Pirton was occupied during Roman and Anglo-Saxon times but most of the evidence for occupation comes from the mediaeval period from 1066 to 1500. The name means ‘Pear-tree farm/settlement’ and derives from the Old English words pirige and tun. In the Domesday Survey of 1086 the name was given as Peritone.
Toot Hill is a Motte and Bailey castle with a large earth mound and water filled ditches. To the south east lies an area known as The Bury containing earthworks from an original village now long deserted. Impressions in the ground show the location of the old roads in the area with raised areas denoting the houses.
Part of this tale does not make sense unless you have telescopic vision.
Every year on the night of June 15th a headless Cavalier is seen to ride from Highdown House to Hitchin Priory. He rides from the tree beneath which he was murdered in the summer of 1648. The ghost is that of a soldier named Goring who was visiting a lady friend at High Down House when a troop of Parliamentary soldiers arrived. It is said that he escaped by using a secret underground passage which is believed to still exist. He hid in the hollow of a Wych Elm outside the Priory gates but was spotted by the troops. They dragged him from the tree then hacked him to death within sight of the lady’s bedroom window. Herein is the anomaly as High Down house is four kilometres from Hitchin Priory so she must have had very good eye sight. Either that or they dragged him all the way back to High Down House which is unlikely as he was supposed to have been killed under an elm tree at Hitchin Priory. The woman was so overcome with grief that she died and her spirit is now said to haunt the area. The Cavalier’s spirit is also said to have been seen descending from the tree and running away with his head in his hands.
In the 1980s a young man was sleeping in the self same bedroom when he suddenly awoke to find a young woman sitting on the edge of his bed. The young man was unaware of the story at the time.
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In the 1950s visitors to Ivy Cottage spoke of a spooky feeling when inside and the sound of running footsteps were heard with no known source. The daughter of the elderly woman who lived there was so scared because of what was happening that she slept in her room with a chair under the door handle so that it couldn’t be turned.
One summer’s afternoon the daughter had been papering one of the rooms when she heard a noise near the window. She walked over to investigate still clutching two rolls of wallpaper under her arm. Suddenly both rolls were snatched from her grasp and flung across the room then she felt something unseen rush past her.
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Knocking Knoll
On top of a hill roughly southwest of Pirton and one and a half kilometres away lies a long barrow (about two hundred metres from the Icknield Way path). This long barrow has been named Knocking Knoll due to the strange occurrence of three distinct and loud knocks which emanate from deep within the barrow. Local legend tells of a warrior who was buried in the barrow in full armour and with a treasure chest by his side.
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