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Castles – North, &

‘Build Date’ refers to the oldest surviving significant elements

Occupation D Location Configuration Build Date Current Remains Status

1 NZ 049 165 Motte & 12th-14th C Demolished after 1630 Ruins of varying height 2 Auckland NZ 215 301 Fortified house c1300 Occupied Much modified 3 Bishopton NZ 367 209 Motte & bailey 1143?? Empty, unknown date Earthworks, masonry fragments 4 Bradley NZ 108 362 Fortified house 1345 Empty, 18th C Jumble of ruins, 18th C house 5 Brancepeth NZ 222 378 Enclosure 1370 Occupied Mix of 14th & 19th C buildings 6 Dawdon NZ 418 485 Tower 16th C Empty, 18th C Ruins of tower, block 7 Durham NZ 275 423 Motte & bailey 11th-14th C Occupied Mix of buildings, 11th-19th C 8 Hylton NZ 358 588 c1400 Empty in 20th C Roofless shell + ruined chapel 9 Ludworth NZ 357 413 Tower 1422 Empty from 17th C Fragments 10 Lumley NZ 289 511 Fortified house c1400 Occupied Entire, now a hotel 11 Raby NZ 129 218 Enclosure 1331/1370 Occupied Entire, with later alterations 12 Witton NZ 154 305 Tower + hall 1410 Occupied Tower, other buildings rebuilt Y 1 Ayton SE 988 851 Tower 14th C Empty from 17th C Ruin, part full height 2 Barden SE 051 572 Enclosed tower 1484 Empty from 18th C Roofless, full height + foundations 3 Bolton SE 034 918 Fortified house Late-14th C Sleighted 1647 Roofless, full height 4 NY 992 134 12th C Sleighted 1640s Roofless, top storey ruined 5 Burton -in-Lonsdale SD 649 722 Motte & bailey Late-11th C Empty, 14th C Earthworks only 6 Castle Levington NZ 461 103 Motte, no bailey 12th C Empty in 14th C Earthworks only 7 SE 575 376 Gatehouse, hall Late-14th C Occupied Only gatehouse & hall remain 8 Conisbrough SK 514 989 Enclosed keep c1180 Empty by 16th C Keep + extensive ruins 9 Crayke SE 559 707 Fortified house 15th C Occupied Hall entire, ruined tower 10 Danby NZ 717 072 Fortified house Late-14th C Part-occupied Extensive high ruins 11 Flamborough TA 226 703 Tower + ? Mid-14th C Empty by 18th C Low ruins + earthworks 12 Harewood SE 322 456 Fortified house 14th C Empty after 1630 Roofless high ruin 13 SE 611 836 Enclosure c1200 Empty by late-17th C Extensive ruins + ditches 14 Hornby SE 226 937 Tower 14th C Occupied Totally altered mansion 15 John O’ Gaunt SE 219 545 Hunting Lodge Late-12th C Empty Fragmentary ruins & earthworks 16 SE 349 589 Enclosure 14th C Empty Keep, gatehouse + other ruins 17 Markenfield SE 295 673 Fortified house 14th C Occupied Modified but entire 18 Marmion SE 268 787 Gatehouse 15th C Occupied Entire, no other remains 19 SE 127 876 Enclosure , keep 12th C Empty by 17th C Extensive high ruins 20 Mortham NZ 087 142 Fortified House Mid-14th C Occupied Restored, 1930s 21 Paull Holme TA 185 249 Fortified house 15th C Empty Roofless tower 22 Pickering SE 798 845 Motte & bailey 13th C Empty by 17th C Extensive ruins 23 SE 460 224 Enclosure 12/13th C Empty by 17th C Substantial ruins 24 Ravensworth NZ 142 077 Fortified House 14th C Empty by 16th C Ruined tower, other fragments 25 Richmond NZ 172 008 Enclosure 11th C Still in use, 19th C Ruined keep + other ruins 26 Sandal SE 337 181 Motte & Bailey 13th C Empty by 17th C Major earthworks + low ruins 27 Scarborough TA 048 892 Enclosure 12th C Used until 19th C Substantial ruins Motte & bailey 1140 Disused, 15th C Vestigial earthworks SE 652 662 28 Sheriff Hutton Enclosure 1380s Empty, late-16th C High ruins of towers 29 Sigston SE 416 952 Enclosure 1336 Empty, 1503 Vestigial earthworks

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Occupation Castle Location Configuration Build Date Current Remains Status

30 TA 162 551 Motte & bailey c1186 Sleighted, 12th C Earthworks & stone fragments 31 SD 991 520 Enclosure 13th C Occupied Entire 32 Slingsby SE 696 749 Mansion 17th C Never occupied High ruins, maybe 14th C traces 33 Snape SE 262 844 Fortified House 15/16th C Part occupied Entire S. range, other ruins 34 Spofforth SE 361 511 Fortified House 14th C Empty from 17th C High ruin of west range 35 Thorne SE 689 133 Motte 12th C? Empty from 17th C Earthworks, buried stones 36 SK 594 928 Motte & bailey 12th C 17th C hall occupied Hall, gatehouse, motte, 37 Whorlton NZ 481 025 Tower & gateho. 14th C Empty by 17th C Ruins of gatehouse & tower 38 SE 707 316 Fortified house 1390s Empty, late-18th C Ruined S. range only 39 SE 605 515 Motte & bailey 12th C Tower empty by 17th C Ruined tower, all else rebuilt

Notes:

1. A total of 52 have been identified in Durham and Yorkshire, (there are 2 separate castles at 1 location). My selection philosophy has been to include those I think interesting with the existence of coherent masonry, a prerequisite; I have tended to exclude those which have benefitted from a modern reconstruction which could be described as a rebuild. There are remains of many more castles in the two counties, which I do not consider, often because they are fragmentary. So, my gazetteer is best regarded as a sample, albeit quite a large one, and the tentative conclusions I draw need to be seen in that light.

2. I have visited all of the 52 castles on my list.

3. There are 12 motte and bailey types, the majority built by the 13th century, there are 11 castles in which the castle buildings are part of the outer defences, and 4 in which the castle buildings are enclosed by a curtain wall often reinforced with towers, making 15 enclosure castles in all. There are only 5 of the tower houses bastles, so common in , partly because the likes of vicars and owners of smaller houses did not see the need to fortify given their distance from the border with , though they may sometimes have regretted the decision. However the fact that there are 16 fortified houses, indicates that owners of larger houses still sought some protection but wished for more comfort than given by a tower.

4. Castle building took place at a fairly uniform rate during the 11th to the 15th centuries; there was no great increase which can be linked to the Anglo-Scottish wars beginning in the late-13th century.

5. The desertion and decay of castles gathered speed after the start of the 16th century, and was reinforced after the Civil War as some which had survived were sleighted. Pursuit of more comfortable living arrangements became a stronger driver than security. 16 castles are still occupied, perhaps less than might have been expected.

