A tiny hamlet set in the heart of Sherwood Forest, first mentioned in the Domesday Book with Osberne and Ulsi having two manors at Clipstone.

Our main claim to fame came with the Plantagenet Kings. No written records are given for the building of the Kings’ Houses (King Johns Palace),but Henry 11 spent money on repairs in 1164. Along with the establishment of Clipstone Park to provide the hunt, we became the ‘Sandringham’ of the day.

Six generations of Plantaganet Kings’ found pleasure in all that Clipstone had to offer.

Neither Yorkist or Tudor monarchs chose to stay at Clipstone and in a survey of 1525, the Kings’ Houses were described as being in a very poor state of repair.

In 1609 the Manors were in the ownership of the Earl of Shrewsbury and by 1630 the Duke of Newcastle was Lord of the Manor. The Kings’ Houses are in total ruin and a hall is shown more or less where Cavendish Lodge is today.

In 1832 it was described as being the poorest, most decayed village in Bassetlaw.

By 1844 described as being in danger of becoming the neatest village in the county.

The vast change brought about by the attention of the 4^th Duke Portland and his wonderful Watermeadow scheme.

The Duke’s village consisted of houses to provide accommodation for the workers of the estate. It had its own mini-welfare state, schools, good housing, pensions and work opportunities. When Elizabeth Jepson was widowed in 1859, at the age of 44 years with 12 children, the estate set her up with a bread oven, enabling her to become a baker and shopkeeper for the village.