diff --git a/docs/anttask.html b/docs/anttask.html
index 05e204221..5af743564 100644
--- a/docs/anttask.html
+++ b/docs/anttask.html
@@ -106,6 +106,13 @@ then you will need the following <code>taskdef</code> declaration:</p>
     <td class="required">No</td>
   </tr>
 
+  <tr>
+    <td>classpathref</td>
+    <td>The classpath to use when looking up classes, given as a reference
+     to a path defined elsewhere.</td>
+    <td class="required">No</td>
+  </tr>
+
 </table>
 
 
diff --git a/docs/releasenotes.html b/docs/releasenotes.html
index 7cd4556bd..dcf7032c3 100644
--- a/docs/releasenotes.html
+++ b/docs/releasenotes.html
@@ -71,6 +71,9 @@
         <li class="body">Added caseSensitive property to ImportOrder check 
         (bug 842604).</li>
 
+        <li class="body">Added classpathref property to ant task
+        (patch 835896, from Ville Skytta (scop)).</li>
+
       </ul>
 
       <p class="body">
diff --git a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/CheckStyleTask.java b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/CheckStyleTask.java
index 0d7ae3667..78fcc3124 100644
--- a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/CheckStyleTask.java
+++ b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/CheckStyleTask.java
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ import org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.LogOutputStream;
 import org.apache.tools.ant.types.EnumeratedAttribute;
 import org.apache.tools.ant.types.FileSet;
 import org.apache.tools.ant.types.Path;
+import org.apache.tools.ant.types.Reference;
 
 /**
  * An implementation of a ANT task for calling checkstyle. See the documentation
@@ -141,7 +142,21 @@ public class CheckStyleTask
      */
     public void setClasspath(Path aClasspath)
     {
-        mClasspath = aClasspath;
+        if (mClasspath == null) {
+            mClasspath = aClasspath;
+        }
+        else {
+            mClasspath.append(aClasspath);
+        }
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Set the class path from a reference defined elsewhere.
+     * @param aClasspathRef the reference to an instance defining the classpath
+     */
+    public void setClasspathRef(Reference aClasspathRef)
+    {
+        createClasspath().setRefid(aClasspathRef);
     }
 
     /** @return a created path for locating classes */