The middle ages saw the growth of Wudetun into Wotton-under-Edge. The town, first mentioned in a Saxon royal charter in 940, was then listed in the Doomsday book as Vutune, a dependency of the manor of Berkeley . Wotton history in the middle ages was inextricably linked with that of the Berkeleys, whose Norman castle still stands a few miles to the west of the town.

Through an often troubled relationship, Wotton gained from the Berkeleys a lasting heritage, not least the Katherine Lady Berkeley’s secondary school (founded in 1384). It also gained Borough status in 1253 as proof of the fast growth from Saxon woodland settlement to thriving market town.