Whorlton Castle
Encyclopedia
Whorlton Castle is a ruined medieval castle situated near the abandoned village of Whorlton
in North Yorkshire
, England. It was built in the early 12th century as a Norman
motte-and-bailey
associated with the nearby settlement. The castle is an unusual example of a motte and bailey that remained in use throughout the Middle Ages
and into the early modern period. Built to overlook an important road on the western edge of the North York Moors
, the castle fell into ruin as early as the mid-14th century. The site nonetheless continued to be inhabited until at least the early 17th century. Little now remains of the castle itself, other than the remnants of some cellars or undercrofts. The ruined shell of a 14th-century gatehouse still survives, albeit in fairly poor condition. It is a listed building and is privately owned but can be visited by the public.
and Swainby
, overlooking a small valley through which the road between Thirsk
and Stokesley
runs. In the 13th century it was referred to variously as Hwernelton or Potto Castle (the village of Potto
is part of the same parish). At the time of the Domesday Book
, Whorlton was recorded as belonging to Robert, Count of Mortain
, the half-brother of William the Conqueror. It subsequently passed to the de Meynell family, who founded the castle.
It is unclear when exactly the castle was built, but in its first phase it would have consisted of a wooden fortress on a roughly square motte measuring some 60 metres (196.9 ft) by 50 metres (164 ft). The motte was surrounded by a dry ditch up to 20 metres (65.6 ft) wide by 5 metres (16.4 ft) deep, with an outer bank standing up to 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) high. Most of the ditch is still extant but its southeast quadrant has been obliterated by a modern road. It would have adjoined a fortified enclosure that included the village and church.
The castle fell into disrepair or was dismantled during the first part of the 14th century; an account of 1343 describes it as being a ruin. In the mid-14th century it passed by marriage to John, Lord Darcy of Knaith, who had close associations with the royal court. Darcy carried out substantial changes to the castle and levelled the motte to provide a base for a new keep with a fortified gatehouse built a short distance to the east. It is not clear whether there was a curtain wall – there is no evidence of one on the groud – but the castle would have been extremely hard to defend without one. The lack of evidence of a curtain wall may simply be the result of centuries of stone-robbing.
Whorlton Castle remained in the hands of the Darcys until 1418, when the death of Philip Darcy resulted in Whorlton being inherited by his daughter Elizabeth, who was married to Sir James Strangways. The Strangways held on to the castle until a dispute between heirs in 1541 led to it becoming a possession of the Crown. King Henry VII
granted the castle and estate to Matthew, Earl of Lennox, whose eldest son was Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley
. The Countess of Lennox wrote to Mary, Queen of Scots in the autum of 1561, possibly from Whorlton Castle, to propose a marriage between Mary and Darnley. Although local tradition claims that the castle was where their marriage contract was signed in 1565, this is erroneous; the contract was actually signed at Stirling.
The castle eventually returned to the possession of the Crown but fell into disrepair and by 1600 the building was described as "old and ruinous". At some point in the late 16th or early 17th century, a house was built by the Lennox family adjoining the northwest end of the gatehouse and then-substantial ruins of the castle keep. The house was sketched in 1725 by Samuel Buck and is depicted as a large two-storied building with gabled dormer windows set into a steeply pitched roof. No trace of the house's structure now remains, though its roofline is still visible on the north side of the gatehouse.
The manor was given to Edward Bruce (later Lord Bruce of Kinloss) in 1603 and the title of Lord Bruce of Whorlton was bestowed on his younger son Thomas in 1641. Thomas's son Robert became the first Earl of Ailesbury in 1664. By the early 19th century the ruins of the castle's keep had largely disappeared, as depicted in a lithograph made at this time. In 1875 a large quantity of the castle's stonework was removed to build Swainby's village church. The Ailesbury family retained the castle and manor until the late 19th century, when they were sold to James Emerson of Easby Hall.
The castle is currently privately owned, having been bought by Osbert Peake, 1st Viscount Ingleby
in the mid-20th century as part of a shooting estate. It acquired listed status in 1928 and is a Grade I listed site. The gatehouse received structural repairs from the Ministry of Works
in the 1960s but has otherwise largely been left open to the elements.
ashlar
and built on a rectangular plan with a length and breadth of 17.68 m (58 ft) by 10 m (32.8 ft). The height of the surviving walls varies between 8.5 m (27.9 ft) to about 6 m (19.7 ft) The walls vary in thickness between 2.3 m (7.5 ft) to 1.73 m (5.7 ft). None of the interior walls or floors have survived.
