CLIFFE, or Cliffe-at-Hoo, a village and a parish in North Aylesford district, Kent. The village stands on the edge of the chalk ridges, overhanging the marshcs of the Thames, 2¾ miles NE of Higham r. station, and 5½ N of Rochester; and has a post office under Rochester. It was anciently an important place; and it is supposed to be the Clofeshoch or Cloveshoo at which numerous ecclesiastical councils were held in the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries. The parish comprises 5, 660 acres of land and 2, 170 of water. Real property, £10, 952. Pop., 980. Houses, 199. The property is divided among a few. The manor belonged, from a very early period till the dissolution, to Christ Church, Canterbury; and belongs now to Earl Darnley. Much of the land is marshy. Chalk is quarried; whiting and cement are made; and there is a canal communication with the Thames. A small battery, on Hope Point, was built in 1796; and one for 16 guns, further up, was built in 1865. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Rochester. Value, £1, 297.* Patron, the Archbishop of Canterbury. The church is cruciform, and chiefly early English; has an embattled tower; contains stalls, some early frescoes, and an ancient silver-gilt paten; and has been gradually restored. A school has £21 from endowment; and other charities £55.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))