BACK in the mists of time, the settlement of Norton, near Presteigne was lorded over by Hugh the Donkey.

According to the Domesday Book of 1086, this Norman nobleman with the colourful name held 600 acres of land and extensive woodland, and it’s believed he built the castle at Norton. Hugh, a stubborn chap by all accounts, appears at the beginning of a fascinating study by Presteigne his-torian Keith Parker entitled The Story of Norton, Powys.

Already with a string of books on local history to his name, Keith has focused on this village neatly sandwiched between Offa’s Dyke and the English/Welsh border.

This location proved fraught in earlier centuries, as the author explains, with Norton’s Norman castle probably being burnt to the ground on more than one occasion. But through Keith’s rigorous thumbing through ancient records and old newspapers, he has produced a detailed look at more than a thousand years of history.

After the demise of Hugh the Donkey – apparently so named due to a stubborn streak – Norton went on to be owned by the Chandos family, then by the Crown and by Llewelyn the Great before passing to the powerful Mortimers of Wigmore.

At around the time of the epic battle of Pilleth in 1402, Norton was hit hard by Owain Glyndwr’s forces who were deliberating aiming for Mortim-er estates. Later on in the 15th century, Norton was getting back on its feet as a result of the burgeoning Flanders wool trade.

During the 19th century, Norton was a hothouse of railway endeavour thanks to the enthusiasm of Sir Richard Green Price.

He and his son, Dansey, were involved in developing the up and coming spa town of Llandrindod Wells, and he invested heavily in the Central Wales line. Without Sir Richard’s backing, neither the Presteigne line connecting with the Leominster to Kington line, nor the extension of the line from Kington to New Radnor would have been built.