Cliffe at Hoo

Cliffe is, ecclesiastically, in the diocese of Rochester, in the archdeaconry of Rochester and St. Albans.  The church is named for St. Helen with registers commencing 1558.

Cliffe, or Cliffe-at-Hoo, a village and a parish in North Aylesford district, Kent.  The village stands on the edge of the chalk ridges, overhanging the marshes of the Thames, 2-3/4 miles northeast of Higham rail station, and 5-1/2 miles north of Rochester;  and has a post office under Rochester.  It was anciently an important place;  and it is supposed to be the Clofeshoch or Cloveshoo at which numerous ecclesiastical councils were held in the 7th, 8th and 9th centuries.  The parish comprises 5,660 acres of land and 2,160 of water.  Real property in 1860, £10,952.  Population in 1861, 980.  Houses, 199.  The property is divided among a few.

The manor belonged, from a very early period till the dissolution, to Christ Church, Canterbury;  and belongs now to Earl Darnley.  Much of the land is marshy.  Chalk is quarried;  whiting and cement are made;  and there is a canal communication with the Thames.  A small battery, on Hope Point, was built in 1796;  and one for 16 guns, further up, was built in 1865.

The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester.  Value, £1,297 with a habitable glebe house.  Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury.  The church is cruciform, and chiefly early English;  has an embattled tower;  contains stalls, some early frescoes, and an ancient silver-gilt paten;  and has been gradually restored.

A school has £21 from endowment;  and other charities £55. ¹

¹  John Marius Wilson, comp.  The Imperial Gazatteer of England and Wales. (London, England: A. Fullerton & Co., 1870).

Cliffe at Hoo Bibliography

-- various. 'Archaeologia Cantiana'. Publisher: Kent, England: Kent Archaeological Society, various dates.  [Note:  The following volumes can be found on archive.org:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (1876), 11, 12, 13 (1880), 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 32, 34, 35, vol. 1907 supplement.]

• General references to Cliffe at Hoo: vol. , pp.
• Currently in revision

Location of Records

The following list of records is not intended to be exhaustive.  There are many records that are awaiting discovery in archive offices throughout Kent and England.  This list is intended only to set out those records that are available via at least two relatively easy-to-access avenues.  If you have used or discover a record that would be of benefit to other researchers, that is not on this list, please send me an email with the details of the archive - name, address and archival call number.

Census | Church of England | Non-Conformist | Parish chest | Workhouse and Poor Law | Land | Assizes and Sessions | School

Census

Church Records, Church of England

Church Records, Non-Conformist

Parish chest records

Workhouse and Poor Law Records

Land Records

Assizes and Sessions Records
(poor laws, jail terms, oaths, and other municipal and public records)

School Records