Clifford Chambers

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Clifford Chambers is a village two miles south of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, on the B4632 and two miles south of the A46. It consists of some 150 houses and the population of the parish in the 2001 census was 418. Until 2004 the village was in its own parish but it is now part of the parish of Clifford Chambers and Milcote. The village was in Gloucestershire until 1931. The River Stour runs along the north-eastern edge of the village.

[edit] History

The village claims to be the real birthplace of William Shakespeare as the bubonic plague was rife in Stratford at the time of the bard's birth and during times of plague Clifford Chambers rectory was used as a refuge. Shakespeare's father's legal advisor also lived in the village, the man who dealt with the Shakespeare's house in Stratford.

It is known that the moated manor house was visited in the 16th century by several well-known poets of the time such as Michael Drayton, Ben Jonson and Shakespeare. This was because the father of the lady of the house was a patron to young poets at the time. Many of the houses were still owned by the occupants of the manor house right up until the end of the Second World War. It was the lady of the manor who 'switched on' the village's electricity supply when it was connected to the national grid in 1933.

During the Second World War children from the Roman Catholic school in Edgbaston, Birmingham lived in the village due to emergency evacuation from the bombed city. Shortly after the war deep-texture furnishing fabric from Clifford Chambers mill was developed. This was later used in the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral and on the QE2 ocean liner.

[edit] The Village Today

Since 1996 the village has been the headquarters of the Hosking Housing Trust. The Shire Horse centre, one mile from the village, closed soon after the 2001 UK foot and mouth crisis and is now a business park. The Shakespearean and Hollywood actor Sir Ben Kingsley is a former resident of the village.

The Hosking Housing Trust is a controversial "charity", for "writers" who have to be female to qualify and thus may be in breach of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975. Very few writers have been in residence although thousands of pounds have been directed to this organisation over the years.