) A thank you letter is to be sent to the providers (Clerk).

12. Fountain: The PC will arrange for the bollard in front of the fountain opposite Laurel House, to be fixed. Paula Hazard has the bollard. (Pam Rowland to contact Mark Stepney).

13. Crime Update: Crime in Fulking was low over the summer. Please stay vigilant. A notice about cheap shed alarms from MSDC will be placed in the noticeboard, website & Pigeon Post. (Clerk)

14. Comments from the floor: Card making day on 13 October. The Police Authority Elections were mentioned. Where is the Polling Station? This is to be looked into & published on website and noticeboard.The Polling Station is Playing Field Pavilion, Poynings BN45 7BH (Clerk)

15. Dates of the next meeting: The next Parish Council meeting will be held on 10 January 2013

Meeting closed at 9.05pm

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The Clappers of Clappers Lane

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Signage at the north end of Clappers Lane

Facilis descensus Averno .. sed revocare gradum superasque
evadere ad auras, hoc opus, hic labor est.


Nowadays the primary function of Clappers Lane, residents apart, is to act as a Bermuda Triangle for credulous users of satellite navigation devices. But, until the road to Poynings was built in the early 1800s, Clappers Lane provided the only public route into Fulking and Edburton from the north. So it is a matter of some interest to ascertain how this once significant thoroughfare came by its curious name. The answer lies in the streams that cross the lane.

Anthony Brooks tells us that:

Until the early 1900s Clappers Lane flooded in three places: by the entrance to Brook House, [at] a ford just north of Knole House and at the junction of Clappers and Holmbush Lanes. Today, the streams at these locations now run under the carriageway, but before that, on the west side of the ford near Knole House, there was a simple, raised footbridge constructed of boards placed length ways. [2008, page 62]

Bridge over stream that borders Boggy Lagg

The bridge over the stream just north of Knole House (looking south)


Clapper is an ancient local word for a bridge across a stream formed by laying a plank on piles of stones, or a similar raised footpath for pedestrians alongside an occasionally flooded lane. According to the English dialect dictionary, a correspondent of Notes and Queries wrote in 1880 that “we have here [at Edburton] a lane called Clappers, so named from its ‘clapper,’ i.e. a raised footpath at side, to keep foot-passengers out of the water”. John Rowe, Lord Bergavenny’s manorial steward in the early seventeenth century, tells us that there were clappers at Fridayesmead, Sandstrete and “in ffulkinge”. F. A. Howe equates the first with the field still marked as Great Fridays on the 1842 tithe map (see 130 on the map below); the second with one which “survive[d] unused” in his day (1958) over the northern branch of the local stream in Clappers Lane, previously known as Sands Lane; and the third with a spot “on the main road where the stream crosses under Stammers Hill near the sheepwash”. These arrangements were obviously of long standing, because one of these, or one in a parish close by, gave its name to John atte Clapere (‘John at the clapper’), recorded in a nearby hundred in 1332.

Bridge outside Brook House and Hillbrook

The bridge over the stream by the entrance to Brook House (looking north)


Anthony Brooks takes up the question of the word’s origin on page 62 of his book. He says that it arose from the fact that the planks were partly unsecured, and “clapped” when walked on. However, clappers in other parts of the country, especially Devon, were made of heavy stone slabs, so that cannot be the whole story; and it cannot be true as early speculators thought, that the word derives from clapboard, which the name of John in 1332 also proves. Clapper also meant ‘stepping stones’, according to the English dialect dictionary, so wood is clearly not a necessary component of the definition.

Extract from the 1842 tithe map of Edburton parish

The 1842 tithe map showing “Clappers house &c”


The first record of the property called Clappers is in the parish registers in 1652: the burial of “the wife of Thomas Smith of the Clappers” (Howe, page 20); and a house with that name shows up on the 1842 tithe map for the parish of Edburton (see 132 on the map above). Thanks to the 1841 census we even know who was living in Clappers at the time. Members of that family were still living in the parish in 1881. The property makes repeat appearances, in the same location*, on the Ordnance Survey maps of 1898, 1920, 1940-45, and 1962. The original house no longer stands but has been replaced by Brook House which is located in a different part of the property (Brooks 2008, page 83). As can be seen, the property borders the stream that runs along the southern edge of Boggy Lagg and crosses the lane just below Clappers Sands where Brookside stands today; and, as noted above, this was the location of a clapper that lasted into the twentieth century.

There are two plausible hypotheses as to how the property came by its name:

  1. It may have taken its name from being adjacent to a clapper (or between two of them, as it was at one time); in more recent times a clapper seems to have been indifferently called by a singular or plural term.
  2. The form of the name, possibly with a possessive –s, suggests that it might comes from the surname, and therefore only indirectly from the clapper(s). On this etymology, an individual associated with a property near a clapper would have become known by reference to the clapper (“John atte Clapere”), the property, in turn would have become known as Clapper’s and then Clappers.

Finally, the property would have given its name to the lane, previously known as Sands Lane, that ran alongside it.

Richard Coates

*The current Clappers House is not in this location. It is further north, at the summit of a hill and thus far from both streams and clappers. Anthony Brooks reports that it was built and named after 1961 (2008, page 80).

References

  • Anthony R. Brooks (2008) The changing times of Fulking and Edburton: 1900 to 2007. Chichester: RPM Print & Design.
  • F.A. Howe (1958) A chronicle of Edburton and Fulking in the County of Sussex. Crawley: Hubners Ltd.
  • John Rowe (1622-35) Rentals and custumals of Lord Bergavenny’s manors. MS. now in East Sussex Record Office. Edited for publication by Walter H. Godfrey (1928) as The book of John Rowe, steward of the manors of Lord Bergavenny, 1597-1622. Lewes: Sussex Record Society (vol. 34).
  • Joseph Wright (1898-1905) English dialect dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press

With thanks to Nigel Vincent for the quotation from Vergil and to the local history editor for his help with research assistance and access to local material.

Copyright © Richard Coates, 2012

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