The English countryside is blessed with a plethora of quaint place names and one of them is Clifton Hampden.
The Clifton part of the name refers to two words, obviously one is a clif and the second is a ton. Clifton Hampden finds itself in one of the flattest parts of the English countryside because it is on a river plain and is therefore “cliffless “ and secondly a “tun” is an old English word for a measurement of liquid volume. As for the second part of the word there is no clear documentation why this is included in the name of this place, which explains why the locals just call it Clifton.
Our arrival at Clifton was heralded with a large down pour of rain and a choice of directions in which to find our quarry-The Barley Mow. Having a choice of either turning left or right after alighting from the boat, Jimmy naturally chose the wrong direction and the crew ended up getting a jolly good soaking but at least they didn’t have to wash their clothes for the next few days.
Jerome K Jerome describes in his book “ Round Clifton Hampden, itself a wonderfully pretty village, old-fashioned, peaceful, and dainty with flowers, the river scenery is rich and beautiful” , What he didn’t include would have been some of the modern day intricacies of a little village such as, it has a Longbow Society, the village hall was were Radiohead first met and practiced and that the village boasts a herd of pedigree alpacas.
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