Westcliffe comes from the Old English ‘Clif’ meaning an ‘escarpment, a hill-slope’;
the prefix ‘west’ differentiates it from the adjoining parish of St Margaret-at-Cliffe.
The Domesday Book chronicles Westcliffe as Westclive.
Westcliffe parish church is a Grade: II listed building, dedicated to Saint Peter.
The Normans built it in the 12th century and added the tower in the 14th century.
In 1800, Edward Hasted described it as small and ‘consisting of only one isle and
a chancel’. The Victorians restored the chancel in 1873.
