Cliffords Mesne is a village in Gloucestershire, two miles south-west of the nearest town of Newent. It was the home of author Winifred Foley from the mid-1970s, after the success of her first book of reminiscences, A Child in the Forest.[1]
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Cliffords Mesne is home to the Yew Tree Inn public house and the village is also known for its close proximity to May Hill, owned by the National Trust, and to the International Centre for Birds of Prey.[2] There is a bus service to Ross-on-Wye consisting of a single journey on Thursdays. However, daily bus services between Gloucester and Ross-on-Wye pass through Kilcot (4 km).[3] The nearest railway station is at Gloucester (20 km).
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, nave, chancel, south porch, and south vestry. There is 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.[4] The church parish is merged with Gorsley. It shares clergy with Newent and lies in the Diocese of Gloucester.[5] An earlier stone church built in Gothic style in 1872 and extended in 1877, became the village school (now closed).[6] It now serves as a non-denominational village hall.[7] 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.[8] The combined population of Cliffords Mesne and Gorsley was 1320 in 1876.[9]
