Listed Buildings in the Parish
Cliffe has two Scheduled Monuments at present, one Grade I, one Grade II* and twenty-three Grade II listed buildings and monuments.
The text below show the descriptions of the listed buildings and monuments given by Historic England.
By clicking on the individual heading will bring up images of the buildings and monuments.
Hall-house, embedded in cottage row and now restaurant. Early C16 with later
C16, C17 and C19 alterations. Timber-framed and underbuilt in brick on ground-
floor with weatherboarded first-floor. Irregular plain tiled roof, hipped to
right with gablet and half-hipped to left. 2 storeys. Irregular 6 window
first-floor and 7 window ground-floor, casements, the 4 to left on ground-floor
arcaded shop windows. Doubled half-glazed doors in centre and boarded doors to
left and right. Interior: substantial timber frame evident. Two large
fireplaces with oak bressummers.
House. Early C19. Timber-framed and weatherboarded. Hipped plain
tiled roof with ridge stack off-centre to left. 2 storeys with south
half in underpinned painted brick. 4 irregular sashes, some with glazing
bars. 2 panelled doors with flat hoods.
House. C18 altered C20. Red brick in Flemish band on rendered plinth.
Hipped old tiled roof. 2 storeys; 4 windows. C20 sashes. ground floor
has to left hand side a cambered opening with wooden slats, probably
originally a butchers premises, and a later C19 shopfront with 2-
brackets. Early C19 doorcase with pediment and brackets and 8 panelled
door. Above is a blank containing Sun fire plaque with the number
326276.
Hall house, now farmhouse. Late C15, clad in C18 and C19. Timberframed and
clad in brick and weatherboarding. Steep plain tiled hipped roof with gablets
and tall brick ridge stack to left. 2 storeys; irregular fenestration of
casements. Entrance in gabled two-storey shallow projection to right.
Catslide outshut to left. Interior: Evidence of screens passage on ground-
floor with one 4-centred service door and remains of screen. 2 dragon beams
in south (high) end. C16 fireplace with carved cambered wooden bressummer.
Barn. C17. Timber framed on chalk and stone plinth and weatherboarded with
cement roof. Aisled to west with wagon porch to east. Interior: 7 bays.
Queen strut roof with curved braces and staggered butt purlins. Attached
cart-shed to north of 5 bays with King-post trusses.
Barn. C16 with archaic details. Timber-framed and weatherboarded with
hipped roof covered in asbestos cement sheets. One wagon porch. Interior:
3 bays with end half bays. Aisled with passing braces. Rafters tied with
collars every fourth. All main timbers chamfered; open tenons.
Cottage. An infill building of C1830 but retaining the end wall of a
C16 or earlier timber framed building thought to have been a chantry
priest's dwelling of which the rest of the building was demolished
C1900. Front elevation of Ipswich stocks in Flemish bond with slate
roof and wooden bracket cornice. 2 storeys 1 window. 12-pane sash in
moulded architrave. C20 doorcase has pediment pilasters, diamond-shaped
paterae and panelled reveals 6 panelled C20 door with diamond pattern
superimposed on panels. Plinth Side elevation has a section of C15 or
early C16 exposed framing with midrail curved braces and jowled posts
with brick infilling. C20 extensions to rear.
at north-west comer of churchyard
Charnel house. Mid C19. Dressed stone with plain tiled roof and louvred hood
on ridge. Triple lancets at each end with dressed surrounds. Originally
used for the storage of bodies recovered from the River Thames.
Parish church, formerly collegiate. Circa 1200, remodelled in earlier C14,
with chancel restored in 1853 by George Austin, tower and transepts in 1864 by
J.P. St. Aubyn, and the nave and tower by Romaine-Walker and Tanner in 1884.
Ragstone and flint, laid in knapped bands; plain tiled roofs. Cruciform
church with west tower, nave with north and south aisles, porch with parvis
room over, north and south transeptal chapels and chancel. C13 west tower
with clasping buttresses, C15 uppermost stage, C19 battlements and staircase
projection. 5-bay nave with north and south aisles and deep porch to south.
3-bay chancel with curvilinear tracery in all windows, renewed, all with
mouchettes and Kentish cusping. East window rebuilt from fragments found in
restoration of 1884. Interior: Nave arcades of 5 bays. Short circular piers
with moulded capitals and bases and wide pointed arches with two slight
chamfers. Nave piers painted with thick red zig-zags. Clerestory lancets
of C14. Full-shafted wall-arcading in transeptal chapels, two bays to east
with two narrower bays to west. Trefoiled piscinas in both transeptal chapels.
