Noake's Worcestershire Page 94

94 CLIFTON-ON-TEME.

tion established here, which holds its annual meeting - and dinner, of course - in January, dispenses many prizes to deserving labourers, and enables the heads of the district to hob-a-nob together. Two annual fairs likewise distinguish the little place. All this prepares one for the fact that Clifton was formerly a place of comparative importance, having been constituted a borough 60 Edward III, and endowed with fairs and a market. Names of the old streets and places may still be traced. The parish contains the manors of Clifton, Home, Sapey Pilchard, and Burton, with an acreage of about 3,000; population under 600.

Sir Thomas Winnington, Bart., M.P., is the present lord of the manor, and the other landowners here are representatives of Dr. Coucher, Rev. E. W. Ingram, and the Earl of Dudley.

The ancient family of Ingram dwelt for many generations at " The Noke," and married into the Winnington family; and Ham or Homme Castle was the seat of the Jeffreys. A Mr. Jeffreys, of the seventeenth century, left a MS. memorandum book, now in the possession of Sir T. E. Winnington, which contains many interesting details as to the history of the old town and church. A Miss Joyce Jefferies also wrote a diary (now in the same keeping) which embraces a period of nine years, and embodies many curious particulars bearing upon the events, persons, and manners of the age, also setting forth the writer as the representative of a class now only to be seen in family pictures of the time. Ham Castle, before named, the seat of this family (the last heiress of whom married a Winnington), was formerly a place of great strength, and was besieged and nearly destroyed in the civil wars. The present house (occupied by Mr. Moore) is a large half-timbered structure temp. Charles II; the dates 1677 and 1680, with the Jefferies' arms - sable, a lion rampant between three sealing ladders, or - being on the hopper-heads of the rainwater pipes. There is a massive oak staircase, aud the book-shelves of the old library in the roof still remain. The old garden terraces are perfect; but the exterior of the house