King’s Cliffe was recorded in the Domesday survey of 1086. It was a royal manor for over five hundred years and one of three important centres in the Forest of Rockingham.
The village was famous over centuries for its highly-skilled wood-turners and carvers, craftsmen who made a
wide range of small items known as 'treen', both for domestic and commercial use.
Limestone was quarried in King's Cliffe. Good for carving, it was used in the 16th and 17th centuries in the
building of some Cambridge colleges and country houses including nearby Burghley House.
William Law (1686 - 1761) world-renowned theologian and writer of many influential books was born, lived and
died in King's Cliffe. His tomb is in the churchyard.
It was here in King's Cliffe, during the Irish potato famine of the 1840s, that botanist Miles J Berkeley
MA FRS, made the important discovery of what made potatoes rot in the ground. Here, he identified and
wrote about over 10,000 fungi specimens from all over the world: his important collection is now
held at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew.