Clarendon Palace

A Roman road connecting to Old Sarum Iron Age hillfort passes east–west approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Clarendon Forest.

The name Clarendon is first recorded in 1164, and may derive from an Old English form *Claringa dūn, meaning "hill associated with Clare".

[2] The Norman kings also visited it, and the park was probably formally defined with deer leaps in the early 12th century by Henry I.

In 1164, Henry II framed the Constitutions of Clarendon here, which attempted to restrict ecclesiastical privileges and place limits on Papal authority in England.

A memorial erected on the site in 1844 stated: The spirit awakened within these walls ceased not until it had vindicated the authority of the laws and accomplished the Reformation of the Church of England.

Margaret Howell writes: The site of the royal palace at Clarendon ... has been the subject of a recent detailed archaeological investigation, which helps to create a lively impression of [Queen Eleanor of Provence's] accommodation there in the early 1250s, shortly after a major programme of enlargement and refurbishment.

The focal point of the queen's hall was an imposing new fireplace with double marble columns on each side and an overmantel carved with representations of the twelve months of the year.

Divided into panels of patterned and figured tiles, glowing in muted shades of gold, grey, and warm pink, its power to evoke is incomparable.

Following the restoration of Charles II in 1660, the park passed briefly into the hands of George Monck, and then in 1664 to Edward Hyde, who (apparently in anticipation of acquiring the estate) had already, in 1661, taken the title Earl of Clarendon.

[6] Abandoned, Clarendon Palace deteriorated, and by the 18th century the ruins survived only as a romantic "eye-catcher" in the landscape, and as simple farm buildings.