Cliffe is a small village and civil parish in Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England.

The village has a long history, as shown by the number and range of archaeological sites from tumuli to an English Civil War battleground, most of which are scheduled monuments.

It is notable for its 17th-century Grade II listed George Hotel, where the story behind the song My Grandfather's Clock is said to have originated in 1875.

[3][5] In 1717 there were places in Cliffe known as Haverfield, Willow Pound, Stonebridge-fields, Scroggy Pasture, Lime Kiln-fields and Carlberry, together with the 13th-century mill and mill-dam.

[6] In the early 1820s, the village was described thus: "Cliffe, in the parish of Manfield, wapentake of Gilling West, and liberty of Richmondshire; (the seat of Henry Witham, Esq.)

The Grade II listed George Hotel stands near the road-bridge which crosses the Tees coming from Piercebridge, and is said to be the home of My Grandfather's Clock which "stopped short never to go again when the old man died".

[15] Kathleen Wood is next to Cliffe Hall, a surviving Victorian extension of a long-destroyed Georgian mansion.

[19] Henry Clay Work, the American composer of Marching Through Georgia, visited Cliffe and heard in 1875 of the odd incident in the George Hotel when the grandfather clock stopped the moment its owner died.

[20] In 1890, John Gerald Wilson Esquire of Cliffe Hall was a County Magistrate for Gilling West Petty sessional division.

Bulmer's Directory 1890 describes him as "Wilson John Gerald, J.P., D.L., Colonel commanding the West Yorkshire Brigade of Volunteers, and 3rd York and Lancashire Regiment of Militia; Alderman North Riding County Council, and ex-officio member of the Darlington Board of Guardians, Cliffe hall.

The Georgian foundations of the original Cliffe Hall, and the remains of a vicus, lie separately underground nearby.

[27] However this may be identical with the medieval Cliffe Park wayside cross which is dated 1066 to 1539 and described as follows: "Remains consist of the upper part of the shaft with head and arms set into a modern socket stone.

[30] Cliffe forms part of the site of Piercebridge Battle, the "1642 Civil War skirmish between the Earl of Newcastle (Royalist) on the march to York, and Captain Hatham.

[4][31][32] There is a linear feature, from near Namen's Leazes to near Crow Wood, which goes through Aldbrough, Stanwick St John and Cliffe; it could be an earthwork bank, a defence dyke or a trackway.

[36] The Betty Watson's Hill Bronze Age barrow 1,120 feet (340 m) east of Cliffe Hall was excavated in 1904.

It was described as a flat-topped bowl barrow, and it was noted that "the large hole in the centre is probably due to robbers or an unrecorded excavation".

[4][40] In 1994, the observation of groundworks at the George Hotel and Cliffe substation recorded part of a Roman road as well as undated disturbance.

[4][41] In the same year, a section through Dere Street was exposed by excavations carried out in a garage development area, and some pottery and tile found.

[4][42] Excavations in 1982–1986 uncovered a vicus: an "area of Roman settlement on the south side of the River Tees.

[4][45] According to the inscription, the tombstone was "erected by the wife for her husband called Gracilis, a centurion from Upper Germany in the XXII legion and sent to Britain in the early third century.