The
moated
manor house belonged to the Rainsford family from 1562 until the
English Civil War. Around the turn of the seventeenth century, during the tenure of Sir Henry Rainsford and his wife Anne, the house was visited by well-known poets, including
Michael Drayton,
Ben Jonson and
William Shakespeare. Drayton viewed Anne as his muse, writing poems such as "
Idea. The Shepheards Garland as Poemes Lyrick and pastorall" in her honour. Drayton also eulogized Sir Henry Rainsford in his poem "Upon the Death of his Incomparable Friend, Sir Henry Raynsford Of Clifford." The estate was sequestered during the English Civil War for taking the side of King
Charles I, but the owners compounded before selling it. Subsequent generations of Rainsfords were to be found in
London, rather than Clifford Chambers. The
manor was remodelled by
Edwin Lutyens in 1918, following a fire and the garden design has been attributed to Lutyens and
Gertrude Jekyll. Many of the houses were still owned by the occupants of the
manor house until after the
Second World War. It was the lady of the manor who switched on the village's electricity supply when it was connected to the
National Grid in 1933. During the Second World War children from the
Roman Catholic school in
Edgbaston,
Birmingham were evacuated to the village. Shortly after the war deep-texture furnishing fabric was developed by
Tibor Reich at Clifford Chambers mill. ==The village today==