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D1. Barnard Castle is a motte and bailey sited high above the right bank of the in the small town, also Barnard Castle, which is 26km west of Darlington. Built in 1095 by Bernard de Balliol and then extended and rebuilt in stone in the first half of the 12th century. In the 13th and 14th centuries the hall, the cylindrical keep (Round Tower) and 3 outer wards (Outer, Middle and Town) were added. The castle was granted to the Earls of Warwick in 1307, but it was not maintained over the following two centuries as they continued to live in Warwick Castle. The castle was attacked and captured in 1536 and 1569 during northern rebellions against Protestant and afterwards was left to decay. In 1630 it was sold off and quarried. Looking at the aerial view from the north, the inner ward is on the right, and was surrounded by a curtain wall, with towers including the large round tower, and a moat, entered through a gateway. Inside the inner ward, on its right, was a hall, together with a large kitchen and other domestic buildings. The town ward is to the left, and housed some ancillary buildings while the large outer ward, separated from the town and middle wards by the wall and gatehouse still partly to be seen near the top of the photograph. The outer ward is not now as large as it was. The lower photograph is a view of the castle from river level on the west.

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D2. Castle is in the north-east of the town to which it gives its name, above the right bank of the . The first building on the site was a hunting lodge, which was converted into a castle in c1300, but the tower which survives was probably built a century later. The medieval castle played no military role, except that in acknowledgement of the secular responsibilities of the for the North of England, armies mustered there before confronting Scots invasions. After the Civil War, the castle was sold to the prominent Republican MP, Sir Arthur Hazelrigg, and he began to demolish it with the intention of building a new mansion. His plans were interrupted by the Restoration and the building was restored to the bishopric; then Bishop Cosin restored the castle and converted a 12th century aisled hall into a chapel. Thereafter the buildings were altered and Gothicised becoming the principle home of the Bishops of Durham in 1832. In recent years those parts not occupied by the Bishop have been opened to the public. In the aerial view from the north-east, the chapel is the building on the right, the gateway is on the left, and the castle complex is in the centre foreground; the newer buildings behind are of the college. The lower photograph is a view from the south, with the chapel on the right.

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D3. Bishopton Castle is at the southern edge of a small village of that name which is 8km north-west of Stockton-on-Tees. The paucity of masonry remains, and absence of firm documentary evidence makes it impossible to date, though it has been suggested that a document dated 1143 might refer to it, and the earthwork configuration is compatible with that. The place-name of course connects it to the Bishops of nearby Durham. The remains are well-preserved earthworks of a motte and bailey castle situated on low lying land beside the Bishopton Beck. The motte is conical in shape with a near circular top; it stands to a height of 11.5m and measures 55m across at the base and is surrounded by a wide moat fed from the nearby beck. Immediately to the north-west of the motte there is a bailey which measures 80m north east to south west by 40m north west to south east; it is bounded by banks and ditches. Within the eastern part of there are low remains of a rectangular building, of dimensions, 28 X 9.5m, and the remains of a second building abut the northern wall of the bailey. The aerial photograph looks west and gives an impression of the full extent of the earthworks, while that below shows how it appears from the minor road to the east.

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D4. Bradley Hall is beside the A689, just under 3km south-east of . The name derives from a family in occupation from the 12th century, but in 1345 it passed to the Eures of Witton Castle who received a licence to crenelate the in 1431. Later, Bradley Hall passed to the Tempests, a Catholic family who fell out of favour when they rebelled against Queen in the Northern Uprising of 1569. After the rebellion was quashed the house was granted to Sir George Bowes, a and supporter of the Queen. He transformed it into a Tudor mansion, which lay more or less east to west, and incorporated vaulted basement rooms with a hall above, and private rooms above that, some or all of which had been part of the medieval house. Over the next 250 years, Bradley Hall passed through several generations of the Bowes family, but they sold it in 1855. In the 18th century they built the large , oriented north to south, north of the Tudor house, possibly utilising a building already erected to add rooms to the mansion. Thereafter, the original building was disused and fell into the ruins to be seen now. Although fortified, the medieval hall never saw action, and it is not clear what form its defences took apart from a moat and possibly a curtain wall of some description, surrounding the whole property. The photograph is a view from the south-west, with the remains of the early mansions at the front, some parts adapted for farm use, and the farmhouse to the rear.

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D5. is to the south east of the village of that name which is 7km south-west of Durham on the A690. The castle built in the 12th century was of the motte and bailey type, but it was rebuilt as an enclosure castle in the late-14th century by the Neville family. It was probably abandoned in the mid-16th century, and decayed in the hands of absentee landlords until c1800 when it was reconstructed. In 1922 it was again abandoned, but since the 2nd World War it has been maintained, and put to a number of uses, mostly far-removed from the normal functions of a castle. The schematic makes it clear that although first impressions might be of a medieval castle, most of the structure, lightly shaded, dates from the early 19th century. However, the north curtain wall to the north, and the , Constable’s, Neville, and Bulmer (unnamed to the west on the diagram) Towers date to the 14th century. The fuzzy photograph is a view from the south taken early in the 20th century, used because it demonstrates the way the castle dominated its surroundings.

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D6. Dawdon Tower is in a rural valley or dene uncharacteristic of its surroundings, just south-west of Seaham once an important port and mining centre, 9km south of . There are variants of the name which can cause confusion, but I shall not add to this by listing them, and there is uncertainty about the age of the building with some sources assigning it to the 14th century, but others to the 16th century; the circle may be squared by regarding the tower as dating from the latter period, but incorporating parts of an earlier building due to Sir John de Dawdon. The tower is of dimensions, 14.8 X 9.3m, with walls 1.6m thick, and of at least 2 storeys. As can be seen on the schematic, connecting with the tower was a hall block to its north, and a gatehouse once gave entry to a enclosing the main buildings. It has probably been in ruins since the 18th century. The photograph looks towards the tower, across the hall foundations from the north-east.

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D7. sits north of the cathedral, closing off a rocky promontory 25m above the right bank of the River Wear. The two buildings together form an iconic view from the west. The first castle was built in the 11th century, when it also came into the hands of the Bishops of Durham. In spite of its impressive situation, the castle was by no means impregnable and was captured by rebels during the Northern Rising of 1569, and again by the Scottish army at the start of the Civil War; the severely damaged keep remained a ruin from then until the mid-19th century. The bishops were rich, and some of their wealth was directed to building programmes for the castle; the schematic shows that little of the original motte and bailey castle survived this, and the occasional struggles that took place around it, save the outer walls and some ancillary buildings. The details are not important here, but it should be noted that the impressive keep is a 19th century pastiche, intended to resemble its long-ruined 14th century predecessor. The castle is now part of , but guided tours are provided, though access to the keep, a hall of residence, is limited. The photograph looks east, and the chapel is to the left.

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D8. is in the north-western outskirts of Sunderland, now at the junction of Washington Road and Craigavon Road. It was built by Sir William Hylton as his principal residence in c1400. Whether there were earlier buildings here is not known but the gatehouse tower, the only part of the castle still standing, was the dominant element of the new building. Other buildings were situated beyond the tower to the east, possibly arranged around a courtyard. Wings to the north and south side of the gatehouse were added by the Hyltons in the first half of the 18th century, but they were demolished by new owners a century later. The gatehouse became a ruined shell in the 20th century. It was a substantial rectangular building, originally with four storeys, and plan dimensions, 21.4 X 10.9m over walls 1.6m thick; the interior arrangements are shown in the schematic. The principal features of the west front of the castle include four square with projecting octagonal crowns. Carved figures stood on the . A chapel dedicated to St has existed on the site since 1157. In 1322, a chantry was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and there were 3 chantry priests in 1370. The chapel, on a small hill to the north east of the castle, was rebuilt in stone in the early 15th century, and thereafter was modified on various occasions up until the 19th century, but it is now ruined. The photograph below, is a view of the castle from the west, with the chapel behind in the trees to the left.

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D9. Ludworth Tower is just to the west of the village of the same name, 9km east of Durham. It is thought to have been built by a family called Holden in 1422. It changed hands a few times thereafter, but is thought to have been ruinous by the end of the 17th century, though it was only in 1890 that most of the building collapsed. The tower had been rectangular, of plan dimensions 11.6 X 7.5m, and with 3 storeys, above a vaulted basement with a on the roof. There was probably a hall and domestic buildings to the east of the tower, and perhaps a barmkin and defensive earthworks but nothing much of them survives above ground. The west wall of the tower stands to a height of 12m, along with a fragment of the basement vault, as shown in the photograph below which was taken from the south-east and appears on the Wheatley Hill website.

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D10. , sits above the right bank of the River Wear, on the east side of Chester-le-Street. The castle, really a fortified house, was built during the decades on either side of 1400 by Sir Ralph Lumley and his son. Its history was largely uneventful, through to the point when the Lumleys acquired the title of Earl of Scarborough in 1690, and marked their new status by employing Vanbrugh to remodel the building. Although they ceased to live there in the early 18th century, the castle remained inhabited and was well-maintained until it eventually became a hotel, as it is now. As built, it comprised 4 ranges set around a rectangular court of dimensions 30 X 22m; the ranges have 3 storeys, but at each corner there is a crenelated and turreted 4-storey rectangular tower. The entrance is in the centre of the east range and the west range contains the large hall. As a part of the Vanbrugh alterations a service court with 3 ranges was added to the north of the existing castle. The photograph is of the more accessible south face, showing features mentioned, and that the corner towers differ in their dimensions.

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D11. is just north of the village of which is 18km north-west of Darlington. The castle of the Neville family was begun in 1331, though it was greatly strengthened and extended in 1370. The power of the family who had obtained the Earldom of Westmorland, waxed for a century and a half, not least when a daughter became Queen to King Richard III. However, they remained Catholic after the Reformation and this led to forfeiture in 1569. The next important family to be associated with the castle were the Vanes, who acquired it in 1626, and eventually became Dukes of Cleveland in 1833. The extinction of the Dukedom in 1891 left the family with the secondary title of Lord Barnard; the castle is owned by the present title-holder and is open to the public. The earliest buildings as shown on the schematic were a keep, the Kitchen Tower, the Watch Tower and a hall, together with other domestic buildings arranged round an inner court. Shortly afterwards, other towers followed, and also the high curtain wall and the moat. The Vanes made major alterations and additions in the 18th and 19th centuries, though the overall configuration did not change. The photograph obtained from the ‘thisisdurham’ website was taken from the south-west.

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D12. Witton Castle is 5½km west of Bishop Auckland, near the right bank of the River Wear. The aerial view taken from the south shows the original enclosure in the centre; the buildings to the left are modern additions. The first building on the site was probably a hall house, before permission was granted to crenelate in 1410. The tower on the right of the block in the top-centre is presumed to date from then. It has 2 storeys above a vaulted basement, and is 15.7 X 9m in plan. The remainder of that block was built in the 18th century replacing the original hall, but the enclosure wall is original and the tower on its south side was added in the 16th century. The castle was contested during the Civil War, and went through cycles of decay, restoration and rebuilding thereafter; it is now the centrepiece of a country and caravan park. The lower photograph, taken from the south-east shows the original tower on the right, and the surviving curtain wall on the left.

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Y1. Ayton Tower is on south-facing rising ground above the right bank of the River Derwent, on the north side of the village of West Ayton, which is 6½km south-west of Scarborough. The first buildings on the site were a 13th century manorial complex including a hall, ranges of service buildings and a dovecote surrounded by a stone curtain wall, with a gatehouse. The tower was built by Sir Ralph Eure in the late 14th century, based on the bastle style of his native Northumberland, possibly as a defence against Scottish incursions although there is no evidence that it was ever attacked. Some of the other earlier structures may have continued in use into the 15th century as ancillary buildings for the tower. The last recorded occupant died in 1679 and it is likely that piecemeal demolition has taken place since then. The 3-storey, stone- built tower was rectangular, of dimensions 16.4 X 10m, over walls 1.8m thick; there was a vaulted basement, some of which survives, and above a hall with private rooms above that. The south east corner of the ruin still stands to full height. The photograph has been obtained from the website of a ‘friends group’ who are working to stabilise the structure.

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Y2. is located on a bluff in the narrow valley of the , beside the B6160, 8km north- east of Skipton. Originally a hunting lodge, it was remodelled as a fortified high status house by Sir Henry Clifford, the ’Shepherd Lord’, in 1484; it was captured during the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, but suffered more severely after the Civil War, when the curtain wall and ancillary buildings were destroyed. Lady Anne Clifford altered and expanded the tower in the second half of the 17th century, but it fell into decay in the 18th century. The 15th century complex of domestic and agricultural buildings, included a chapel and connected priest's house, surrounded by a curtain wall, beyond which was an outer park containing deer parks, fishponds, warrens and barn complexes. The core of the building was the 3-storey rectangular tower, of plan dimensions, 20.3 X 10.7m above walls 1.8m thick, with a stair on the north wall and a projecting rectangular tower to the south. In the 17th century this building was extended to the west and a further `L' shaped tower was added to the south east angle, then a further tower was added to the north-west but it collapsed. Now the tower is a ruined hollow shell, though it does survive to roof height, while ancillary buildings demolished long ago are represented by low ruins, earthworks and buried foundations. The photograph is a view of the north face of the tower, with the oldest part on the left.

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Y3. is set high above the left bank of the in the hamlet of , 8km north- west of . Built in the 2nd half of the 14th century by Sir Richard , once Chancellor of England, it has been little altered. Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned there for 6 months from July 1568 until she was moved further south, and the castle was besieged and captured by Parliamentary forces during the Civil War, after which it was sleighted, though remaining habitable. Its north-east tower collapsed in 1762, and though parts were still inhabited, decay gathered pace until the building was stabilised in the 1990s. The Scropes were succeeded as owners by the Powletts who became Dukes of Bolton in the 17th century, and then by the present owners, the Orde-Powletts, in the late 18th century. The castle was really a well-fortified house without outlying protection like curtain walls and , and comprised 4 ranges, each of 3-storeys round a closed court of dimensions, 26 X 15m, with a 5-storey tower at each corner; there were turrets in the centre of the north and south faces. The ground floor had vaulted rooms, which were used for storage, and agricultural purposes, the gatehouse, and soldier’s quarters; the and its kitchen were on the 1st floor of the north range, and above were the bed-chambers and the chapel. The ruin is now un-roofed, but floors and stairways survive, and it is open to the public. The photograph is a view from the south-west.

