Facts and places of interest in Barton-Le-Clay

Interesting Facts about Barton-Le-Clay

During the summer Dartmoor ponies roam the Barton Hills.

St Nicholas' Church has an impressive tower which is thought to have been an addition of the 15th century, it is fifty seven feet high and can be seen from most parts of the village.

The Sharpenhoe Clappers are said to be haunted!

Places of Interest in Barton-Le-Clay

St Nicholas Church

St. Nicholas' Church has played a central role in the life of the village of Barton-le-Clay for 800 years. The church is known for its impressive chequered stone walls.

Barton is known to have been part of the Diocese of Lincoln in 1094 and the first existing historical record, dated 1178, shows that a place of worship was well established here by then.

The interior of the church has linenfold pews which possibly date from Elizabethan times and interestingly the church displays a record of all its ministers, from its interception early in the 13th-century right up to the present day. There are many relics from the past in the church including lovely stained glass.

Barton Hills

The Barton Hills form the northern most extremities of the Chilterns and are commonly supposed to have been the inspiration for Bunyan's Celestial Mountains in his great work 'Pilgrim's Progress'.

Wild ponies roam the hills during the summer and are a lovely sight for the many hikers who walk the hills. There is a natural spring at the foot of the hills and this is a great place for families to walk to in the summer and to paddle in the spring water. The woods around the spring are nice to stoll through too. There is an area in the woods that the locals call 'the caves' where the tree roots have formed holes that local children like to hide and play in.

Barton Hills is an example of chalk grassland typical of the northern Chilterns. The site also includes areas of Chilterns beech woodland and ash-maple woodland.

Barton Watermill

There has been a mill on this site dating back to the Domesday book.  The present mill stopped working in 1929.  The mill is now a garden centre along with gift shops, an antique centre and other outlets.

Sharpenhoe Clappers

The Sharpenhoe Clappers is run by the National Trust and is part of the Chilterns Area of Natural Beauty. 'The Clappers', as it is known to the locals, is a classic chalk escarpment.

Reputedly haunted, Sharpenhoe Clappers is a classic chalk escarpment and part of the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The 'Clappers' are crowned with traces of an Iron Age hill-fort and an impressive beech wood.

This is a lovely area for a walk in the woods.

Wrest Park - not far from Barton-Le-Clay in the village of Silsoe

Wrest Park was the home of the De Grey family from the 13 th Century until 1917. The old manor house was demolished and the one that now stands of the site was designed by Thomas, Earl de Grey, in 1834 in the French chateaux style; it is the third house to be built on the site.

The gardens amount to 90 acres and were inspired by the gardens of Versailles in France and are formal in style with wooded walks and canals centred around the pavilion designed by Thomas Archer in 1710.

Later additions to the gardens include the Bath House and the Chinese Pavilion. The Orangery, Italian garden and Parterre were added in the 19 th century.

The house was used in the early 19th century as a residence for the US Ambassador, but it is now used by the National Institute of Agricultural Engineering and is run by English Heritage.

Nearby at Flitton is the Grey Mausoleum, the family's burial place.

Regular events such as historical re-enactments take place in the grounds.