Material representing the remains of the Roman settlement of Bannaventa has been recovered from a strip around 200 metres (200 yards) wide on either side of a 1+1⁄4-mile (2 km) length of Watling Street, in agricultural land north-west of the village, at Whilton Lodge.

The four sides of the enclosure were 190, 200, 250, and 250 metres (210, 220, 270, and 270 yards), measured clockwise from north, and enclosed an area of about 5.5 hectares (14 acres).

In around 405 AD when he was aged 16 he was kidnapped by "pirates" who were raiding the imperial highways, and taken to Ireland as a slave.

This view is backed by the fact that the Watling Street ran indirectly to north Wales and thus offered easy passage to Ireland.

Norton appears in the Domesday Book[4] and some of the people mentioned in its entry are as follows: Aghmund; Alric; Alvred; Azur; Bisceop; Count Alan; Durand; Edwin; Fredegis; Fulcher; Gilbert; Godwine; Ingelrann; King William as landholder; Leofnoth; Leofric; Leofwine; Lokki; Martin; Nigel; Ordmaer; Osmund; Ralph; Ralph the steward; Robert; Robert, Count of Meulan; Robert, Count of Mortain; Sawata; Scotel; Segrim; Siward; Stenkil; Thorbiorn; Thorir; Walter; William; Wulfmaer.