In the Roman period, there was a huge palatial structure at Castor. This was extensively excavated in the 1820s by Edmund Artis, the agent for the Fitzwilliam estate, who published a volume of illustrations about his work, which he suggested was a Praetorium. Recent small-scale work has confirmed that it extended over a considerable area: Roman buildings covered an area of 290 by 130 m (3.77 ha) and had at least 11 rooms with tessellated floors and mosaics, at least two bathhouses and several hypocausts. The masonry which survives points to a monumental architecture indicating two major phases of building.[4]
A recent survey by Stephen Upex suggested that the earlier smaller building dates to the 2nd century, but that the major palatial building dates to 240 – 260 AD. The structure is linked to a similar structure at Stonea 35 km to the south. It is suggested that in the Roman period, the Fens were a vast imperial estate and that at first Stonea was the seat of the procurator where the taxes were collected, and that after 250 this function was transferred to Castor.
The Praetorium may be connected with the town of Durobrivae (modern Water Newton) on the other side of the river Nene. The whole area was the centre of the Nene valley pottery industry which was one of the three major pottery producing areas in late Roman Britain, producing pottery on an industrial scale.
The Praetorium appears to have been abandoned in the fifth century and there is a hiatus till the late 7th and 8th centuries, when finds from the area suggest considerable high-status activity. It is suggested that during the 7th century the former Roman site became the focus of the nunnery of St Kyneburgha, founded before 664.[5]
Early medieval
Kyneburgha (d. c. 680) and Kyneswide were sisters, the daughters of King Penda of Mercia, the sisters of Peada of Mercia; their mother was Kynewise. Kyneburgha married Alhfrith of Deira, co-regent of Northumbria (who attended the Synod of Whitby in 664),[6] but later founded an abbey for both monks and nuns in Castor.[5] She became the first abbess. She was buried in her church, but her remains were translated, before 972,[7] to Peterborough Abbey, now Peterborough Cathedral. She had been one of the signatories, together with her brother Wulfhere, of the founding charter of Peterborough Abbey, dated 664.[8] The Danes laid waste to the area in around AD 870.
The Church of England parish church of St Kyneburgha is notable for its Romanesque architecture and includes notable medieval wall paintings. It is a Grade I listed building.[9][10] It is the only church of that dedication in England.[9][11] The Romanesque tower is 71 feet (22 metres) high, topped by a later spire of 44 feet high (13 metres), giving a total height of 115 feet (35 metres).[12]
Late medieval
The Robin Hood and Little John Standing Stones were erected here between the 12th and 14th centuries in an agreement with the abbot of Peterborough Abbey that tolls would not be levied on the passage of stone from the abbey's quarries at Barnack.[13]
^Kelly, S.E. (ed.), Charters of Peterborough Abbey, Anglo-Saxon Charters 14, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 5.
^Stephen Upex in Britannia vol 42, 2011 pages 23 – 112
^ abDugdale's Monasticon prints the foundation charter of Burh/Medehampstead, dated 664, which establishes beyond doubt that Kyneburg had left her husband to found and preside over her monastery at Castor: "Formerly a queen, who had resigned her sway to preside over a monastery of maidens".
^Bede(d. 735), Ecclesiastical History of the English People.
^The account of the translation is from the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, dated 972: "Abbot Aelfsi took up St Kyneburgh (with her sister and a female kinswoman) who lay at Castor and brought them to Burh and offered them all to St. Peter in one day".
^Dugdale's Monasticon: Peterborough, vol 1, p.377, no.2, prints the charter of 664.
^Taylor, Christopher (1982) [1975]. Fields in the English Landscape. Archaeology in the Field Series. London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd. p. 153. ISBN0-460-02232-6.
