HOLY CROSS CHURCH - CASTON

The church of Holy Cross is situated in the centre of the old village, on a knoll of slightly higher ground, adjacent to the village green. The cluster of church, old thatched house, the pub and a farmhouse, with the ancient cross in the centre of the green, all serve to create a picture of the quintessential English village. The subsequent development of the village has been such that Holy Cross now stands on the south-eastern edge of Caston, rather than in the centre, with open farmland beyond it. The only feature missing from this area of Caston today is the church school, which, sadly, was in such a poor state it had to be pulled down a few years ago. The new Voluntary Aided Church School has been built on a site at the opposite end of the village.

The origins of the cross on the green are uncertain. It may have been a market cross but is more commonly believed to have been linked to one of the ancient pilgrimage routes which may have passed through Caston on the way to Walsingham in north Norfolk. Pilgrims are believed to have been given hospitality at Church Farm which contains similar arcading to the cross. Legend has it that there was once a passage from the church to the base of the old cross; but such legends abound in the area and this one has never been either proved or disproved.

Caston is an agricultural village some four miles south-east of Watton. In Domesday Book, Caston was spelled Catestuna or Castestuna, meaning Catt's or Kati's Tun, which was the settlement of Catt. The name may date from as early as the eighth or ninth century. Today the village also includes the outlying ribbon of dwellings known as Northacre.

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