keyclix wrote:
After a bit of Googling, I can add not one but TWO possible sources for the name. It seems a clapper is a primitive form of simple bridge (basically stone slabs). These still exist on Dartmoor (and doubtless other places).
The other seems less likely but I'll mention it anyway. Clappers is an archaic word for rabbit warren. We all know of a Warren in Caversham, don't we?
Take your pick . . .
A clapper bridge as at Tarr Steps near Dulverton. Hmm, a posiblity I suppose but rather unlikely because there would not be a source of that size of stone slabs locally.
Also a bit remote from Mapledurham Estates Rabbit Warren, unless there was another one.
So, I have resorted to the printed word on paper as in my Chamber's twetieth Centuary Dictionary, and it certainly gives descriptions as per KC's post and goes on to, well, I will quote verbatim.
'Clapper n. (esp. in Devon) a rude bridge of slabs or planks laid across supports, A raised foorpath, a rabbit hole. [L.L. claperium, heap of stones, rabbit hole.]
So I reckon that's it then, it was a rude bridge. (Well, it is in Caversham after all!)
(One other thought occured to me. It might have been somewhere were one caught a dose of ..............)
