The name Clewer comes from the word
Clifwara meaning "cliff-dwellers", and is named after those who lived below the hill on which
Windsor Castle was built. Historically, Clewer pre-dates
New Windsor and still exists as a separate ecclesiastical parish. A
Saxon settlement existed there, and it is thought that the settlement of Clewer may have grown up at a place where the river
Thames could be forded. A wood-and-thatch
Saxon church is believed to have existed on the site of the present church. The surviving
font is thought to be Saxon, and is presumed to have belonged to the earlier church. Until the 1850s this font was in an improbable position at the west end of the north
aisle and it is likely that it had never been moved from its position in the earlier Saxon church. By the time of the
Norman Conquest, there was a
Manor of Clewer, mentioned in the
Domesday Book as
Clivore and recorded as having a church and
mill. It was from here that
William I took the lands on which he built his
fort, which became
Windsor Castle. The Manor of Clewer continued to receive a rent of 12 shillings per annum from the
Crown for this land until the 16th century. and it is traditionally believed that William I habitually attended mass there, as there was no chapel within the original castle. It has a 14th-century chantry chapel to the memory of the second wife of the hero of the
Hundred Years' War, Sir
Bernard Brocas. The family lived in the sub-manor of Clewer Brocas until rebellious activities obliged them to retreat In 1891 the
civil parish had a population of 9766. In 1894 the parish was split with the part in New Windsor Municipal Borough becoming
Clewer Within and the
rural part becoming
Clewer Without. ==Notable residents==