[4] The first recorded mention of Hooton Pagnell is found in Domesday Book, where it is called "Hotone" ("The Town on the Hill" or "The High Dwelling Place").

[5] The village was variously called "Hoton", "Howton", "Hutton", the second part of the name being added during the time of the Paganals, a distinguished Norman family into whose hands the manor passed towards the end of the 11th Century.

Much of the property in the village belongs to the estate of Hooton Pagnell Hall, which has been in the family of former Lord Mayor of London Sir Patience Warde since the 17th century.

[10] With increased wealth, the Hall was extensively restored in Victorian times: following the sale of many large properties to meet death duties, the estate is now owned by a family trust.

Mary Betty Norbury received the Hooton Pagnell estate as a gift from her father, Col William St Andrew Warde-Aldam, in 1952, and she and her husband assumed the surname of Warde-Norbury by Royal Licence in 1958.

The Warde-Aldams' wealth was based on land-ownership but was boosted significantly by the exploitation of coal reserves in the estates land with the sinking of Frickley colliery, located in South Elmsall, West Yorkshire.

In 1902 the vicar of Hooton Pagnell, Revd Frederick Samuel Willoughby, opened St Chad's Hostel in the village to prepare men of limited means to enter theological college.

[13] In 1904, further financial support from Liverpool businessman Douglas Horsfall made it possible to establish St Chad's Hall in Durham as a sister institution to the hostel.