If you're tracing families, or want information on the local gentry, then ask us.
Clifton and its neighbouring village of Newton overlook the M6, the M1 and main railway lines to London and the continent, the sky line is dominated by the eight hundred foot masts of Rugby Radio station. Both villages are surrounded by the noise of road and rail transport and by the very visible signs of the technology of the 20th century.
But the villages first came into existence when the Saxons settled the area in the 5th and 6th centuries. In those days the villages were remote, quiet, agricultural settlements, two of six such settlements that surrounded the tiny Iron Age market village of Rugby. Both villages are recorded in the Doomsday Book, the entry for Clifton shows that there was a priest in the village and a church dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin. Nothing now remains of that church, the present stone building dates back to the 13th century, with many later additions. At that time St. Mary's was an important church to which the people of Rugby came to worship.
Reliable church records of baptisms, marriages and deaths are available in the registers kept at St Mary's from 1595 onward. We have typed copies of the registers and an indexed database. The database has been integrated with census records up to 1881.
We hold, or have access to, much of the history of the village from its Saxon origins to the present day. If you're tracing families, or want information on the local gentry, then ask us.
Please use the request form, or phone or email.
