CLIPSTONE, a township in the parish of EDWINSTOW,
Hatfield division of the wapentake of BASSETLAW,
county of NOTTINGHAM, 3 miles (W. S. W.) from Oilerton,
containing 142 inhabitants. On an eminence above
the village are some remains of a very ancient palace
that belonged to the Anglo-Saxon kings; it is of Norman
architecture, and is said to have been erected by
one of the kings of Northumberland; after the Conquest
it was frequently the residence of King John,
both before and after his accession to the throne, and
the charter which he granted to Nottingham, in the first
year of his reign, is dated at this place; as were also
the orders issued by Edward II., on September 25th,
1307, to the seneschal of Gascony, and constable of
Bourdeaux, to provide a thousand pipes of good wine to
be sent to London before the following Christmas, for
his approaching coronation. To this palace also all
the kings of England down to Henry V. appear to
have repaired for the diversion of hunting in the royal
forest of Sherwood, as we find that Henry de Fauconberge,
in the reign of Henry III., held the neighbouring
manor of Cuckney in serjeantry by the shoeing of
the king's palfrey on coming to Mansfield. A parliament
was held here by Edward I. in 1290, and an old
oak at the edge of the park is still railed the Parliament
oak. Clipston is in the honour of Tutbury, duchy of
Lancaster, and within the jurisdiction of a court of
pleas held at Tutbury every third Tuesday, for the recovery
of debts under 40s.