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Y4. is 7km south-west of Barnard Castle, beside the A66. The castle was probably founded by Alan, sometime after 1137, but it reverted to the crown in 1171; thereafter it had various owners before becoming a royal possession again in 1471. It remained habitable until the Civil War when it was sleighted, and thereafter quarrying took place. The keep stands on a moated platform in what was once the north-west corner of a Roman Fort, Lavatrae; the remainder of the fort became an . The keep is rectangular in plan, of dimensions 24.4 X 17m with walls 3.6m thick, and was buttressed at the corners and half- way along each wall. It was originally three storeys high, entered at first-floor level via a main door in the east wall. The two upper floors and the basement – which provided secure storage space – were linked by the spiral staircase in the thickness of the wall at the south-east corner. The first floor, suspended on vaulting added in the 13th or 14th century, was divided into a hall and a chamber by a cross-wall. Smaller rooms and passageways to latrines were constructed in the thickness of the walls. The north-east room was a kitchen. The spiral stair continued up to the second floor, which presumably provided sleeping accommodation, but is now inaccessible and ruinous. Surprisingly, there is no evidence of stone buildings in the bailey, or a curtain wall around it. The photograph was taken from the south, rather late in the day.

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Y5. Burton-in-Lonsdale Castle is beside the A687 in a village of that name, 4km west of Ingleton. The motte and bailey castle was built as a timber and earthwork construct, probably in the late 11th century, by Robert de Mobray. There were 2 baileys, and they and the motte were paved, but no stone castle was erected in later years. The Mobrays retained the castle until the mid-14th century when it seems to have fallen into disuse. The photograph of the motte was taken from the north.

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Y6. Castle Levington, referred to locally as Castle Hill, is 9km south of Stockton-on-Tees, just east of the A19 where it bridges the River Leven. It was an early 12th century earth and timber fortress, founded by Robert de Brus (an ancestor of the Scottish king). In 1158, after in the reign of King Stephen, the castle may have been dismantled on instruction from King Henry II. In the late 13th century, a timber hall seems to have been built on the site, and occupied until the end of the 14th century. Now only earthworks remain; a large inner platform is encased by an earthen breastwork, 2m above the interior and 9m above a wide outer extending from the north-west to south-east. The view in the photograph is from the north-east

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Y7. is in the village of that name, on the right bank of the River Ouse, 7km north-west of . The castle dates from the late-12th century and was then a residence of the , though the site may have been fortified first, centuries earlier. It was rebuilt between 1374 and 1388 for Archbishop Neville, but the surviving white stone gatehouse and the banqueting hall to its south, were added for Archbishop Kemp in the early 15th century. At that time they were at the western edge of an extensive quadrangular complex extending towards the river. Cardinal Wolsey came to Cawood on his appointment as Archbishop of York in 1530, and arranged for refurbishment of the castle, but before his installation, he was arrested there on a charge of high ; he fell ill at Leicester on his way to , and died. The castle, which by then was partially ruinous, was seized by the Parliamentarians during the Civil War. The Earl of Newcastle briefly took it back for the Royalists in 1644, but it was re-taken by Lord Fairfax, and used by the Parliamentarians as a prisoner of war camp, before being slighted. It seems that most of the remains of the castle were removed around 1750, supplying stone for local houses. The gatehouse, and a modern house to its north are now rented out by the , though the hall, which has lost the floor of the upper storey, is unoccupied. The photograph is a view from the east.

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Y8. Conisborough Castle is in the small town of that name, 10½km north-east of Rotherham, close to the A630. The first castle on the site is thought to have been built in the late-11th century, but the stone castle which can be seen now was built in c1180, by Hamelin Plantagenet, an illegitimate half-brother of King Henry II. The castle passed through many hands thereafter, between intervals as a crown possession, but by the 16th century it was in poor condition, and had already been deserted by its then owners. It seems to have been assaulted and captured only once, by Thomas, in the early 14th century, and played no part in the Civil War, so was not sleighted. Originally there was an outer court, but now there is only the inner court, shown in the schematic, of dimensions 70 X 45m, surrounded by a curtain wall, 10m high. The wall was flanked by 8 turrets, and the only entrance was by way of a and gatehouse. The limestone ashlar keep is spectacular, like no other in the UK; it is circular in plan of diameter 15m, above walls 4.5m thick, and strengthened by 6 evenly-spaced massive buttresses. Although the keep’s external appearance was unaltered it had been reduced to a shell until in 1994, new floors, staircases and a conical roof below the walkway were installed; the castle, possibly the venue for much of Sir Walter Scott’s novel ‘Ivanhoe’, is open to the public. The English Heritage photograph is an aerial view from the south-west.

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Y9. is on the north-west side of a hilltop village of that name, 3km east of . The earliest Norman motte and bailey castle was largely wood but was later replaced by a stone held by the bishops of Durham. The castle was built over part of a pre-Conquest monastic cemetery. The occupied most of the crown of the hill above the 100m contour, measuring 210 X 90m. Several phases of building and rebuilding are known to have occurred, culminating with work undertaken for Bishop Neville in the mid-15th century, to which period the surviving buildings are attributed. Subsequently, the castle was made untenable as a fortress by an act of Parliament in 1646 and by the 18th century the main range was in use as a farmhouse. Two distinct and self-contained buildings are now visible; the larger block, known as the `', is shown in the upper photograph taken from the south east, and has been restored as a domestic residence. In its original form it had kitchen ranges appended to its north side which linked it to a hall referred to as the `Old Hall'; the vaulted undercroft of the kitchen survives. In the private garden, shown in the lower photograph taken from the south- west, is the ruin of the ‘New Tower’ which was a detached 3-storey L-shaped block; all that remains of it are the barrel-vaulted undercrofts, stairs to 1st floor level and the walls of the .

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Y10. Danby Castle stands near the foot of a scarp on the Moors, 14km south-east of . It replaced an earlier castle at Castleton at the end of the 14th century, built by John Neville, Lord Latimer. Its most famous inhabitant was Catherine Parr, Henry VIII's final wife, who survived him, if only by a year. John Neville, 3rd Lord Latimer was her second husband, (of four); they married in 1534, two years before the Pilgrimage of Grace. Latimer was staunchly catholic, and was entangled in that enterprise, and lucky to survive; inevitably his wife was affected but 4 months after her husband’s death in 1543 she married Henry VIII. The manor was bought by John Dawnay, later created Viscount Downe, in the 17th century and that family still own it. As shown in the schematic, the castle originally comprised four wings arranged around a quadrangle, with rectangular towers projecting diagonally from the corners. Although partially demolished and altered by its subsequent use as a farm, substantial parts of the great hall, service and ranges, and three of the four corner towers remain, while later farm buildings are largely constructed of re-used materials obtained from the original structure. The east range, containing the great hall, estimated to have been at least 10m wide, was largely demolished and rebuilt as a smaller barn in the 18th century but the full length of the west wall, containing four tall medieval window openings, survives to almost full height (5m). There are no traces of or other defensive features so it can be assumed that the castle was a decorative residence only. The photograph was taken from the north.

