Cliffords Mesne is a village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 in Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

, two miles south-west of the nearest town of Newent

Newent

Newent is a small market town about 8 miles north west of Gloucester City, on the northern edge of the Forest of Dean, and lying within the Forest of Dean Local Authority District. Its population at the 2001 census was 5,073...

. It was the home of author Winifred Foley

Winifred Foley

Winifred Mary Foley was an English writer.-Forest life:...

 from the mid-1970s

1970s

File:1970s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: US President Richard Nixon doing the V for Victory sign after his resignation from office after the Watergate scandal in 1974; Refugees aboard a US naval boat after the Fall of Saigon, leading to the end of the Vietnam War in 1975; The 1973 oil...

, after the success of her first book of reminiscences, A Child in the Forest.

Facilities

Cliffords Mesne is home to the Yew Tree Inn public house

Public house

A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

 and the village is also known for its close proximity to May Hill

May Hill

May Hill is a hill between Gloucester and Ross-on-Wye, whose summit is on the western edge of Gloucestershire, though its northern slopes are in Herefordshire....

, owned by the National Trust

National Trust

National Trust most commonly refers to an organization dedicated to preserving the cultural or environmental treasures of a particular geographic region. They generally operate as private non-profit organizations, although some receive considerable support from their national government...

, and to the International Centre for Birds of Prey. There is a bus service to Ross-on-Wye

Ross-on-Wye

Ross-on-Wye is a small market town with a population of 10,089 in southeastern Herefordshire, England, located on the River Wye, and on the northern edge of the Forest of Dean.-History:...

 consisting of a single journey on Thursdays. However, daily bus services between Gloucester

Gloucester

Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....

 and Ross-on-Wye pass through Kilcot (4 km). The nearest railway station is at Gloucester

Gloucester railway station

Gloucester railway station serves the city of Gloucester in England. The station was originally built as the terminus of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway in 1840, but the arrival of the Bristol and Gloucester Railway and Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway in 1844, and then conversion...

 (20 km).

Heritage

The small Anglican

Anglicanism

Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...

 church is dedicated to St Peter. Designed by E.S. Harris, it was built in 1882 of stone with a central bellcote, nave, chancel, south porch, and south vestry. There is contemporary stained glass dedicated to a local falconer

Falconry

Falconry is "the taking of wild quarry in its natural state and habitat by means of a trained raptor". There are two traditional terms used to describe a person involved in falconry: a falconer flies a falcon; an austringer flies a hawk or an eagle...

 and a memorial tablet to two local men who died on active service in the Second World War. The church parish is merged with Gorsley. It shares clergy with Newent and lies in the Diocese of Gloucester

Diocese of Gloucester

The Diocese of Gloucester is a Church of England diocese based in Gloucester, covering the non-metropolitan county of Gloucestershire. The cathedral is Gloucester Cathedral and the bishop is the Bishop of Gloucester...

. An earlier stone church built in Gothic style in 1872 and extended in 1877, became the village school (now closed). It now serves as a non-denominational village hall. The single listed historic building in Cliffords Mesne is the outlying Ravenshill Farmhouse, north of the village, most of which dates from the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The combined population of Cliffords Mesne and Gorsley was 1320 in 1876.

External sources

• Village website: Retrieved 22 August 2011.
• A photograph of St Peter's Church: Retrieved 22 August 2011.
• Photographs of features in or near Cliffords Mesne on Geograph site: Retrieved 22 August 2011. and here Retrieved 22 August 2011.