Castle Driving School was founded in 1966 by Colin Diaper. He was only 21 when he started the school and it was based on Maldon Road, Colchester. The school took the name Castle because Colchester is a town with a Castle, but he also thought it was appropriate because at the time, Barbara Castle was the transport minister.

It began with just Colin to start with and his then wife Margaret taking the phone calls. In 1975, Margaret herself became an instructor.A board used to stand outside the house advertising the school (how the times of advertising have moved on).Tragically, in 2007, Colin passed away and his wish to keep Castle a family run business today is being fulfilled by his daughter Shirley.Shirley joined Castle in 1989 as an instructor at the age of 22 following in her father's footsteps and now runs the business. Shirley is a Grade 6 instructor, the highest grade possible for a driving instructor and one of less than 2000 in the UK.