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Y11.Flamborough Castle is in the village of Flamborough, 6km north-east of . The castle which seems to have comprised a tower, a hall, a `great ', a `lord's parlour', a chapel, a court house, a mill house, and a great barn, was most probably built in the middle of the 14th century and remained in the possession of its builders, the Constable family, until the middle of the 16th century. Thereafter, decay set in and now the only remains visible above ground are ruins of the tower which probably had at least 3 floors. It was constructed of coursed squared chalk blocks and rubble, rectangular in plan, though only three sides now survive; they include the full length of the south wall, with parts of the east and west walls remaining to an estimated height of 4m. There is one altered doorway to the east with plain jambs and square head, whilst the interior retains putlog holes and chamfered springers for a barrel vaulted basement. Until a few years ago, the vaulted chamber was complete but, due to the decay of mortar, has now collapsed. Earthworks represent robbed-out foundations of other buildings which were quarried for burning to make lime rather than for building purposes. The photograph is a view from the north-west.

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Y12. is beside the A61, 6½km north of . The castle was founded by Sir William De Aldeburgh; he was granted a licence to crenelate in 1366, but on his death in 1388 the castle passed to the Ryther and the Redmayne (Redman) families, into which his two daughters had married. This strange sharing arrangement lasted for almost two centuries until 1574, when James Ryther and a partner William Plompton bought out the Redman family. However, it had to be sold 25 years later to clear debts; this is probably when Harewood Castle ceased to be a main residence, and it was not occupied after 1630. A century later, by this time a ruin, it was sold to Henry Lascelles whose son, Edwin Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood, built . The main block of the castle of dimensions c28.8 X 13.2m, and with walls up to 2m thick is 2 storeys high and is flanked by four towers; one on the east wall is a plain entrance tower with a chapel over the chamber. The kitchen tower to the north-west is of 4 storeys, with a barrel-vaulted basement containing the well; above it extending over the full width of the building is the solar. Lower and upper occupy most of the remaining space, save for that in the south-west and south-east towers which is given over to bedchambers. The ruin was in some danger of collapse in the early 21st century but it was stabilised and generally tidied then. The photograph is taken from the east, and the castle is visible from outside the estate here.

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Y13. is on the west side of the small town of that name, which is 18km east of along the A170. The castle with its unusual double ditch protection dates back to the late-11th century, but the stone castle was built by Robert de Roos in c1200. The castle, strengthened in the 14th century, remained with that family until the late-15th century, when it passed by marriage to the Manners family of Etal, who became Earls of Rutland. The 2nd Duke of Buckingham acquired it in 1632, but a royalist garrison surrendered it after a to Sir Thomas Fairfax in 1644. It was sleighted but left habitable, and when Buckingham married the daughter of Sir Thomas he recovered the castle, in which after his disgrace in the 1680s, he lived out his last years. It was then acquired by London bankers, the Duncombes who built a mansion to the west of the castle, which then decayed to its present ruined state. The schematic shows the main features of the enclosure castle, and all that needs to be added are the dimensions of the court, 100 X 65m, and the 4-storey keep, 17 X 15m. The castle is now looked after by English Heritage. The aerial photograph is a view from the south, with the keep in the top-centre, the solar lower down and the barbican to the right.

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Y14. Hornby Castle is 14km west of . Originally a tower house built by the St. Quentin family in the late-14th century, it was largely rebuilt as a courtyard castle in the fifteenth century by the 1st Baron Conyers though he retained the aforementioned tower. It was remodelled again in the 1760s by the York architect, John Carr, by which time the family had acquired the title, Earl of . The 6th Duke of Leeds made the castle his main residence early in the 19th century and another remodelling took place in the 20th century, before the dukedom became extinct. The old principal entrance, an early 16th century, enriched 3-centred arched doorway, was removed and has since been preserved in the Burrell Museum in Glasgow. The castle sits in 18th century parkland designed by a pupil of Capability Brown, which retains some of its original features and numerous ancient trees. Inclusion of this building amongst medieval castles is questionable, because it never seems to have had any defensive function, and medieval remnants are fragmentary. The photograph is a view from the south.

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Y15. John O’ Gaunt’s Castle is a ruined royal hunting lodge, situated on a spur of land projecting north into the valley now occupied by the Beaver Dyke reservoirs, 9½km west of . It is suggested that the lodge may have been created for Haverah Park within the in the late-12th century, but first references are to repairs carried out in 1333; it was acquired by , in 1372. The hunting lodge took the form of a stone tower standing on a square shaped platform surrounded by a moat with a large outer bank, within which were also a chapel, a hall and a queen's chamber. The remains of a gatehouse survive at the southern edge of the platform. The tower no longer stands, but the foundations for it survive as earthworks. Little seems to be known of the lodge after the 14th century, and the ruins are mixed with those of a much later farmstead, as can be seen in the photograph.

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Y16. is located on a promontory to the west of the town, overlooking the to the west. The earliest known reference to a castle at Knaresborough is 1130, however the visible ruins date to the 14th century. Then, King Edward I began a programme of modernisation from which the twin towers of the east gate and fragments of the curtain wall survive. In 1307 his successor King Edward II granted the Honour and Castle of Knaresborough to Piers Gaveston and the great keep known as the King's Tower was built on the site of an earlier tower. In 1372 John of Gaunt acquired the Honour and Castle of Knaresborough and it became part of the estates of the , a status held to the present day. During the , the castle was besieged by the Parliamentarians and surrendered in December 1644, which led to its sleighting. Since the 19th century the castle grounds have remained in public use for leisure and recreation. The schematic shows the general lay-out with inner and outer wards, the keep (the King’s Tower), and the curtain wall. The keep (below left) had plan dimensions 18 X 15m, over walls up to 4m thick; it originally had 4 storeys, the lowest two vaulted, and a high hall as the third. Surrounding the outer ward was the main curtain wall, buttressed at intervals by towers. Little of the wall now survives above ground. Access to the castle was via two gateways, that at the eastern side of the castle, (below right) still has a pair of gatehouse towers standing to much of their original height. The gateways were accessed by bridges spanning the moat. Surrounding the castle on all but the western side, which was protected by the cliffs above the river, was a massive dry moat, up to 30m wide.

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Y17. Markenfield Hall is a medieval fortified house just over 4km south-west of , to the west of the A61. It first appears in records in the Domesday Survey in the late 11th century, but the core of the present hall was built by John de Markenfield between 1310 and 1323. The hall remained in the Markenfield family until the Rebellion of the North in 1569, after which Thomas Markenfield fled abroad and the house was abandoned. Some years later, the estate passed into the hands of the Egertons, Earls of Bridgwater, for whom additions and alterations were made in the years up to 1600, and then to the Grantley family, who made further changes. As can be seen in the aerial view from the south-west, the core of the complex is a central platform of dimensions 60 X 50m with four ranges of buildings, and surrounded by a wide moat. The main hall, shown below, is on the first floor of the north wing, above vaulted rooms; a chapel is located in the east wing, and attached to the west end of the north wing is the great kitchen built in the early 15th century. The southern range is dominated by a 16th century gatehouse with flanking walls linking it to the western and eastern ranges, in the former of which were service buildings. There was once a second, outer moat, and earthworks correspond to additional service buildings and gardens. The house is open to the public on an occasional basis.

