Clifton Down
Distance: 5.32 km.
In the Middle Ages, Clifton Down was a common pasture for the manor of Clifton. In 1676 and 1686 the manor of Clifton was purchased by the Society of Merchant Venturers. During the 18th century, Clifton became a fashionable summer spa, and Clifton Down was increasingly used for recreation.
At the southernmost point of Clifton Down is an idyllic green flanked by Litfield Place, Harley Place and Christ Church. Penrose Cottage on Harley Road was home to the English writer, poet, and activist Walter Savage Landor who wintered here in the 1920s. Notably, he befriended and influenced the next generation of literary reformers such as Charles Dickens and Robert Browning.
Litfield Place, formally ‘Leadfield‘, is a reminder that the Downs were once quarried for the lead. Stone was also quarried. Residents raise complaints about these open quarries and, in 1833, a letter to the newspaper remarked on the exposed and dangerous state of the quarry between the Sea Walls and the Stoke Bishop Road which without any fence presented a precipice of 20 feet. The quarry by Upper Belgrave Road was filled in 1880.
