Ward penny

(O. Eng. Law) money paid to the sheriff or castellan for watching and warding a castle.

See also: Ward

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by G. & C. Merriam Co.
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In the 17th Century, Dugdale lists alternatives or wroth or warth money or swarff penny or ward penny. This last variant may suggest some distant memory of Medieval protection money, but its exact origins are probably lost forever.
Archive: A stone with a silver lining; Annually at sunrise on a cold November morning a group of Warwickshire villagers gather to pay their taxes. Chris Upton reports on this strange fiscal phenomenon

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