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Y18. Marmion Tower is the surviving gatehouse of a fortified house in the village of West Tanfield on the River Ure, 8km north-west of Ripon. Permission to crenelate was granted to the family who had taken the name Marmion in the first half of the 14th century, but the gatehouse is thought to date from the 15th century, when the house had passed to the Fitz-Hughs. Thereafter it had a number of owners, including Queen Elizabeth’s Lord Treasurer, Lord Burghley, whose son demolished all but the gatehouse. The building is of plan dimensions 10.3 X 9.5m; there are 2 storeys with single domestic rooms above the gateway, and it is battlemented. It is now looked after by English Heritage. The view in the photograph is from the south.

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Y19. is in a village of that name, 3km south-east of Leyburn. The first castle here was an 11th century motte built a short distance to the south of the present castle. The building shown in the schematic was begun in the late 12th century, and passed in 1270 to the Nevilles. Ralph, 1st remodelled the castle in the early 15th century, by building ranges inside the curtain walls, which he also strengthened and provided with towers. Its most famous owner and resident was Richard, Duke of Gloucester, later King Richard III, but his death brought its great days to an end. It was uninhabited and partly ruinous for most of the 16th century, and sleighted after the Civil War. It is now in the hands of English Heritage. The enclosure castle is most noteworthy for its massive keep, of plan dimensions 31 X 23.5m with walls 3m thick; the Great Hall is on the 1st floor, with vaulted service rooms below, and private chambers with latrines above. The photograph is taken from the south, and Leyburn can be seen in the background.

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Y20. Mortham Tower is in the Rokeby Estate, on the right bank of the River Tees; it is 4½km south-east of Barnard Castle. The original castle of the Rokebys was destroyed during a Scottish invasion of 1346, and one account suggests that most of the present buildings, including a hall together with service and domestic buildings arrayed round a courtyard, date from shortly after that, though they have been altered over time. The prominent tower was added in the late 15th century. The Rokebys held the property until the mid-17th century when it passed to the Robinsons who, a century later, built and occupied Rokeby Hall, nearby, leaving Mortham Tower to a role as a farmhouse. Eventually the tower became derelict but it was restored to its previous form in the 1930s.The tower is ashlar faced with 4 storeys, of dimensions, 8 X 6m, and has at parapet level. The unusual fact that it was a later addition means that it had storage functions and provided extra accommodation rather that acting as the centre of the complex. In the aerial view from the south-west, the hall is in the north range to the right of the tower, and the gateway and curtain wall lie along the south of the courtyard. The tower is private property which I visited only in a search for a holiday cottage, which a friend was thinking of renting; my own photograph was not very enlightening so I have used one taken for the Northern Echo website.

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Y21. Paull Holme Tower is close to the left (north) bank of the River , 9½km south-east of Hull. The brick-built tower was erected in the 15th century as part of a fortified, moated manor house, by a family called Holmes. The rectangular tower of dimensions 10.7 X 8m had thick walls (1.5m) at the level of the vaulted basement, but they are thinner around the two upper storeys. The building is roofless, and as can be seen from the upper photograph, the parapet was seriously damaged. However, my own photograph taken from the nearest road (the property is private) in April 2018 although rather ruined by intervening twigs, does at least show that a restoration project has renewed the parapet. The paucity of windows on one face may reflect the existence of a hall block abutting the tower, and it has been suggested that there was once a second tower at the other end of this range, but excavation of the site would be required to confirm this, as information about the tower’s past seems to be lacking.

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Y22. is in the town of that name on the A170, 23½km west of Scarborough. The first castle on the site was founded by King William I in 1070, but the stone keep may have been built, along with the New Hall in the early 13th century. The castle became a possession of John of Gaunt in the 14th century, and then a crown property. It seems to have been well- maintained until the 16th century, but was ruinous a century later. It was handed to the Ministry of Works in the 1920s, and is now looked after by English Heritage. As can be seen from the schematic, it was a conventional motte and bailey castle, with remains of a visible on top of the former. The inner ward which is oval, of length 115m, and maximum breadth, 65m, contained halls, a chapel, (now reroofed), and a constable’s tower, and was enclosed by a curtain wall with towers. Remains of another on a hill to the west may date to the 12th century, and be associated with siege operations in c1140. The photograph is a view looking east past Coleman’s Tower towards the motte with its remains of the keep.

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Y23. is situated in the town of that name on an outcrop which commanded the north road and a route west over the Pennines. A timber motte and bailey castle was built in the 11th century, but beginning in the 12th century it was converted into a stone enclosure castle. The castles were built by the family, and remained theirs until the early 14th century, but later in that century the existing castle was given to John of Gaunt, and so became royal when his son usurped the throne as King Henry IV. It featured in the , but decayed in the 16th century. Repaired by King Charles I, it withstood 3 during the Civil War before finally surrendering and being sleighted. The keep is similar to Clifford's Tower in York; its remains are three drum towers, of 3-storeys, and it has an outside diameter of close to 30m. In the 14th and 15th centuries the castle had been strengthened and reorganised. This included the construction of the Swillington and Constable Towers and of the King's and Queen's Towers, built into the north curtain wall; the latter contained royal apartments and were linked by the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century Great Hall which replaced an earlier hall to the west, which became the kitchen. The photograph is of the keep.

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Y24. Ravensworth Castle is in a village of that name, 8km north-west of Scotch Corner, south of the A66. Probably best described as a moated, fortified house it was built in the 14th century of sandstone, by the Fitz-Hugh family, who had owned the estate since the late-12th century, and held it until the early 16th century. Not long after that the castle was described as in a ruined state, and mainly as a result of quarrying thereafter, it was reduced to the present scant remains. The castle originally had a curtain wall and three towers, of which the 3-storey north-west tower, and its gateway are the best preserved features. Of the south-east and south-west towers, there are some remains, and there are traces of detached ranges within the enclosed area, though their functions are unknown. The photograph is a view from the north, with the north-west tower in the foreground and other fragments behind it.

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Y25. is on a high bluff in the North Yorkshire town of Richmond, which is 6km south-west of Scotch Corner. The castle was founded by Alan, Count of Penthievre, in the late 11th century, at which time the curtain wall, and Scotland’s Hall, the building in the right-centre of the aerial photograph taken from the south- west, were built. The keep, towards the top left of the photograph was built a century later by the same family who by then held the Dukedom of . They continued to hold the castle until the late 14th century, though their tenure was punctuated by forfeitures, when they took the French side in the wars with England. Thereafter the castle was a royal possession, but held by many, eventually ending up in the hands of the Lennox family descended from an illegitimate son of King Charles II, who was given the title, Duke of Richmond. The castle was in military use in the 19th century when a barracks, now demolished, was erected, before in the 20th century it was transferred to state guardianship. The enclosure castle was as it appears with the rectangular keep of dimensions 15 X 13.5m and height 30m protected by an exterior barbican, at the north-east apex of the triangular court, facing into the town. Much of the remaining circumference was protected by the steep cliff above the , but towers along the east reach provided additional strength there. The lower photograph is centred on the keep, but shows also the Tower to its right.

