CLIFFE, a parish in the hundred of SHAMWELL,
lathe of AYLESFORD, county of KENT, 5 miles (N. by W.)
from Rochester, containing 673 inhabitants. The living
is a rectory, in the peculiar jurisdiction of the incumbent,
rated in the king's books at £ 50, and in the patronage
of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church,
dedicated to St. Helen, is considered to be the finest in
the county, being a large handsome cruciform structure
in the early style of English architecture, with an embattled
central tower, and containing several curious
monuments and remains of antiquity, together with six
stalls that belonged to a dean and five prebendaries, it
having been formerly collegiate. The parish is bounded
on the north by the Thames: the village, which is supposed
to lake name from the cliff or rock on which it
stands, at present consists of West-street and Churchstreet,
but was formerly of much greater extent, a
great part of it having been destroyed by fire in 1520.
It was anciently the scene of several provincial councils:
a fair is held on the 28th of September.- The schoolhouse,
which has been recently put-into-a state of complete
repair, was founded in 1679, by John Browne, who
bequeathed two tenements and other appurtenances, for
educating twelve poor children, directing his executors
and the churchwardens to appoint a poor man and woman
teachers, and to choose the scholars. One of the
cottages is occupied by the school-mistress, who receives
£ 10 per annum for teaching eight poor children.