Clifton-upon-Dunsmoor (St. Mary)

CLIFTON-upon-Dunsmoor (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Rugby, Rugby division of the hundred of Knightlow, N. division of the county of Warwick, 2 miles (E. N. E.) from Rugby: containing, with the chapelry of Brownsover and the hamlet of Newton and Biggin, 699 inhabitants. The parish is situated on the banks of the Avon, and comprises by admeasurement 3465 acres, of which 835 are in Brownsover; two-thirds are arable, and the remainder pasture. It is intersected by the road from Rugby to Harborough, and the London and Birmingham railway has a firstclass station at Rugby; the Oxford canal traverses the parish, and the river Swift separates it from the parish of Newbold. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £8. 1. 8.; net income, £119; patron, the Earl of Bradford: the impropriation belongs to two schools and 21 individuals; the glebe contains about 15 acres, with a house. The church is in the later English style, and had formerly a handsome spire. There is a chapel of ease at Brownsover. A parochial school is supported by subscription and a small legacy, and the inhabitants have the privilege of sending their children free to Rugby school. Christopher Harvey, author of a collection of poems called the Synagogue, and other works, was vicar, and was buried here in 1663; Thomas Carte, author of an elaborate History of England, was born here in 1686.