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Y26. is located on high ground on the southern edge of Wakefield above the River Calder. It was first mentioned in cl240, as held by the Warennes, earls of Surrey, and it is probable that the stone castle with its shell keep was built during the remainder of the 13th century. Sandal Castle was captured by Thomas, Earl of Lancaster in 1317, but restored to the Warennes until it reverted to royal control in 1347. It passed eventually to Richard, Duke of York who was killed nearby at the in 1460. Richard III made the castle his stronghold in the north, but thereafter it decayed though held by Royalists during the Civil War, before being surrendered and sleighted. From then on it was quarried. The schematic shows the main features; the earthworks comprise a substantial motte, 15m high, and a crescent-shaped inner bailey of dimensions 60m by 25m. The bailey is separated from the motte by a deep ditch which also encircles both elements. A modern causeway gives access to the bailey alongside the surviving medieval stonework of the bridge and gateway. The base of the keep survives along with the foundations, on the south- east of the motte, of two round towers believed to have guarded the between the keep and the barbican. The barbican, whose lower courses are extant, was built on an island of rock in the aforementioned ditch and is flanked by defensive walls. In the bailey are the foundations of service buildings and upstanding fragments of walling from the Great Hall and lodgings chambers. The aerial view looks north-west, past remains of the great hall, and the barbican, to the motte with fragments of the shell keep atop.

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Y27. is on a large lozenge-shaped headland jutting out east from the town into the , separating the North and South Cliffs. The first castle here was built in the 12th century, including the keep and the defences on the east of the inner bailey and King John strengthened it by building a wall with towers along the western perimeter of the inner and outer baileys. In 1312 the castle was the scene of an atrocity when Piers Gaveston surrendered to a group of barons on safe conduct but was swiftly beheaded. The castle had a part in attempts to free Mary, Queen of Scots, and was then held for the King in the Civil War, after which orders were given but not carried out, to sleight it. Soldiers were housed in the refurbished Mosdale Hall, to the right in the schematic, as late as the 19th century, and the castle was damaged by German battlecruisers in the 1st World War; it is now in the care of English Heritage. Entrance to the inner bailey is by way of the 14th century outer barbican, across 2 bridges, once , and then through the 13th century inner barbican, a gatehouse with twin turrets. The keep was square, of side 16m, above walls 3.6m thick and with 3 storeys, and 5 turrets in the double-roof above. The photograph shows the approach to the keep, with the inner barbican on the lower right, and King John’s curtain wall above.

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Y28. Sheriff Hutton is a village 8km north of York, dominated by the ruins of a castle near its centre. In fact the first castle built here is to the east of the prominent survivals, immediately south of the Church of St. Helen and the Holy Cross, where remains of a now tree-covered motte can still be seen, as shown in the top photograph. This is what remains of a motte and bailey castle, thought to have been founded in 1140, and acquired by the Neville family in 1176 by marriage. Presumably this castle was not used after the late 14th century when the edifice in the centre of the village was built. The Yorkist kings held the castle after the death of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick in 1471, and it then passed through a number of hands, but it was soon in decay, and was a ruin by the 17th century. As built, there were the 4 towers seen in the schematic, all but that to the east being of plan dimensions 16 X 10m over walls 2.2m thick, with either 4 or 5 storeys. Between there were curtain walls and domestic ranges but nothing much survives of them, and the gateway was attached to the smaller east tower. An outer court occupied the area which now houses the farm buildings which can be seen to the north-east of the standing remains. The view from the south, gives an impression of how impressive the 25m high ruins appear to anyone arriving in the village from that direction.

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Y29. Sigston Castle is near a farmstead on a minor road, 400m north of Kirby Sigston church, and 4½ km east of Northallerton. It is thought to have been a 14th century enclosure castle built by the family for which it was named, but it changed hands thereafter, and was abandoned as early as 1503. Over the years the walls of the castle have been quarried, but the moat which surrounded it survives as an open ditch and, in places, the foundations of the curtain walls and central keep are visible as earthworks, especially from the air. The castle had a trapezoidal plan, with the moated island measuring 140 X 110m. Parts of the curtain survive as a 1.5m high, and 4m wide bank containing fragments of building stone. The keep was a rectangular tower measuring 30 X 25m at its base; less clearly defined earthworks to the south of the keep mark the location of ancillary structures within the castle. The photograph shows a section of the moat and banked platform; not a castle worth journeying far to see.

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Y30. is west of the village of that name, 12km south of Bridlington, close to the North Sea coast. It was founded by Drogo de Beavriere in c1086, and Holderness was ruled from there, until the early 13th century. However, an unsuccessful revolt then against King Henry II led to its sleighting, and as a mainly wooden castle, never rebuilt in stone, it is unsurprising that remains are scanty. The English Heritage artist’s impression may depict the appearance in the 11/12th centuries; the amount of water shown seems appropriate because the motte and bailey castle did guard a harbour in the mere. The appearance now is completely different with the mere drained, and only the rounded hill shown in the lower photograph a reminder of the eminence which once hosted a castle motte.

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Y31. is north of the centre of the town of its name. The castle is first mentioned in 1130, but the first stone version dates from the early 13th century. It had a number of owners and spells in royal hands before it passed to the Clifford family with whom it is most associated, in 1310. The 9th Lord Clifford, ‘the Butcher’, a soubriquet justified by many of his actions, lost the castle and his life in 1461, but the family regained the castle in 1485. After a long siege the castle was surrendered to the parliamentarians in 1645, but Lady Anne Clifford was allowed to repair it as a residence, under conditions which rendered it less defensible. She was the last of her line, but since her death, the castle has survived in good order; a private residence now occupies the long gallery shown in the schematic. Much of the castle is open to the public. The seemingly inadequate wall round the outer ward, with its gatehouse, date from the late 15th century. The compact inner ward is known as the Conduit Court because there is a cistern below it, and features 5 drum towers dating from the early 13th century, though the upper parts of some were rebuilt in the 17th century; the two to the west, flank the gateway. The great hall, kitchen, and domestic rooms occupy the north range of the inner ward and were built in the decades around 1500. The long gallery dates largely to the 17th century, with later modifications, though it has older elements including the tower at its east end. Photographs do little justice to the castle because they so not show it as an entity; the one included, looks east, and shows the south and south-east drum towers and part of the long gallery.

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Y32. Slingsby Castle is in a village of that name which is 10km north-west of Malton, on the B1257. It probably appears here under false pretences, because although there was a large house here in the early 13th century, which was fortified in the mid- 14th century, the high ruins which survive are mainly from its replacement, a 17th century mansion. Building of this house was begun by a member of the Cavendish family who acquired the dukedom of Newcastle during the reign of King Charles II, but it is thought that the house was never completed. It was near-rectangular in plan, with stair turrets at each corner, and very high rooms so that there are only 2 storeys above basements, rather than 3 or 4 as is suggested by the overall height of the building. Some of the lower walls may be medieval survivals of the earlier building, and remnants of a moat may also be of early date. As already implied, it is unlikely that the house was ever occupied, and it was in ruins by the mid-18th century. Though visible from the nearby road to the east, the house is on an ‘at-risk’ register, and access is forbidden because of the danger from fallen masonry.

