King's Cliffe (variously spelt Kings Cliffe, King's Cliff, Kings Cliff, Kingscliffe) is a village and civil parish on Willow Brook, a tributary of the River Nene, about 9 miles (14 km) northeast of Corby in North Northamptonshire. The parish adjoins the county boundary with the City of Peterborough and the village is about 12 miles (19 km) west of the city centre. The village is not far from the boundary with Lincolnshire and about 6 miles (10 km) south of Stamford.
Population
The 2001 Census recorded a parish population of 1,137 people,[1] increasing to 1,202 at the 2011 Census.[2] This later increased to 1,585 at the 2021 Census.
The 1871 Census recorded a parish population of 1,259.[3] The 1891 Census recorded the parish population as having fallen to 1,082, occupying 262 "inhabited houses"[4]
King's Cliffe is very small but is growing in size. There is a school named King's Cliffe Endowed Primary. It used to be located next to John Wooding's Groceries but in recent years, a new building was developed on King's Forest. This new school is very large in size and is very advanced.
Hall Yard Farmhouse was built in 1603.[7] Inside the house, Dr Law's Music Room has an 18th-century Georgian coved ceiling with decoration in the style of Robert Adam. Law's Chapel, also 18th century, is nearby.[7]
Parts of King's Cliffe Manor House are early 17th century.[6]
In the summer of 1845, the Reverend Miles Joseph Berkeley, the rector of All Saints' church, proposed, after observing potatoes from near the village struck by potato blight, that the causative agent of the blight was a fungus.[8][9] This was contradictory to theories at the time, which suggested that the fungus was merely a symptom of decay, and not the causative agent of the blight. Berkeley labelled the fungus he found Botrytis infestans, now known as Phytophthora infestans.
King's Cliffe is unusual in having three sets of almshouses. The John Thorpe Almshouses were built in 1668, the Widows' Almshouses in 1749 and the Spinsters' Almshouses in 1754.[6] The Widows' and Spinsters' almshouses were part of a set of charities founded by Rev. Dr William Law (1686–1761) and his disciple, Mrs Elizabeth Hutcheson.[6] A house dating from about 1700 was made a Schoolmaster's House in 1745, and next to it the Boys' School was built in 1748.[6] From 1752 the Schoolmaster's House became Law's Library, which housed Law's religious books and lent them to people of King's Cliffe and neighbouring towns.[6]
Ruth Ellen Berkeley (1845–1914) - scientific botanical illustrator was born and brought up in the village.
Henry Bonney D.D. (1780–1862) - churchman and author
James Humphreys – English crime writer, a former resident of the neighbouring village of Apethorpe. His novel Sleeping Partner is partly set in King's Cliffe.
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