Cliffe-at-Hoo, known as Cliffe, is a village on the Hoo peninsula in Kent, England, reached from the Medway Towns by a three-mile journey along the B2000. Situated upon a low chalk escarpment overlooking the Thames marshes, Cliffe offers the adventurous rambler views of Southend-on-Sea and London. It forms part of the parish of Cliffe and Cliffe Woods in the borough of Medway. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (600x800, 11 KB) Summary Description: A blank map of the United Kingdom, with country outline and coastline; contact the author for help with modifications or add-ons Source: Reference map provided by Demis Mapper 6 Date: 2006-21-06 Author: User... Image File history File links Red_pog. ... The British national grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references commonly used in Great Britain, different from using latitude or longitude. ... A civil parish (usually just parish) in England is a subnational entity forming the lowest unit of local government, lower than districts or counties. ... The districts of England are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. ... Medway is the name given to a conurbation in the north of Kent, England. ... Metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties are one of the four levels of English administrative division used for the purposes of local government. ... Medway is the name given to a conurbation in the north of Kent, England. ... The region, also known as Government Office Region, is currently the highest tier of local government subnational entity of England in the United Kingdom. ... South East England is one of the nine official regions of England. ... Constituent countries is a phrase used, often by official institutions, in contexts in which a number of countries make up a larger entity or grouping; thus the OECD has used the phrase in reference to the former Yugoslavia[1] and European institutions such as the Council of Europe frequently use... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem - the  United Kingdom anthem God Save the Queen is commonly used England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto) Unified  -  by Athelstan 927 AD  Area  -  Total 130... This is an alphabetical list of the sovereign states of the world, including both de jure and de facto independent states. ... A post town is a required part of all UK postal addresses. ... UK postal codes are known as postcodes. ... The ME postcode area, also known as the Rochester postcode area[1], is a group of twenty postal districts around Medway in Kent, England. ... The UK telephone numbering plan, also known as the National Numbering Plan, is regulated by the Office of Communications (Ofcom), which replaced the Office of Telecommunications (Oftel) in 2003. ... A Fire Appliance belonging to the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service The fire service in the United Kingdom has undergone dramatic changes since the beginning of the 21st century, a process that has been propelled by a devolution of central government powers, new legislation and a change to operational... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust is the authority responsible for providing NHS ambulance services in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire, Portsmouth, and Southampton, in the South East England region. ... The United Kingdom House of Commons is made up of Members of Parliament (MPs). ... Medway is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... Rochester and Strood is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... This is a list of Members of the European Parliament for the United Kingdom in the 2004 to 2009 session, ordered by name. ... South East England is a constituency of the European Parliament. ... List of cities in the United Kingdom List of towns in England Lists of places within counties List of places in Bedfordshire List of places in Berkshire List of places in Buckinghamshire List of places in Cambridgeshire List of places in Cheshire List of places in Cleveland List of places... Masouleh village, Gilan Province, Iran. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... coat of Arms of Kent For other uses, see Kent (disambiguation). ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem - the  United Kingdom anthem God Save the Queen is commonly used England() – on the European continent() – in the United Kingdom() Capital (and largest city) London (de facto) Official languages English (de facto) Unified  -  by Athelstan 927 AD  Area  -  Total 130... This article is about Medway in England. ... The North Kent Marshes is one of 22 Environmentally Sensitive Areas recognised by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs The north of Kent has historically been a marshland area, since before even the Roman invasion of 55 BC and that part which still survives, stretching from Whitstable to... Southend-on-Sea is a resort town in Essex, England. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Cliffe and Cliffe Woods is a civil parish in the borough of Medway in Kent, England. ... Medway is the name given to a conurbation in the north of Kent, England. ...

In 774 Offa, King of Mercia, built a rustic wooden church dedicated to St Helen, a popular Mercian saint who was by legend the daughter of Coel ('Old king Cole') of Colchester. Events Charlemagne conquers the kingdom of the Lombards, and takes title King of the Lombards. ... Offa (died July 26/29, 796) was the King of Mercia from 757 until his death. ... The Kingdom of Mercia at its greatest extent (7th to 9th centuries) is shown in green, with the original core area (6th century) given a darker tint. ... Colchester is a town and is the main settlement of the Essex borough of Colchester in the East of England. ...

Cliffe is cited in early records as having been called Clive and Cloveshoo (Cliffe-at-Hoo).