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Y33. Snape Castle is in a village of that name which is 15km south-west of Northallerton. In c1250, a manor house, probably a wooden structure, was built in Snape, and later that century it passed by marriage to the Neville family. The present castle was built nearby between 1426 and 1450 as a stone manor house, embattled and probably moated, but not a strong fortress. The surviving parts of this building are the ground floor of the Great Hall, and the chapel. Catherine Parr was married to John Neville, the 3rd Lord Latimer and resided at Snape for some years before Neville died and she married King Henry VIII. The castle passed by marriage to Thomas Cecil, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth’s chief minister, and he transformed the lightly fortified house into an Elizabethan sham castle, with crenelated battlements and a romantic Gothic exterior. Though it had often been unoccupied, the Cecils retained the castle until 1798, when they sold it to a family called Milbanks who restored parts of it during the 19th century. The house as reconstructed in the 16th century had 4 ranges set round a court, with towers at each corner standing 4 storeys high; the much restored chapel, which dates to the 16th century adjoins the south-east tower. The south range, viewed in the upper photograph from the south-east, is the only one to fully survive and it originally contained state rooms at first floor level; it is now divided into two houses which are still occupied. Some of the ruins of the other ranges which lie north of the south range are shown in the lower photograph.

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Y34. is in the village of that name which is 8km south-east of Harrogate. The first house here was built in the 11th century by William de Percy. The building, visible now, dates to the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries as indicated in the schematic, and was the west range of a fortified manor house. Spofforth ceased to be the principle seat of the Percy family after they purchased the Alnwick estate in Northumberland in the early 14th century. However, the castle changed hands regularly as the fortunes of the family rose and fell through the 15th and 16th centuries. It fell into serious decay in the early 17th century, and it was sleighted after the Civil War. Apart from the extant west range masonry fragments and ‘cropmarks’ show that there were other ranges round a quadrangle, to the east, but there is no trace of a curtain wall or gatehouse. The photograph is taken from the south-east and shows the curious way in which the surviving range was set into an outcrop.

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Y35. Thorne Castle, usually known as ‘Peel Hill’, is 50m north of the parish church in the small town of Thorne, which is 12km north-east of Doncaster. The motte and bailey castle was founded by the de Warennes, presumably not long after the , but buried stone remains probably date from some time later. Proximity to the hunting grounds in Hatfield Chase may explain the location. The motte is circular, 7m high, 16.8m in diameter at the base. The motte ditch survives but is partly filled in on the south. The stone tower on the motte had walls c1.3m thick, made of rounded stones and cement, and appears to have had three large buttresses or outworks pointing north-east, west and south-east. The tower remained standing into the 16th century as Leyland referred to its use as a prison. Early-17th century documentary references suggest that important medieval buildings stood south of the motte, namely the "Kings Chamber" and the "Chamber over the outward gate"; this implies the existence of a bailey south of the motte. The aerial photograph of what is now a public space looks northwards.

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Y36. is on the south side of the village of that name, which is 11km south of Doncaster. By the end of the 11th century, a Roger de Busli had built a motte and bailey castle on Tica’s Hill, which was to give its name to a new settlement. When his kinsman and heir, the Earl of Shrewsbury revolted against King Henry I in 1102, the castle passed into royal hands. In the years following, the king added a gatehouse and a stone curtain wall with ramparts; the surrounding ditch was filled with water to the south and west, and the north and east side were protected by a bank on the outer slope of the ditch. After the ‘Anarchy’, King Henry II built a new keep, 17.4m in diameter over walls, 3.2m thick, an eleven-sided tower on a circular plinth supported by pilaster buttresses, together with a stone access bridge and a new curtain wall. The castle had a succession of owners during the next two centuries, while reverting regularly to royal hands, but in 1368 it was given to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and it has remained a possession of the duchy since then. By 1538 Tickhill Castle was in a state of decay, and repairs were set in train. In the Civil War the castle was held for the King, but surrendered easily after the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644, and was sleighted in the aftermath. After the Civil War, a three-storey hall was built within the Castle courtyard, possibly on the site of medieval domestic buildings and incorporating medieval remains, including those of a chapel and Norman walls, (lower right on the schematic). The house is still a private dwelling, and the site is opened to the public for half-a-day a year only. The photograph shows the motte which is in part a rocky outcrop, and part artificial.

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Y37. is just north-east of the village of , overlooking the A172, 7km north-east of Northallerton. Earthworks may relate to a motte and bailey castle built here as early as the late-11th century, but the masonry remains are of a 14th century castle. The castle came into the possession of the crown in the early 16th century, by which time much of it may have been ruinous. There were inner and outer wards, the former to the west, separated now by Whorlton Lane. The main surviving building is a gatehouse to the east of the outer ward and shown in the upper photograph, of plan dimensions 17.6 X 10m above walls c2m thick with 2 floors above the gateway itself; it dates from the 14th century but was altered 2 centuries later. The other masonry, in the north corner of the inner ward and shown in the lower photograph is fragmentary, comprising cellars belonging to the 14th century tower house, which seems to have stood reasonably intact until the 18th century, when it was quarried.

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Y38. is near the left bank of the River Derwent, 9km east of Selby. It is thought to date to the 1390s, and to have been erected by Thomas Percy, Earl of Worcester. He lost his head after a revolt against the usurper, King Henry IV, in 1403, but the castle was eventually restored to the family in 1469. It remained more or less in their possession as a succession of Earls of Northumberland met violent ends thereafter, and although the main title became extinct in 1670, a junior branch of the family retained the castle into the 19th century. However, in 1650, after it had been occupied during the Civil War without a struggle by Parliamentary forces, what had been a quadrangular courtyard castle with 4 ranges was reduced to the single south range which can be seen now, and even it was vacated after a fire in 1796. As built, the castle was moated and embattled, but with outer walls 1.2m thick and large windows at low level it was never a fortress. The 4 ranges of 2 storeys enclosed a courtyard 25m square, with higher corner towers, which were either square or rectangular. In the eastern range the central gateway was set between higher 5-storey towers; the main hall was on the 1st floor of the west range. Although in private property, it can be viewed from the south, where an information board has been mounted beside a nearby road; the upper aerial photograph was taken from that board, while the lower one is my own, taken from there.

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Y39. York Castles were built by King William I, when he came north in 1068, one on each bank of the River Ouse, south of the centre of the town. They were wooden structures, in motte and bailey configuration, and in 1070 a Danish force captured and destroyed both of them, but the king had them rebuilt, still of wood. That on the east bank was rebuilt in the 13th century, when Clifford’s Tower appeared, along with a bailey surrounded by a curtain wall, two , and flanking towers, and containing domestic buildings including two halls, and a chapel. The tower, shown in the photograph, comprised 4 interlocking lobes forming a quatrefoil of diameter, 21m above walls 2.5m thick, and originally had 3 storeys with a wall-walk above. The castle on the west bank, usually called the Old Baile, was never as strong as its partner, and ceased to be maintained as a fortress in the 14th century, though stone buildings on the motte, may have been used by connections of the Archbishop of York for some time thereafter. Gradually it was incorporated in the town defences and now the motte appears as a high bank adjacent to part of the wall. The east bank castle did not prosper either, not least because of subsidence due to the proximity of the Rivers Ouse and Foss, and in c1600 Clifford’s Tower as it was by then known because it had been owned by that family, had its roof removed preparatory to demolition. This was stopped, and a few decades later, the castle was re-roofed and held for the royalists during the Civil War; after a siege and its surrender it was not sleighted, but held a garrison till an explosion in 1684 once again did away with the roof, leaving it as the monument it is now. The buildings in the bailey were refurbished or rebuilt to serve different functions, such as accommodating law courts, and now form a museum precinct.

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