Clovernook

[shaigh]

My great-grandfather emigrated from Scotland to New Zealand in 1863. When he was granted land by the Militia he named his farm "Clovernook"/Cloverneuk/Clovernieuk. I have many postcards addressed this way. According to my father this was after an area in Scotland, probably Renfrew or Lanark. My great grandfather was born in Eaglesham and also lived in Carmunnock as a child. I once found a reference to a Clovernook in the Gorbals in Glasgow but can''t find it any more and wondered why anyone would want to name a farm after part of the Gorbals anyway?

Unfortunately the huge Blind Institute in Cincinatti, Ohio, is also named Clovernook and that is all I get on web searches.

There is a street in my hometown, Auckland NZ, called Clovernook Rd and a farm in the South island also called Clovernook and both names also seem to have originated in Scotland.

Does anyone know anything about any Clovernooks (any spelling) in Scotland.

Thanks

[Alan SHARP]

Greetings.

A close inspection of the old, large scale 25/1 ordinance maps, may produce the evidence that you seek. Most habitations are named on the maps. Have you asked Kenneth ?

Alan SHARP.

[Currie]

"WE have yet no truthful map of England. No offence to the publishers; but the verity must be uttered. We have pored and pondered, and gone to our sheets with weak, winking eyes, having vainly searched, we cannot trust ourselves to say how many hundred maps of our beloved land, for the exact whereabout of Clovernook. We cannot find it. More: we doubt—so imperfect are all the maps—if any man can drop his finger on the spot, can point to the blessed locality of that most blissful village. He could as easily show to us the hundred of Utopia; the glittering weathercocks of the New Atalantis."

That’s the earliest reference I can find to Clovernook, it’s in “The Chronicles of Clovernook”, published 1846, starring the Hermit of Bellyfulle. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=V0a ... ok&f=false

The earliest references I can find in the newspapers are book reviews and advertisements published around the same time. Later on in the Century I did see some references to people living in a house, or villa, or whatever, called Clovernook.

I guess that it just belongs on this list along with Utopia and Atlantis, as said, and also with Camelot and Shangri-la. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_my ... cal_places

All the best,
Alan

[winslowsmom]

I found a Cloverneuk, Helensburgh reference. Listings were scarce, but I googled Cloverneuk, Scotland and it came up:

MARRIAGE
John McDonald, 36, House Painter, Journeyman, Bachelor, 70 High Street, Dumbarton. Son of John McDonald, Sailor (decd) and Margaret McDonald MS McDonald (decd).
Annie Jane Glendinning Nimmo, 27 Domestic Servant, Spinster, Cloverneuk, Helensburgh. Dtr of John Tait Nimmo, Baker and Elizabeth Nimmo MS Robertson. Witnesses: James Craig Young and Alison Cummings Campbell.
16 Aug 1905, St Michael's Church, Helensburgh, Row, Dumbarton. Scottish Episcopal Church
REF: 503/32

Not related to you but the Cloverneuk is there.

[shaigh]

Thank-you very much . I will follow that up.

[kennethm]

Greetings from Eaglesham,

Sorry Sue I haven't found any references to Cloverneuk around the Gorbals locality.

Kenneth

[shaigh]

Hi Kenneth

Thanks Kenneth. I'm interested in any Clovernooks in Scotland, not only in the Gorbals.
Sue

[nelmit]

There is a 'Neuk' between Carmunnock and Kilbride on this map http://maps.nls.uk/joins/view/?rsid=744 ... eft%20side

Mossneuk is a wee bit to the south west but I can't see a Cloverneuk.

I do like Alan's discoveries though.

Regards,
Annette

[Currie]

According to this Wiki about Alice Carey, her father bought a farm near Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1813, and named it Clovernook. That’s where the Blind Institute is now. Alice was born in 1820 and presumably the farm had that name during her childhood. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Cary

Alice was an author and wrote “Clovernook, or Recollections of our Neighbourhood in the West”, pubished New York, 1852. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=sco ... ok&f=false

There was a second series, with more stories, published New York 1853. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=hpV ... ok&f=false

Another of her books, “Clovernook Children”, was published 1854. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=JUr ... ok&f=false

Over several months from July, 1868, the book, “Clovernook, or recollections etc”, by Alice Carey, was serialised in the Manchester Times, and who knows elsewhere, that’s Manchester, England.

In the early 1860s there was a racehorse named Clovernook, running about in England, which seemed to be doing very well.

I’ve no idea where Mr Carey got the name for his farm from, but it would be interesting to know what his origins were, his name sounds a bit Irish. There doesn’t appear to be a place in England starting clover but there appear to be several by name of Cloverhill in Ireland.

It seems to me that all the literary attention to Clovernook, ie the mass media, not to mention the horse, is far more likely to have given inspiration to someone looking for an appealing name for something, than some unknown, unfindable, village or whatever, somewhere.

But I could be wrong,
All the best,
Alan

[Russell]

Just fishing around on Scotlandspeople looking for relatives in Ayrshire we discovered a child dying in "Cloverpark" Waterside, Dalmellington. If we go with Alan's theory that it is of Irish origin it follows that it must have been making its way up through Ayrshire.

Russell
PS I think Cloverneuk is a lovely name