The ancient Saxon town of Cloveshoo

Clovesho, or Clofeshoch, was an ancient Saxon town, in Mercia and near London^[1], where the Anglo-Saxon Church is recorded as holding the important Councils of Clovesho between 742 and 825. These had represention from the archbishopric of Canterbury and the whole English church south of the Humber. The famous parade helmet found at Sutton Hoo, probably belonging to King Raedwald of East Anglia circa 625. ... The Kingdom of Mercia at its greatest extent (7th to 9th centuries) is shown in green, with the original core area (6th century) given a darker tint. ... Cliffe-at-Hoo, known as Cliffe, is a village on the Hoo peninsula in Kent, England, reached from the Medway Towns by a three-mile journey along the B2000. ... River Hull tidal barrier. ...

The location of Cloveshoo has never been successfully identified however, although Cliffe could have been the location.

1200—1800

St Helen's church at Cliffe was built about 1260 and was constructed in the local style of alternating layers of Kent ragstone and squared black flint. It is one of the largest parish churches in Kent, and the only dedicated to St Helen, the size of the church revealing its past importance.

Above the porch is a muniments room containing important historical documents.

During the 14th century Cliffe was the site of a farm owned by the monks of Christ's Church, Canterbury, when the village had a population of about 3,000. This 14th-century statue from south India depicts the gods Shiva (on the left) and Uma (on the right). ... Canterbury is a cathedral city in east Kent in South East England and is the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primate of All England, head of the Church of England and of the worldwide Anglican Communion. ...

In the late Middle Ages the village of Cliffe supported a port, which thrived until a disastrous fire in 1520 stifled its growth, marking a period of decline, accentuated by the silting of the marshes of the Thames estuary. Nevertheless, during the 16th century, Cliffe-at-Hoo was still considered a town. However, by the middle of the 19th century the population had slumped to about 900. Year 1520 (MDXX) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. ... (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 1824, construction of the Thames and Medway Canal was begun, providing work for able-bodied villagers and other labourers who came to the area, increasing the population once again. 1824 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... The Thames and Medway Canal is a now-disused canal in the south east of England, in Kent. ...

The canal project was a short-lived enterprise, however, superseded by the development of the railways, but the route, including the Higham and Strood tunnel (2.25 miles in length, in two sections) was used by South Eastern Railway from 1845, bringing a branch line to Cliffe in 1882. Higham is a small village bordering the Hoo Peninsula, in Kent, between Gravesend and Rochester. ... The London and Greenwich Railway (LGR) and the Canterbury and Whitstable Railway (CWR) in East Kent were the earliest railways to serve the then county of Kent: eventually both became parts of the South Eastern Railway (SER). ...

Henry Pye

Even in 1895 the number of people contracting malaria was high but casualties begun reducing sharply after the farmer, Henry Pye, came to the area and systematically begun the drainage of the farmland and marshes thus eliminating the fever. He drained such a large area of the marsh and so improved the grazing pastures that he was called 'King of the Hundreds'. Malaria is a vector-borne infectious disease that is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, including parts of the Americas, Asia, and Africa. ...

Henry Pye was an innovator in farming practices promoting the use of locally built (Rochester) Aveling and Porter steam engines for use in ploughing and threshing. In 1878, with other farmers Pye met with the South Eastern Railway Company and petitioned for a railway to be built, resulting in the establishment of the 'Hundred of Hoo Railway Company'. The first part of the line was opened in March 1882, running from Cliffe to Sharnal Street. Rochester is a small town in Kent, at the lowest bridging point of the River Medway about 30 miles (50 km) from London. ... Aveling & Porter engine Margaret Aveling and Porter railway engine for industrial use. ...

Victorian Cliffe

The rise of the Kent cement industry brought a new prosperity to the ancient settlement during the Victorian era.

Alfred Francis (second son of Charles), with his son, established the firm of Francis and Co. at the Nine Elms office at Vauxhall, London, and then built the cement works at Cliffe in about 1860. Francis and Co instituted the Nine Elms cement works . These works were built on Cliffe marsh, to the west of the village where the chalk cliffs came almost to within a mile of the River Thames. The area also proved a useful source of clay. The Thames (pronounced //) is a river flowing through southern England, and one of the major waterways in England. ...

Alfred Francis died in 1871, but in partnership his son continued to produce 'Portland, Roman, Medina, and Parian cement, Portland stucco and Plaster of Paris', also shipping chalk, flints and fire bricks, from the site.

The riverside location provided ease of transport and wharves were duly built at the mouth of Cliffe creek. A canal was constructed from the works, which gave its name to a tavern built nearby, now long demolished but remembered as the Canal Tavern.

