celebrations, banned under the Commonwealth, were revived in 1660. The
maypole at Castle Bytham was inscribed to commemorate the date when it was later cut in half for use as a ladder in the church tower In the
Domesday survey of 1086 the village was known as
West Bytham as the castle had yet to be built. People have named the river that runs through the village the
Tham or
Am as a back-formation from the village name. Morkery Wood housed a former bomb dump during the
Second World War for the nearby airfields. In the early hours of 19 November 1942
Handley Page Halifax BB209 NP-G of
158 Sqn, from
RAF Rufforth in
North Yorkshire, crashed near Stocken Hall Farm (in the wood). It had been hit by flak south-east of
Paris coming back from a raid on
Turin,
Italy. Half the aircrew were in the
RCAF.
Castle Overlooking the village is an 11th-century
Norman castle mound. The site of the castle in Saxon times was owned by
Morcar, also known as Morkere, who was the brother of
Ealdgyth, wife of
King Harold. The castle, which gave its name to the village, was built soon after the
Norman Conquest of 1066, and was given by the
Conqueror to his half brother
Odo, Bishop of Bayeux and Earl of Kent; it was later owned by
William le Gros, 1st Earl of Albemarle, and passed to the family of
Coleville. During the
First Barons' War it was occupied by
William de Forz, 3rd Earl of Albemarle aided by
William d'Aubigny, Sir Richard Siward, Henry de Hastings and
William de Hastings.. In 1221, after a siege, the castle was captured by
Henry III with the help of
Hugh de Mortimer and
William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey and restored to its lord, the former rebel
William de Coleville. In the 14th century the castle was occupied by the Earls of Hereford and in 1394 the children of John of Gaunt’s son Henry Bolingbroke (later to become King Henry IV), including his eldest son Henry who was to become Henry V the victor of Agincourt, came to live at the castle with their grandmother Joan, the dowager countess of Hereford. The castle was burnt in the 15th century during the
Wars of the Roses. Ian Francis Mitchinson, of Somertrees Avenue, was the son of Francis John Mitchinson. He attended
St Joseph's College, Upper Norwood and
West Ham College of Technology. He joined the RAF in October 1959, and passed out of
RAF Jurby in May 1960. As a
Flight Lieutenant, aged 37 in 1975, he died in
Gibraltar. ==Geography==