Two large segment-arched entrances are present on either side of the gatehouse, flanked by cross-windows. Each entrance is approximately 3 m (9.8 ft) wide by 3.3 m (10.8 ft) high. Above the east (main) entrance is a row of three carved shields in cusped panels. The shields present the arms of Darcy (centre) flanked by Meynell (right) and Gray (left), the latter reflecting the marriage of Philip Darcy to Elizabeth Gray in the late 14th century. Above the shields is a further single shield that shows the arms of Darcy and Meynell impaled, reflecting the original marriage that united the families and brought the castle into the hands of the Darcys. The entrances would originally have been blocked by portcullis
es made of wood or metal that could be raised or lowered by winches set into the gatehouse walls. The grooves for the portcullises are still visible today.
Those passing through the entrances would have crossed through a vaulted central passage, of which some elements can still be seen. On either side were a number of large rooms with smaller mural chambers (small rooms set within the walls) – probably guardrooms – and a great hall would have occupied the entire top floor. The remains of fireplaces are still visible on the ground and first floors. A vice or spiral staircase enclosed by a tower projecting out from the northwest wall gave access to the upper floors. It could not be accessed from within the ground floor of the gatehouse but was accessed from a round-headed doorway set into the north-west wall. The staircase can still be followed up to the remnants of the first floor, though the actual flooring is no longer present. On the outside of the gatehouse's north-west wall, the roofline of a now-vanished building can still be seen.
The castle's keep itself was situated approximately 22 metres (72.2 ft) further west at the other end of the bailey. The only elements of it now remaining are fragments of vaulted cellars or undercrofts, the largest of which measures some 9 metres (29.5 ft) by 4 metres (13.1 ft). They are thought to be of Norman origin and as such may represent the oldest extant remains on the site. It was recorded in the mid-19th century that the local farmer used the castle cellars as pig sties. The cellars are now overgrown and partly infilled with debris.
A large area of the surrounding landscape is also associated with the castle. Much of the land was cultivated during the Middle Ages and traces of ploughing are still visible. The area immediately adjoining the castle was landscaped during the late medieval period, when ornamental gardens were built in two rectangular enclosures a short way to the east of the bailey. Each was some 40 metres (131.2 ft) by 20 metres (65.6 ft) and was surrounded by earthen banks about 1 metres (3.3 ft) high. To the east of the gardens was an extended rectangular pond 190 metres (623.4 ft) long, 20 metres (65.6 ft) wide and up to 3 metres (9.8 ft) deep. It has been suggested that it might have been a fish pond, but its size makes this possibility an uncertain one. A deer park was laid out to the south of the castle where, it is said, Edward II
once hunted. The landscape and the site of the deserted village of Whorlton are included with the castle as part of a scheduled ancient monument.
's Heritage at Risk
register. The building has repeatedly been vandalised and is suffering the effects of the weather. The site is within the boundaries of the North York Moors National Park, and the National Park Authority, English Heritage and the site owner have collaborated to develop a plan to conserve the site. A report produced for the park authority in 2005 examined several options, including retaining the building as ruins but improving security by employing a custodian, converting the gatehouse into a liveable property for use as a house or holiday home, or establishing a local community group to help manage and maintain the site. The option of converting the gatehouse was recommended. The report concluded that "retention of the status quo is not felt to be an acceptable option, due to continuing damage through vandalism to the historic fabric and archaeology, together with the impaired public enjoyment and the uneconomic nature of future repairs and maintenance to the site." English Heritage part-funded a feasibility study to assess the prospects of turning the gatehouse into a home.
Whorlton, North Yorkshire
Whorlton is a hamlet and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. It is very near Swainby and the A19, and 6 miles south west of Stokesley. Features include the remains of Whorlton Castle and the Church of the Holy Rood....
in North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county primarily in that region but partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest...
, England. It was built in the early 12th century as a Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
motte-and-bailey
Motte-and-bailey
A motte-and-bailey is a form of castle, with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised earthwork called a motte, accompanied by an enclosed courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade...
associated with the nearby settlement. The castle is an unusual example of a motte and bailey that remained in use throughout the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
and into the early modern period. Built to overlook an important road on the western edge of the North York Moors
North York Moors
The North York Moors is a national park in North Yorkshire, England. The moors are one of the largest expanses of heather moorland in the United Kingdom. It covers an area of , and it has a population of about 25,000...