1870-1 saw further developments to the cement works, which were rebuilt and extended, with an elaborate tramway added. Methods of extracting the chalk were basic, involving the labourer being suspended by a rope (around his waist) secured at the cliff top, from which position he would hack out the chalk, so that it fell to the ground below to be collected in a waiting railway wagon. French 1912 drawing of typical elements of railways Railway tracks running through a railway station in North East England, UK A railway yard in Portland, Oregon. ... The Needles,situated on the Isle Of Wight, are part of the extensive Southern England Chalk Formation. ...

Further to the north of the Francis and Co works near the river, an explosive works (Curtis & Harvey) opened in 1901. Over the factories' 20-year history 16 people were to lose their lives in explosions.

Francis and Co was taken over about 1900 by the British Portland Cement Company, but after the great war the cement works began to decline, and was finally phased out in 1920-1. Sampling fast set Portland cement Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general usage, as it is a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar and plaster. ...

By 1901 the population of Cliffe had exceeded three thousand.

Alpha cement works

Near the Francis works in 1910 began the Alpha cement works, part of the Thames Portland Cement Company. The Alpha works were about a mile from the river and included an Goshead aerial cableway which ran alongside the road constructed by the soldiers of Cliffe fort, then disused.

Alpha continued after the closure of the Francis works, which it took over in 1934. With this amalgamation an additional railway was added in 1935 to replace the cableway, linking the works with the quayside next to the fort.

The Alpha site, however, became exhausted by 1950, and further digging led to extensive flooding, as quarrying exceeded the depth of the water table. These quarries, still flooded, offer havens for wildlife, and are among the few surviving that have not been used for rubbish infill or otherwise developed.

A second quarry was begun to the north of Salt Lane, which is still the main access road to Cliffe from the cement works area, on the very edge of the marshes.

By the late 1950s the cement industry in the area was owned by the APCM, which had added a further railway line to the Hundred of Hoo railway, giving the cement manufacturers direct access to the main railway network. The works at Cliffe shut on April 1st 1970, with no further space available for quarrying, but the APCM recreation ground in the centre of the village has remained a valuable open space, with pitches for football, cricket, tennis and bowls.

In 1970 the cement industry was replaced by the Marinex gravel company, whose fleet of ships dredged gravel from the Thames estuary.

Cliffe rectory

Old Cliffe rectory is some two miles inland from St Helen's Church, supposedly to preserve its inhabitants from the malaria on the marshes. It has housed two chancellors of the exchequer, two archbishops, three deans and 11 archdeacons. Nicholas Heath, bishop of Rochester, and archbishop of Worcester also lived at the rectory. The 'living' at Cliffe in the 17th century was described as 'one of the prizes of the church'. Nicholas Heath (c. ... Rochester is a small town in Kent, at the lowest bridging point of the River Medway about 30 miles (50 km) from London. ... Worcester (pronounced ) is a city in the Midlands of England, and the county town of Worcestershire. ...

Anne, the daughter of Samuel Annerley, (Lord Privy Seal, 1649) married the rev Samuel Wesley, father of John Wesley, founder of the Wesleyans, also lived at Cliffe rectory. The Lord Privy Seal or Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal is one of the traditional sinecure offices in the British Cabinet. ... John Wesley (June 28 [O.S. June 17] 1703 – March 2, 1791) was an eighteenth-century Anglican minister and Christian theologian who was an early leader in the Methodist movement. ... The Methodist movement is a group of denominations of Protestant Christianity. ...

The new rectory is within sight of the church.

Rye Farm

The Grade II-listed barn at Rye Farm, in Common Lane, Cliffe dates from the 1570s. It is described as a 16th-century Grade II barn "with archaic details." Beneath its present asbestos roof is a timber framed three bay barn with weatherboarded walls and a traditional hipped roof. It includes an ancient wagon porch.

Cliffe Fort

Cliffe Fort in 2007

The Brennan torpedo tracks at Cliffe Fort.

Cliffe Fort is a Royal Commission fort built in the 1860s on the edge of the marshes to protect against invasion via the Thames. A Brennan Torpedo station was added in 1890, the rails of which are still visible at low water, and was used as an anti-aircraft battery in World War II. It is now inside a gravel extraction site and is inaccessible and very overgrown, but can be viewed from the riverside path. In 1859 Lord Palmerston instigated the Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom because of serious concerns that France might want to invade the UK again. ... The Brennan Torpedo was the worlds first guided missile. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

The RSPB at Cliffe

In 2002 the UK government proposed as an option for the expansion of air travel capacity in South-East England that an airport be built at Cliffe. Estimates of the final cost of the Cliffe option ranged from £11.5bn to £23bn. That figure however did not include the cost of compensation for direct and indirect habitat loss, which would have run into hundreds of millions of pounds.

