| Description | The manor of Cliffe or Westcliffe lies north of Rochester, on the marshy south shore of the Thames estuary. It acted as a staging post for monks on their way to both London and Essex. Its accounts begin fully developed in 1276, with detailed receipts and expenses on the recto balanced by accounts of corn and stock on the dorse. Occasionally an inventory of the manor's contents has been appended. The accounting official was a serjeant or a reeve; the titles are almost interchangeable and the accounts are synonymous. By 1390, a farmer is accounting, increasingly briefly, for his farm and building repairs. The rent accounts of bedels only appear in 1424. Throughout, the adjacent Cooling is often associated with Cliffe, though farmers are occasionally also responsible for Berrycourt. An intermittent series of rentals also survives for 1296-1497, mainly for tenants on the marshes of Cliffe and Osterland. |