Chancel with vaulted sedilia and piscina integral with the fabric. Ogee
arches with crockets, finials and pinnacles. Foliage in the spandrels, all
renewed. Base of late C15 rood screen. Wall paintings in both transeptal
chapels, those in the north of the martyrdom of St. Edmund. Fittings:
Tower screen of c.1370 with lights in threes and intersecting mullions.
Six medieval pews. Some C14 glass in tracery of 2 chancel windows on south
side, much restored. C17 communion rail. Arcaded pulpit dated 1636.
C15 font. Late C14 tomb recess on north side of sanctuary with cusped and
sub cusped arch.
The memorial stands on the southern edge of the churchyard next to the boundary wall and gate. It consists of a granite, rough-hewn Celtic cross. A smooth cross motif is carved on the front of the cross in relief. The cross has a tapering shaft which stands on a four-sided stone plinth. This stands within a raised square of grass that is bordered by granite kerbing and low granite posts.
The inscription on the front of the plinth (East face) reads TO THE GLORY OF GOD/ AND IN MEMORY OF THE BRAVE MEN/ OF THIS PARISH WHO LAID DOWN THEIR/ LIVES FOR KING AND COUNTRY IN THE/ VICTORIOUS STRUGGLE AGAINST THE/ ENEMIES OF MANKIND./ AUGUST 4TH 1914 – JUNE 28TH 1919. Below this are two columns of names of those who lost their lives. On each of the North and South faces there is a single column of names. On the West face the inscription reads 1939 – 1945 below which are two columns of names.
This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 1 December 2016.
History
The memorial was unveiled on the 15 February 1920 by Major-General H. F. Thuillor CB in the presence of a huge gathering. It was constructed at the edge St Helen’s churchyard in place of the war shrine, which had been erected during the war, and was subsequently moved to the church porch. Cliffe War Memorial was designed by Mr. J. H. Durrant of Rochester and cost £255, the money raised by the community was £277 and the balance was set aside for the upkeep.
In 1949 the names of those who died in the Second World War were added to the memorial and Col. R.M.W. Marsden, of Cooling Castle, unveiled this.
In 2013 a project was undertaken to conserve the memorial with the help of grant aid from War Memorials Trust.
House. C16 with C18 addition. Timber-framed to east and clad in brick.
Tiled roof with end stacks. 2 storeys. Three window front, glazing bar
sashes on first floor with 3 bays on ground floor. Entrance to right with
panelled door; transom light and flat hood over. Parallel C18 block to
rear giving double depth plan. Interior: exposed timbers show east end to
have been jettied with original window and diagonal mullions.
Farmhouse. Early C19 front block to possibly earlier rear. Stuccoed with
string-course and wide eaves cornice to low-pitched slate roof with stacks to
rear. 2 storeys; regular 5 window front, glazing bar sashes. Panelled door
under flat-headed porch-hood on 2 columns. Interior: contemporary staircase
with ramped handrail.
Granary. C18. Timber-framed and weatherboarded with hipped tiled roof.
Square in plan on nine staddle-stones.
Granary. C17. Timberframed on brick plinth and weatherboarded with
hipped plain tiled roof. Square in plan.
Monument. Dated 1814. Stone. Stone pedestal carrying aedicular upper stage
with relief of mourning figure and inscriptions framed by pilasters and pediments,
topped by draped stump of column. Inscribed to Frederick Klentz Harvey, d. 1814
House. Circa 1600. Timberframed and watherboarded with tiled gabled roof.
Two storeys and garrets with jettied end to street. Two window front,
glazing bar sashes, with one window in gable. Small bay window to right on
ground-floor with wide casement to left. Half-glazed door in centre.
Interior: substantial evidence of timber-framing.
Farmhouse. Later C16, much rebuilt after fire circa 1910. Timberframed
and exposed with close-studding and plaster infilling. Plain tiled roof
with very large clustered stack with four octagonal brick shafts on an
arcaded brick base to right and end stack to left with two octagonal shafts.
