Clarendon Park

"CLARENDON PARK, an extra-parochial place, in the hundred of Alderbury, in the county of Wilts, 3 miles E. of Salisbury. It is situated on the Roman road to Winchester, near the Great Western and London and South-Western railways. This place is celebrated as being the spot where the Constitutions of Clarendon were signed on the 25th January, 1164. Anciently it was a royal forest, and there are yet traces of a hunting-seat, supposed to have been built about the time of Henry I. It was here that Elizabeth was entertained by the Herberts, to whom this place was granted. Clarendon gives the title of earl to the family of Villiers. In the original grant of this domain by King Charles II. to the Duke of Albemarle, the superficial contents of the whole park are estimated at 4,300 acres, and are valued at £1,000 per annum. At present nearly one-third of the whole demesne is appropriated as woodland, and about 710 acres surrounded by a large fosse orvallum, enclosing the foundations of a strong wall and of the palace, which is now completely in ruins."

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) - Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]