Bassetlaw was awapentake (equivalent to ahundred) in theEnglish county ofNottinghamshire. The wapentake covered an area in the north of the county, roughly equivalent to the modernBassetlaw local government district. The wapentake was divided into the divisions of Hatfield, North Clay and South Clay.
The place name Bassetlaw means the hill of the people of Bersa. Bersa was an early Anglo-Saxon leader who settled in the area.
The original meeting place of the wapentake wasBlyth Low Hill,[1] while another moot place was an enclosure atEast Markham.[2] At some point between 1610 and 1719, it absorbed the Oswaldbeck wapentake, which became the North Clay division.[3] This may originally have met at an enclosure atGringley-on-the-Hill.[4]
