Introduction - Cliffe History

In the mid 1950's a group of ladies belonging to the Cliffe and Cooling  Women's Institute produced a written history of their area. They obviously  worked hard to both research and write it and for many years it has lay hidden  away.

It is with great pleasure that we can share their hard   work with all.

We would like to thank the archivists at the Medway   Archives and Local Studies Centre for their wonderful assistance,   West Kent Women's Institute (the owners of this work,), for   help in being able to transcribe and reproduce the 'Scrapbook' and especially the members of the Cliffe & Cooling W.I.   who produced it.

We have taken a 'Cromwellian' approach to   transcribing their work ('warts and all') and have   attempted to reproduce it in full and without editing. The   only section that we have missed out is the Index as this no   longer applies.

Thank you ladies of the Cliffe & Cooling W.I. for an   interesting and highly informative write-up of the history   of our village.

An item of interest, a scrap of information, some   remembrances of long ago, - all these have contributed to   the production of this Scrapbook for the Women’s Institute   competition of 1954-55.

Many of the accounts and some of the pictures supplied by   members and friends for this goodly work have caused   surprise and amusement. What a panorama of custom and change   has unfolded as the work proceeded! The magnitude of the   task could only be discovered as decisions for inclusion or   omission of data had to be made.

An effort of this kind must necessarily be unique – and   therefore goes to prove beyond doubt how totally unlike any   other village in the world is the one to which applies and   belongs.