British Airways stated: "We don't think it is possible to build a new airport in the time scale needed for new runway capacity in the southeast of England."

The RSPB were at the forefront of the consultation process, arguing the proposal would be "the single most destructive development affecting nationally and internationally protected wildlife sites in the UK." The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is Europes largest wildlife conservation charity. ...

The Society highlighted a number of key issues concerning the overriding significance of the area, and its unique international importance for birds, including large numbers of Bewick's swans, Brent geese, White-fronted geese, Shelducks, Gadwall, Teal, Ringed Plovers, Grey Plovers, Knot and Black-tailed Godwits, and other wildlife. It pointed out:

i. The Cliffe area is heavily protected by UK and European conservation laws.

ii. "Passenger safety - situating a major international airport where planes would take off and land through an area that supports concentrations of up to 200,000 wading birds, ducks and geese, poses a major risk of bird strikes on a scale that could easily down aircraft, with disastrous consequences". F16 after a bird strike A bird strike (sometimes birdstrike, bird hit, or BASH (bird aircraft strike hazard)) in aviation, is a collision between an airborne animal (most often a bird, but also sometimes another species) and a man made vehicle, especially aircraft. ...

The Government's own Bird strike Avoidance Team has said of Cliffe: "There is a very serious potential bird strike risk at the new airport site. Indeed, it is difficult to envisage a more problematic site anywhere else in the UK."

iii. "Technical challenges - Environment Agency staff have said that if the airport is built at Cliffe there is a real possibility of flooding in London, as well as in the Cliffe/Cooling marshes area and that in the long term a second Thames Barrier may be required in the Gravesend/Tilbury area".

In December 2003, in its Aviation White Paper, the Government dropped the option for an airport at Cliffe. "At last the Government has accepted the blindingly obvious," said the RSPB's Chief Executive, Graham Wynne.

The Hans Egede

The Hans Egede in 2007

A prominent feature where the marshes meet the river for many years, The Hans Egede was a wooden, auxiliary 3-masted ship, built in 1922 by J. Th. Jorgensen at Thuro, Denmark. It was reported damaged by fire on 21 August 1955. and towed to Dover where the fire was extinguished. In 1957 she passed into the ownership of the Atlas Diesel Co. and was towed out of Dover by the tug Westercock. She then spent some years in the Medway as a coal and/or grain hulk. She was then towed to Cubits Town on the Thames. As the tug Fossa from Gravesend was towing her up Sea Reach the strain on the structure, which had become weakened over the years, proved too much causing her to take in water and sink. After grounding on the Blyth Sands she was beached at Cliffe. Hans Egede Statue in Nuuk Hans Egede (January 31, 1686, Harstad, Northern Norway–November 5, 1758, Falster, Denmark) was a Norwegian Lutheran missionary, called the Apostle of Greenland. ... Italian Full rigged ship Amerigo Vespucci in New York Harbor, 1976 A ship is a large watercraft capable of offshore navigation. ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... August 21 is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Arms of Dover Borough Council This article is about the English port. ... Year 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1957 Gregorian calendar). ... Rivers in Kent, showing the Medway. ... Coal Coal (IPA: ) is a fossil fuel formed in swamp ecosystems where plant remains were saved by water and mud from oxidization and biodegradation. ... The word grain has several meanings, most being descriptive of a small piece or particle. ... A hulk is a ship that is afloat, but incapable of going to sea. ... The Thames (pronounced //) is a river flowing through southern England, and one of the major waterways in England. ... Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. ...

Trivia

Cliffe marshes stood in for the paddy fields of Vietnam in Stanley Kubrick's 1987 film Full Metal Jacket. Stanley Kubrick (July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an influential and acclaimed American film director and producer. ... Full Metal Jacket (1987) is a film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on the novel The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford. ...

References

• Perry Haines RSPB.
• Shamel Hundred. D.S. Worsdale.
• Adrian Gray, Isle of Grain Railways

Notes

1. ^ Bede, ed. Plummer, II, 214.

External links

• Cliffe village website
• Andrew Burbidge website
• Listed Buildings on the site of the proposed airport at Cliffe
• High Halstow village website
• Cliffe Fort