The 1589 perambulation of Sherwood Forest includes Salterford Dam as a landmark on the boundary of the royal hunting ground, so evidently the dam (or body of water confined by an embankment [OED]), was already there as a source of water for a mill by the Dover Beck. A correspondent of the "Nottinghamshire Guardian" writing in 1883 referred to a manor house at Salterford, said by Dr Thoroton to have been occupied by Sir Thomas Hutchinson (1587–1643) father of the roundhead Colonel John Hutchinson. The site of this manor house was supposed to have been ploughed up in the making of flood meadows by the 5th Duke of Portland (1800–1879). The Revd T. Woollen Smith (vicar of Calverton) in replying to this correspondent referred to a scribbled note, of 1760, in the parish register, probably written by Revd Maurice Pugh. There were two burials in June 1614 of women who had been (wrote Pugh), " …inhabitants of a house yt stood at Salterford Dam now a Rabit Warren 1760 it looks like some plague. There was a corn mill there and a manor house within a Mote near the Dam head the Mill below it some distance served wh Water by a cut from ye Dam". Despite Pugh's assertion, the 1609 map of Sherwood Forest, while listing 'Mr Randall Barton' and 'Mr Hutchinson' as freeholders of both 'Saunterforde Manor' and 'Saunsham Woods', had showed no habitations or buildings of any kind. In 1662 Colonel Hutchinson sold the manor of Salterford to William Willoughby of Hunsdon in Hertfordshire. Five years later the manor (including 'ground where a mill lately stood') was sold to two London gentlemen and, soon after that, in 1676 Humphrey Jennens, the ironmaster of Erdington, was authorised by the Sherwood Forest Court to enclose nearby Sansom Wood. In January 1709 Charles Jennens (son of Humphrey and father of the celebrated Charles Jennens) sold the land to John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle. In July of that year Salterford was being rented to a warrener called John Bagulie of Blidworth. By 1716 Salterford belonged to Lord Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford, as it had evidently been bequeathed to his wife, who was the only child of the late Duke.