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History
Claverham is probably named after
the clover fields, -which surrounded the village. In the West
Country, the word 'ham' does not refer to a village or settlement,
but is a contraction of the word 'hamm' meaning meadow.
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Cadbury Hill by
Nick aged 9 years |
It is situated roughly half way
between Weston-s-Mare and Bristol on the plain between the rivers
Kenn, to the north, and Yeo to the south. Claverham is roughly
five miles from the Bristol Channel as the crow flies.
The village has two distinct geological
sections. To the south Cadbury Hill, a limestone ridge, partly
overlaid with clay, rises to some 250 feet. The rest of the area
is a mixture of peat, estuarine alluvium and low hills of sand
and gravel.
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Rhyne alongside
Claverham Drove |
The former swampy areas between
Hillsea, Claverham Court and Claverham Road were drained by an
interconnecting series of rhynes in the 1700s.
The underlying geological structure
has determined the development pattern of the village - but it
is the impact of man, allied to the natural environment, which
has given the surrounding countryside its distinctive and attractive
patchwork of fields, hedges, walls and rhynes.
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