Wesleyan Methodist chapel. in Bridge Street, the original half of the building dates from 1823, with an addition dating from 1909. The chapel closed in the late 1980s and the few remaining members joined the congregation in the nearby village of Yarwell. The chapel has since been converted into a house. King's Cliffe is a large parish of 1518 hectares on either side of Willow Brook and in the Forest of Rockingham. Since 1869 the present parish has included the hitherto extra-parochial forest land of Westhay, occupying 618 hectares. The church was probably a minster church and underwent a major rebuilding soon after the Conquest. In Anglo-Saxon times King's Cliffe was a royal manor and the centre of a royal estate which after the Conquest formed the basis of Cliffe Bailiwick in Rockingham Forest. A swanimote, a forest court with legal and administrative functions, was held here until about 1690. Although building work at the royal house is only recorded in the 13th and 14th centuries, it is known to have been used by kings from at least William II to Edward III (King's Works II, 969). This house or hunting lodge was apparently to the S. of the church, and went out of use in the 15th century. The associated park in the E. of the parish was first recorded in the 13th century and in 1593 contained three lodges, one of which, Middle Lodge, was large enough to be considered suitable as a gentleman's house (Ex MS 57/6). About this time the park, some 360 hectares, was acquired by Lord Burghley and cleared to form a large grazing farm (NRS, 23 (1968), 151). The manor was kept within the royal family until the 18th century when it was leased to the Earl of Exeter; the Marquess of Exeter bought it in 1812. There is, therefore, no manor house. The plan of the village suggests several phases of development. North of the church may have been a large triangular green, reaching from Park Street to Wellington Lane, and now largely built over. A change of alignment in both of the back lanes to West Street suggests a westerly extension of that street at some time before the early 17th century. The topographical significance of Hall Yard is uncertain but it is doubtless connected with the royal house. Hall Yard Farm (16) became the home of the Law family, one of the principal families in the village. In the early 18th century William Law established a group of almshouses and schools on the W. edge of the village (11). The quarrying of good building stone for sale over a wide area dates from at least the 15th century, when stone was being sent to Cambridge. This trade continued until the early 17th century when the more even-textured stone from Ketton began to replace it, although it remained in local use for much longer. Quarries in the Upper Lincolnshire Limestone can still be traced on the sides of the valley E. of the village. Of the masons who lived at Cliffe the most notable were the members of the Thorpe family in the late 16th and early 17th centuries (Walpole Soc. 40 (1966), 1–13). A market and fair were granted in 1249 (Cal. Close (1247–51), 192) and renewed in 1604, but were never of importance. The population is said to have been reduced in the 15th century, and in 1462 a fire destroyed a hundred houses and caused hardship. By the early 17th century the population was increasing rapidly, largely as a result of the immigration of landless men attracted by the possibility of supporting themselves by grazing animals in the extra-parochial forest areas of Westhay and Morehay in which King's Cliffe had common rights. The Hearth Tax of 1673 records 209 households of which as many as half were exempt through poverty. The figures do not show an unusual proportion of single-hearth houses however, and the surviving houses do not suggest an abnormal social structure. The population was very high in relation to the area of the parish with an average of only ten acres per family, and even less if the park is subtracted. Occupations other than arable husbandry must therefore have sustained most of the population. Being a large settlement, King's Cliffe acquired some of the service functions of a town; this is reflected in the purpose-built shops of the early 19th century, and in the presence in 1851 of two doctors, a druggist and a veterinary surgeon. Crafts based on wood from the forest flourished, wood-turning being the most important. A single turner is recorded in the 16th century, but by the early 19th century it was a major industry. Lathes were set up in houses and in outbuildings but there are no identifiable specialised buildings associated with the trade. In 1613 there were said to be about 110 copyholds, all very small, and a population of about 1000; assuming an average family size of 4½ people this would imply that about half of the householders were copyholders (PRO, E134/11 James I E27). At enclosure in 1813 almost all of the tenements were copyhold. In the mid 19th century the Marquess of Exeter began to clear about half of Westhay; several large farms were laid out with new buildings designed by Browning of Stamford. A chalybeate spring in the forest to the S. of the town was used as a spa in the 17th century and later; the area was attached to Southwick parish in 1869. “If anybody would like to expand to this series please do, I would just ask that you could let Sadexploration know first at churchmicro@gmail.com so he can keep track of the Church numbers and names to avoid duplication. There is also a Church Micro Stats & Information page found via the Bookmark list”.