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Sharpenhoe Clappers.
I am beginning to think that there may be a Celtic core to the word Clappers. There is a place in Wales called Clap-yr-Arien, the White Lump Cairn. It is a round cairn, at Clap-yr-Arian, Llansanffraid Cwmteuddwr, near Rhayader. Clap-yr sounds a little like clapper.
‘Un clapier’ in Old French was a rabbit burrow (and also a house of ill-repute! Better not go down that road! Clapier went into English as claper and clapper.
Rabbits were a source of protein in the past and their skins were used for garments. The old medieval rabbit warren can still be seen at Sharpenhoe.
Elsewhere in the UK there is Clapper Bridge and it is said that ‘claperius’ can also mean a pile of stones (spread across a river).
I wonder if Sharpen comes not from sharp but from ‘shap’ a pile of stones. Drivers will be familiar with going up Shap, up north. If it does mean this, it may be evidence of standing stones having existed there in the past.
Looking at rabbit holes in the chalk of the Chilterns you can see mounds of rubble thrown out by burrowing rabbits.
Regarding the word Hoe I found this on the internet: HOE (through Fr. houe from O.H.G. houwd, mod. Ger. Haue; the root is seen in " hew," to cut, cleave; the word must be distinguished from " hoe," promontory, tongue of land, seen in place names, e.g. Morthoe, Luton Hoo.
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