Old Castle
There is an area at Priors Norton that was once known as the Old Castle about which I have struggled to find much information.
The only mention that I have been able to find of The Old Castle amongst village records occurs in the 1910 Finance Act ‘Domesday Book’. At this time three owners of property were listed at The Old Castle; Leonard Roberts, E Gardner and Stock.
Jon Wrench (Dunsworth Villa) has shared his memories and thoughts about the Castle; “As regards to the Castle, unfortunately there is very little trace of anything left there now. There were only two parts to the feature. The section was called the Moat. It started near the layby on the A38 below the Church at Priors Norton. It followed the old road all the way to West House, unfortunately it has been filled in and the adjoining field was used as a landfill in the late 1970's. The corner of the Moat next to West House is still there but now it just looks like a pond. There are photos of the Ward family skating on the Moat when it was frozen over in the 1960's. From West House it turned at right angles and was just a very wide ditch with steep sides and was lined by large elm trees. This part could never have been in water as the ground was rising. After about 300 yards it turned another right angle and headed towards the rear boundary of the adjoining house called The Orchards. I don't think it was the same Castle that you have mentioned because if it had been there in 1910 some of the elders in the village would have known about it. I feel it is more of medieval origin maybe earlier, there is no trace of any stone built buildings so possibly we are looking at wooden stockade type construction. Unfortunately the new route of the A38 was cut through the middle of the site before the Second World War so anything in its path was destroyed. Had anything been left it may of been a project for Time Team!”.
Plan extracted from the 1807 Inclosure Act for Norton
To aid orientation, Plot 340 on the map is now West House. There is no indication of any archaeological features in the area but that does not mean that there was nothing there. There is a strip running alongside the old road adjacent to Plot 344 that ends as the road swings 90o that could perhaps have been the moat that Jon Wrench refers to.
Pat Ward, who used to live at The Green and who has associations with West House and The Orchards going back to the 1950s, remembers an oblong shaped area of land, in what would have been Plot No 337 on the above map, that had uneven surface and was surrounded by trees still in the 1960s, about the same time as Jonathan’s memories. Pat tells us that Harry Cook, an old villager, used to say that was where the castle used to be. Pat also remembers the water feature to the rear of West House being known as the moat which, of course, also has castle connotations.
