Cliffords Mesnelistenⓘ (Clifford's Mesne on some maps) is an English village in Gloucestershire, in Newent civil parish, two miles (3.2 km) south-west of the town. The village became the home of the autobiographical author Winifred Foley from the mid-1970s, after the success of her first book of Gloucestershire reminiscences, A Child in the Forest.[1]
The small Anglican church is dedicated to St Peter. Designed by E. S. Harris, it was built in 1882 of stone, with a central bellcote, a nave, a chancel, a south porch and a south vestry. It has contemporary stained glass dedicated to a local falconer and a memorial tablet to two local men who died on active service in the Second World War.[6] The church parish is merged with Gorsley. It shares clergy with the benefice of Newent and lies in the Diocese of Gloucester.[7]
An earlier stone church, built in Gothic style in 1872 and extended in 1877, became the village school, which is now closed.[8] The building serves as a non-denominational village hall.[9]
Two outlying buildings are Grade II listed: Ravenshill Farmhouse, north of the village, most of which dates from the late 17th and early 18th centuries;[10] and an 18th-century cider house at Hay Farm, south-west of the village.[11]
The combined population of Cliffords Mesne and Gorsley was 1320 in 1876.[12]
References
↑ Winifred Foley, A Child in the Forest (London: BBC, 1974). ISBN0-563-12605-1; Back in the Forest (London: Macdonald, 1981). ISBN0-354-04354-4.
