The river is crossed at Stratford by a stone bridge of 14 arches, built by Sir Hugh Clopton in the reign of Henry VII.
The plan of Shakespeare's Stratford at least is preserved, for the road crossing Clopton's bridge is an ancient highway, and forks in the midst of the town into three great branches, about which the village grew up. The high cross no longer stands at the marketplace where these roads converged.
The house was built by Sir Hugh Clopton.
Sir John Clopton destroyed the house in 1702 (as it had reverted to his family), and the mansion he built was in turn destroyed by Sir Francis Gastrell in 1759.
On the 6th of December 1615 he married Thomasine Clopton, daughter of William Clopton of Castleins, near Groton.