Clifton is a large suburban village and historic manor in the city of

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

, England. In 2020 it had an estimated population of 22,749. Clifton has two council wards in the City of Nottingham (Clifton West and Clifton East as of 2018) with a total population taken at the 2011 census (prior wards of Clifton North and Clifton South) of 26,835. The location also encompasses Clifton Grove and Clifton Village, a residential area set alongside the

River Trent The Trent is the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, third-longest river in the United Kingdom. Its Source (river or stream), source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midland ...

. The Manor of Clifton was for many centuries the seat of the ''de Clifton'' (later ''Clifton'') family, branches of which were in the 17th century created

Baron Clifton Baron Clifton, of Leighton Bromswold in the County of Huntingdon, is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1608 for Sir Gervase Clifton, who made Prebendal house which was built by John Thorpe and later owned by the Clifton baron ...

Leighton Bromswold Leighton Bromswold (also known as Leighton) is a small village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Leighton lies approximately west of Huntingdon. Leighton is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambr ...

(1608) and

Clifton baronets Two unrelated baronetcies have been created in the surname of Clifton. The Clifton Baronetcy, of Clifton in the County of Nottinghamshire, was created in the Baronetage of England on 22 May 1611 for Sir Gervas Clifton, of Clifton Hall, Notting ...

(1611). It is now the site of a council estate. The village is also notable for many old buildings including Clifton Hall, which is the former seat of the Clifton family, and St. Mary's Church. Clifton is also home to the Nottingham Trent University Clifton Campus.

History

The manor of Clifton was recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086 as having a church and a mill. The value of the manor had decreased since the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conque ...

of 1066 from £16 to £9. For 700 years the Clifton family of Clifton owned the manor, of which their

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

was Clifton Hall. The papers of the Clifton family and their lands are held at

Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections is part of Libraries, Research and Learning Resources at the University of Nottingham. It is based at King's Meadow Campus in Nottingham in England. The university has been collecting manuscripts since the earl ...

. Prior to Clifton being subsumed into the city, the area was previously within a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

called Clifton with Glapton until 1952, Glapton being a small scattering of houses and farms prior to when the estate was built, and was in the area approximately where present day Glapton Lane is, there still being some older houses that predate the estate along the lane.

Modern Clifton

The council estate has a number of shop-clusters and relatively good transport links (by tram and bus) with the city (~20 minutes) and surrounding areas. The village is on the

A453 road The A453 road was formerly the main trunk road connecting the English cities of Nottingham and Birmingham. However, the middle section of this mainly single-carriageway road has largely been downgraded to B roads or unclassified roads follo ...

which is the main connection between Nottingham and the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which lat ...

south. The section of the A453 from

Kegworth Kegworth () is a large village and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, in the East Midlands region, England. It forms part of the border with Nottinghamshire and is situated 6 miles north of Loughborough, ...

to the roundabout next to the ''Crusader'' pub has been upgraded to dual carriageway; this project was completed by 2016. A new retail park known as 'Clifton Triangle' was built on the site of derelict industrial buildings and was completed in 2018.

Clifton Council Estate

The Clifton Council Estate is a sprawling conurbation, which was first considered for residential construction in 1950 by Act of Parliament, and at one time the largest council estate in Europe. The majority of the houses are made of "no fines" concrete (concrete which only has large aggregate included). This leaves air filled voids which add thermal insulation. Since the 1980s most of the houses have passed from council to private ownership. Clifton (like some of Nottingham's other estates) has benefitted in recent years from some redevelopment and regeneration work such as the Lark Hill walled community for the elderly, but the estate as a whole still attracts a lot of anti-social behaviour, particularly around the shops and tram stops. There are currently plans for a new community on a large area of land south of Clifton, to be known as Fairham.

Governance

Local government matters are administered by

Nottingham City Council Nottingham City Council is the local authority for the unitary authority of Nottingham in Nottinghamshire, England. It consists of 55 councillors, representing a total of 20 wards, elected every four years. The council is led by David Mellen, of ...

, a Labour run

unitary authority A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...

. Clifton is split into two wards: * Clifton West includes

Wilford Wilford is a village in the city of Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. The village is to the northeast of Clifton, southwest of West Bridgford, northwest of Ruddington and southwest of Nottingham city centre. It is at a meander of the Rive ...

, Silverdale, the Clifton Grove Estate, Clifton Village, Barton Green, Nobel Road Estate, Lark Hill Retirement Village and the Brooksby Lane and Sturgeon Avenue areas of the original 1950’s Clifton Council Estate. It is represented by Cllrs Andrew Rule and Roger Steel (both Conservative). * Clifton East includes the rest of Clifton, effectively covering the vast majority of the original 1950’s Clifton Council Estate. It is represented on Nottingham City Council by councillor(s) Kevin Clarke, Kirsty Jones and Maria Watson (all representing the area as Nottingham Independents). Parliamentary, Clifton falls within the Nottingham South constituency, with

Lilian Greenwood Lilian Rachel Greenwood (born 26 March 1966) is a British Labour Party politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nottingham South since 2010, and the Opposition Deputy Chief Whip of the House of Commons since 2021. A former unio ...

(Labour) the current

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

Education

Primary schools include The Milford Academy, Glapton, Whitegate, Highbank, Dovecote (an amalgamation of Greencroft, Brooksby and Brinkhill) and Blessed Robert Widmerpool (Catholic).

