Description:Clifton Campville is a village situated in the south- eastern corner of the county, close to the borders of the three adjoining counties of Leicestershire, Warwickshire and Derbyshire. The river Mease runs through the parish. As the village is situated on an eminence on a plain, the name is thought to derive from its situation, ‘Clifftown’. The Camville family were early lords of the manor. They took their name from Canappeville in Normandy. From the 13th century onwards until 1905, the Clifton Campville estate was in succession by six families, the Camvilles, Staffords, Stanleys, Heveninghams, Coventrys and Pyes. A number of monuments to the local lords of the manor over the centuries can be found in St Andrew’s church. These include monuments by the sculptors, Rysbrack and Chantrey. In 1905, the estate was broken up and sold.
The church of St Andrew is one of the county’s finest churches, renowned for its very tall steeple, 189 feet, which is supported by flying buttresses. It was built largely between 1300 and 1350. The church is in the Decorated style and very spacious.
Two pavilion wings of Clifton Hall were built in the early 18th century by Sir Charles Pye but the central block of the hall was never completed, since he appears to have run out of money. The architect was probably Francis Smith of Warwick, one of the leading architects in the West Midlands at that time. The Pye family continued to live in the completed pavilions for the next 200 years.
A thatched house in Clifton was used to conceal the 14th century Chronicle of Lichfield, rescued by the Bishop of Lichfield at the time of the Civil War, when the Cathedral Close was under seige. At the time of the Hearth Tax assessment in 1666, 67 households were assessed for tax in Clifton and Haunton together, the largest house being the ‘parsonage’, which had five hearths.
Haunton is a hamlet within Clifton Campville parish, with a Roman Catholic church built in 1901-02 by Edmund Kirby. Haunton Hall housed the convent of St Joseph, whose chapel was designed by Charles Hansom.
In the first half of the 20th century, the village was dominated by agriculture and agriculturally related trades.