 This strategic location invested it with national importance in medieval times, and thereafter with the town being the seat of the Council of Wales and the Marches during its existence (1472 to 1689).At the time of the Domesday Book survey, the area was part of the large Stanton parish and manor, a possession of Walter de Lacy.Neither Ludlow nor Dinham are mentioned in the Book, compiled in 1086, although the Book recorded manors and not settlements "per se".