Place Name
A misspelling of Cleve. Named after London pewter manufacturer and pamphleteer Bourchier Cleve (1715 – 1760). Sometime around 1755, Bourchier acquired an estate once owned by Sir Francis Walsingham. He demolished the old house, and commissioned Isaac Ware to design a Palladian mansion of freestone; the gardens of which are now Foots Cray Meadows. Kent historian Hasted later wrote: “Built after the model, though with some alterations, of the late Earl of Westmoreland’s seat at Mereworth.” Cleve also gives his name to Cleve Road.
