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Early Detailed Old Map of Clifford’s Mesne (1805-1845) from www.archiuk.com © ARCHI Information Systems Ltd 2023. All rights reserved
Overview
The village nestles in the lee of May Hill. Within the village we have two registered “commons” and many green paths dissecting the area which are unique, making the village, and its environment, a green and pleasant place to live in. For further information about the history of Clifford’s Mesne, please read the article How did Cliffords Mesne get its name
St Peter’s Church
The foundation stone to St Peter’s Church was laid on 11th April 1882. St Peter’s is also the mother church to Gorsley’s Christ Church, the building of which was completed in 1893. In 1984 the Parish of Gorsley and Clifford’s Mesne was made a United Benefice with Newent. Nowadays the church maintains a small but devoted congregation, who faithfully keep St Peter’s maintained in good order. The current Parish Priest is Reverend S. Mason. Read more …
The Village Hall
The Village Hall was built in 1863 for the dual purposes of school and church. In 1934 the Clifford’s Mesne School closed. In 1958 the villagers formed the Trustees of the Village Hall of Clifford’s Mesne and purchased the building for the sum of £175. The hall can accommodate around 50 people at table.
What is a Mesne and how do you pronounce it?
It’s pronounced “mean”. The letter ‘s’ is silent. We believe it is a posher version (giving it a Norman flavour) of the word ‘mynd’.
There are a few meanings for this word, depending on the language you choose. In Welsh it means “to go”. In old Icelandic it means “shape or form” and more besides. In the Forest of Dean meend generally means uncultivated land associated with “forest waste” for grazing, cutting bracken, gorse and brushwood.
The mynd was waste ground (waste meaning it couldn’t be ploughed) so, as mentioned above, it would have been used for grazing as common land or for collecting firewood, long before it became the village it is today.
Technically, the village is actually a hamlet, which is a smaller, more isolated settlement.
Village History and Timeline – What’s in a Name?
In the late 18th century, squatters began to encroach on the mynd and that led to the early formation of the village. It was a bit late then, to appear in the Domesday Book – but there is a connection in there.
Clifford Castle is mentioned in the Domesday Book. Built in the 11th century it is now a ruin, and can be found in the village of Clifford, about 40 miles north west of Clifford’s Mesne.
According to the research, surnames weren’t an official thing at the time of the Domesday Book. In the 11th century, Walter fitz Richard fitz Pons (fitz means “son of”), a gentleman who owned Clifford Castle, “changed his name to reflect his principal landholding” and so became Walter de Clifford. Unfortunately the male line of the Cliffords died out in 1684.
The Clifford descendants sold some of their land. And in turn this land was sold again, multiple times it seems.
In one such transaction in 1625, Boulsdon Manor (at one time owned by the Clifford family) was sold. And sold again in 1629 to Walter Nourse. The deed of sale also included a mention of waste land “as called the mynd“.
It’s unlikely that the Cliffords named a bit of waste land after themselves. (Why would a powerful family do that?) But the commoners (ie people who lived or worked on the commons) might have used the name to identify this mynd over other mynds if there happened to be a dispute of some kind.
Another entry in the records in 1677 more specifically mentions “also those waste or waste grounds called Cliffords Mynde“. In 1761 this evolves slightly to Cliffords Mynd.
The evolution continues as it becomes Cliffords Meand in 1784 and then Clifford’s Meend in 1800. (Look an apostrophe – we’re getting there!!)
Walter Nourse in 1715-1725 wrote his “History of Newent”. This was copied in 1900 and states “there is a Mesne still called Cliffords Mesne”. (And we’ve lost the apostrophe but at least the current spelling has arrived).
From the 1750s, the enclosure bills, Acts of Parliament, meant that productive commons and wasteland disappeared and the mynd became less needed for people’s livelihoods. That meant people encroached onto the land and made homes for themselves as tenants of Boulsdon Manor or possibly freeholders.
Clifford’s Mesne begins to appear more regularly from the 1840s, including, in 1849, as the birthplace of a labourer who committed the criminal act of poaching.
In 1882, Lord Somers (a baron and colonel and eventual owner of the manor of Boulsdon) decided to improve the land (including Clifford’s Mesne) by buying out freeholders and squatters, straightening fences and making roads (at the cost of hundreds of pounds).
Baron Somers died in 1899 and the estate was sold. In 1912 it was sold again and most of the farms and village dwellings were sold off to separate owners, thereby dissolving the estate.
In 1968 the largest piece of common land was registered as such. This was Church Common. A meeting of Mesne and Mynds!
Many thanks to Tom Conwell for his careful and detailed research.
