Castle Donington stands on the former Nottingham to Birmingham trunk road. It is a pleasant blend of the old and new, with modern shops standing alongside dignified Georgian and Regency houses. Several timber framed houses dating from the I 7th century and earlier, survive along the main road.
Dunitone' was mentioned in Domesday. In 1086 it had a Mill, presumably King's Mills, a priest and extensive woodland. The first castle was begun in 1135AD by Eustace, Baron Haulton. In 1215. the castle's owner, the powerful John De Lacy, whose descendants later became Earls of Lincoln, was one of the signatories of Magna Carta. The domineering King John was perhaps taking his revenge when his troops levelled Donington Castle the next year.
This first castle was probably of the 'Motte and Bailey' type, but the replacement, finished around 1260, was much grander, having 'two round towers, two square, and one part round, part square'. It had a double dry moat much of which survives. Its successive owners were not always lucky, four of them dying by the executioner's axe. Most of the building was demolished at the end of the 16th century for the stone which was used to enlarge Langley Priory, two miles south of Castle Donington and for the development of the first Donington Hall. A few private houses on the site incorporate fragments of the original building.