Two storeys with jetty over ground-floor and at eaves level. Three window
front, with a two-storey bay to right and one-storey bays under jetty on
ground-floor in centre and to left and on first-floor in centre. Entrance to
left. Interior: late C17 staircase. Late C16 panelling in north bedroom
on first-floor. Brick cellars with arches and drain
Mortimer's Farm House
Farmhouse. C17 with mid C19 front block. Timberframed to rear and rendered
with rendered front block. Low pitched slate hipped roof to front with end
stacks. 2 storeys. Regular 3 window front, C20 metal casements on first
floor with full-width verandah porch on ground floor. The C17 framed house
at rear originally had three timber gables across the front, according to an
oil once in the house, (ex. inf. Alfred Baker).
House. Early C18. Red brick with plastered coved cornice to plain tiled
roof with gable parapets and end stacks. Two pedimented dormers. Two
storeys with attics; regular five window front, glazing bar sashes with
open boxes. Central six-panel door with moulded surround and flat hood
over on carved acanthus brackets. Interior: Early C18 staircase with
turned balusters. Various rooms with moulded dado panelling.
Hall-house, now house. Early C14, altered 1679 and rebuilt 1870 by Rev.
H.R. Lloyd. flagstone with knapped flint in bands, restored in Bath stone,
with some red brick in Flemish bond. Irregular plain tiled roofs. Open
hall plan with service end to west (demolished), hall running west-east and
upper end to east. 2 storeys with stacks to rear and on end of low projecting
wing to right. Very irregular fenestration, a mixture of cross-windows and
2-, 3- and 4-light windows in surrounds with Caernarvon arches. Doorways with
2-centred arched to north and in angle between hall and projecting parlour wing
to right in 2-storey red brick extension. Interior: 2 service doorways in
west wall of hall with pointed arches, hollow chamfers and broach stops.
Third door in south end wall possibly led to former stairs. Doorway at south-
east corner of hall in south wall and smaller one in east wall. Window in
north wall with stone seats.
See our page on 'The Old Rectory'.
Also see Arch. Cant., vol. XI; Collectanea Historica: Essays in Memory of Stuart Rigold, 197 , K. Gravett, The Rectory House at Cliffe
Chest tomb. Dated 1781. Stone. Tall base on plinth with two steps to
chest tomb with panelled sides, gadrooned baluster corners and corniced lid.
Inscribed to John Smith, d. 1781. Delipidated at time of resurvey.
Monument. Dated 1795. Stone. Sarcophagus tapering upwards carrying lid &
truncated pyramid with acroteria at the corners. Inscribed to Mary Street,
d. 1795, and others. Somewhat delipidated at the time of resurvey.
House. Early C18. Red brick with red brick band discontinued over the
outer windows. Plain tiled roof. L-plan. 2 storeys with attic; timber
eaves cornice on modillion brackets. Regular 3 window front with glazing bar
sashes, those in outer bays wider, and shutters. Central entrance altered
in mid-C19 with half-glazed door and transom-light over and flat hood on
brackets over. Speaking tube built into brickwork to left of door.
Cottage. Later C16 or earlier Cl7. Timberframed and rendered with steeply
pitched hipped pantiled roof. Brick stack off-centre to left. 2 storeys;
irregular fenestration of 2 windows on each floor, casements. Door to right.
Interior: timber-frame visible.
Farmhouse. Early C19. Red brick with brick modillion eaves cornice to plain
tiled hipped roof. 2 storeys; regular 3 window front, glazing bar sashes.
Central timber porch up six steps with six-panelled door. Later C19 wing to
rear.
Cliffe's Scheduled Monuments
The remains of a chemical explosives factory known as Cliffe Explosives Works comprising both upstanding structures and buried remains, established in about 1890, gradually expanding in the late C19 and early C20, with massive expansion during the First World War, and which was active until about 1920-1921.
Heritage Category:
In 2010 English Heritage undertook a detailed survey of Cliffe Fort, a coastal artillery fort built in the 1860s, in order to inform the future management of the site. Cliffe Fort was part of a large and expensive defence infrastructure programme and incorporated the latest in fortification theory and technology. It was one of the last casemated forts with iron shields to be completed. Despite almost immediate alterations to the basement magazines, a lack of alteration in the 20th century has preserved a number of areas in the fort that reflect its late 19th century use. Later adaptations for rooftop guns reflect the changing nature of conflict through the 20th century. The fort contains one of the best preserved of the rare Brennan torpedo installations, including the remains of a unique rising observation tower.
The report can be downloaded HERE.