Farnborough Spencer Academy Farnborough Spencer Academy is a coeducational secondary school located in the Clifton area of Nottingham in the English county of Nottinghamshire. The school offers GCSEs as programmes of study for pupils, with a small number of pupils attendi ...

on Farnborough Road is the mainstream secondary school for the area, whil
Nethergate School
on Swansdowne Drive is an all-through

special school Special education (known as special-needs education, aided education, exceptional education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, or SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates th ...

Nottingham Trent University Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as a new university in 1992, although its roots go back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham Government School of Design, w ...

has one of its campuses on Clifton Lane (A453). On Farnborough Road was also one of the

Central College Nottingham Nottingham College is one of the largest further education and higher education colleges in the United Kingdom. Based in the city of Nottingham in England, it provides education and training from pre-entry through to university-degree level at ...

campuses which is now redundant and being sold. The old Fairham School site is also redundant. On what is now wasteland, accessible from Brooksby Lane or Silverdale Walk, remain the foundations of the original Brooksby School, which was burnt down in the early 1980s. ''Brooksby school'' was then moved to the location now known as ''Dovecote School'' taking a building originally a part of ''Greencroft School''.

Sport

Clifton has seven football teams: Clifton All Whites, Clifton Aces, Clifton Blacks, Clifton Wanderers, Clifton FC, FC Olympico And Clifton Mad Squad (CMS) Most famous football players are

Viv Anderson Vivian Alexander Anderson, MBE (born 29 July 1956) is an English former professional footballer and coach. He won five senior trophies including the 1977–78 Football League title, and both the 1978–79 European Cup and the 1979–80 Euro ...

Jermaine Jenas Jermaine Anthony Jenas ( ; born 18 February 1983) is an English television presenter, football pundit and former professional footballer. He played as a central midfielder for English club sides Nottingham Forest, Newcastle United, Tottenham Ho ...

and

Darren Huckerby Darren Carl Huckerby (born 23 April 1976) is an English football coach and former professional footballer. As a player, he was a forward who notably played in the Premier League for Newcastle United, Coventry City, Leeds United, Manchester Ci ...

Clifton Playing fields, behind Farnborough School, off Farnborough Road hosts Clifton parkrun, that is a 5k timed run. The run was launched in January 2018, and is run on a mixture of trail paths and grass. Some sections of the course may accumulate mud, leaves and puddles after rain. The start and finish are located behind the pavilion building and are a short walk from the car park. The course follows the perimeter of two Clifton playing fields and alongside Fairham Brook. The route is run mainly on grass and consists of two full anticlockwise laps of the perimeter and a further short lap of part of the large playing field. For more information on Clifton parkru
click here

Transport

Tram service

Clifton is the terminus of line 2 of the

Nottingham Express Transit Nottingham Express Transit (NET) is a tram system in Nottingham, England. The system opened to the public on 9 March 2004 and a second phase, that more than doubled the size of the total system, opened on 25 August 2015, having been initially ...

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

way, which opened in August 2015. The line runs from a terminus at a

park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuting, commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail t ...

site just to the west of Clifton, through Clifton,

, and Nottingham City Centre, before continuing to

Phoenix Park The Phoenix Park ( ga, Páirc an Fhionnuisce) is a large urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its perimeter wall encloses of recreational space. It includes large areas of grassland and tre ...

in the north of the city. Trams run at frequencies that vary between 4 and 8 trams per hour, depending on the day and time of day. The following stops are in, or near to, Clifton: * Southchurch Drive * Rivergreen * Clifton Centre *

Holy Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

* Summerwood Lane * Clifton South

Bus services

Notable people

Jake Bugg Jake Bugg (born Jake Edwin Charles Kennedy on 28 February 1994) is an English singer-songwriter. His self-titled debut album, ''Jake Bugg'', some of which was co-written with songwriter Iain Archer, was released in October 2012 and reached numb ...

, musician *

Brendan Clarke-Smith Brendan Clarke-Smith (born 17 August 1980) is a British Conservative Party politician and former teacher serving as Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office between September and October 2022. He served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of ...

, politician *

Karl Collins Karl Collins is an English actor. He is known for his television roles as Danny Glaze in ''The Bill'', Louis Loveday in ''Hollyoaks'', and Shaun Temple in '' Doctor Who''. Early life and career Collins was born in Nottingham, and grew up on the ...

, actor *

Samantha Morton Samantha Jane Morton (born 13 May 1977) is an English actress and director. Known for her work in independent cinema, she is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for tw ...

, actress *

Jayne Torvill Jayne Torvill, OBE (born 7 October 1957) is a British professional ice dancer and former competitor. With Christopher Dean, she won a gold medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics and a bronze medal at the 1994 Winter Olympics, becoming one of the ...

, ice skater, Olympic gold medallist *

, footballer *

Graham Dury Graham Dury (born 1962 in Clifton, Nottingham) is a British cartoonist. He is known for his work with '' Viz'', having contributed to the magazine from its early years. He co-conceived and personally created '' The Fat Slags'', one of the maga ...

, comic creator

References

;Notes ;Bibliography
History of Clifton
*

External links

Clifton Village websitePapers of the Clifton family, held at Manuscripts and Special Collections at The University of Nottingham

{{Authority control Villages in Nottinghamshire Areas of Nottingham