, the castle fell into ruin as early as the mid-14th century. The site nonetheless continued to be inhabited until at least the early 17th century. Little now remains of the castle itself, other than the remnants of some cellars or undercrofts. The ruined shell of a 14th-century gatehouse still survives, albeit in fairly poor condition. It is a listed building and is privately owned but can be visited by the public.
History
The castle was established in the early 12th century at the edge of Castle Bank, a ridge between the villages of FacebyFaceby
Faceby is a small village and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. It is in the North Yorkshire Moors and near Stokesley. It has one pub called The Sutton Arms and buses which run to nearby Northallerton and Stokesley 3 or 4 times a day. It also has a Village Hall and...
and Swainby
Swainby
Swainby is a village in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. It is 8 miles north east of Northallerton on the A172. The small market town of Stokesley is only 5 miles away....
, overlooking a small valley through which the road between Thirsk
Thirsk
Thirsk is a small market town and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. The local travel links are located a mile from the town centre to Thirsk railway station and to Durham Tees Valley Airport...
and Stokesley
Stokesley
Stokesley is a small market town and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Leven. Stokesley is located about two miles south of the boundary of the borough of Middlesbrough and ten miles south of Middlesbrough town centre. Stokesley is located...
runs. In the 13th century it was referred to variously as Hwernelton or Potto Castle (the village of Potto
Potto, North Yorkshire
Potto is a village and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. It is 5 miles southwest of Stokesley and near the main A172 road.-History:...
is part of the same parish). At the time of the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
, Whorlton was recorded as belonging to Robert, Count of Mortain
Robert, Count of Mortain
Robert, Count of Mortain, 1st Earl of Cornwall was a Norman nobleman and the half-brother of William I of England. Robert was the son of Herluin de Conteville and Herleva of Falaise and was full brother to Odo of Bayeux. The exact year of Robert's birth is unknown Robert, Count of Mortain, 1st...
, the half-brother of William the Conqueror. It subsequently passed to the de Meynell family, who founded the castle.
It is unclear when exactly the castle was built, but in its first phase it would have consisted of a wooden fortress on a roughly square motte measuring some 60 metres (196.9 ft) by 50 metres (164 ft). The motte was surrounded by a dry ditch up to 20 metres (65.6 ft) wide by 5 metres (16.4 ft) deep, with an outer bank standing up to 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) high. Most of the ditch is still extant but its southeast quadrant has been obliterated by a modern road. It would have adjoined a fortified enclosure that included the village and church.
The castle fell into disrepair or was dismantled during the first part of the 14th century; an account of 1343 describes it as being a ruin. In the mid-14th century it passed by marriage to John, Lord Darcy of Knaith, who had close associations with the royal court. Darcy carried out substantial changes to the castle and levelled the motte to provide a base for a new keep with a fortified gatehouse built a short distance to the east. It is not clear whether there was a curtain wall – there is no evidence of one on the groud – but the castle would have been extremely hard to defend without one. The lack of evidence of a curtain wall may simply be the result of centuries of stone-robbing.
Whorlton Castle remained in the hands of the Darcys until 1418, when the death of Philip Darcy resulted in Whorlton being inherited by his daughter Elizabeth, who was married to Sir James Strangways. The Strangways held on to the castle until a dispute between heirs in 1541 led to it becoming a possession of the Crown. King Henry VII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
granted the castle and estate to Matthew, Earl of Lennox, whose eldest son was Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley
Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley
Henry Stewart or Stuart, 1st Duke of Albany , styled Lord Darnley before 1565, was king consort of Scotland and murdered at Kirk o'Field...
. The Countess of Lennox wrote to Mary, Queen of Scots in the autum of 1561, possibly from Whorlton Castle, to propose a marriage between Mary and Darnley. Although local tradition claims that the castle was where their marriage contract was signed in 1565, this is erroneous; the contract was actually signed at Stirling.
The castle eventually returned to the possession of the Crown but fell into disrepair and by 1600 the building was described as "old and ruinous". At some point in the late 16th or early 17th century, a house was built by the Lennox family adjoining the northwest end of the gatehouse and then-substantial ruins of the castle keep. The house was sketched in 1725 by Samuel Buck and is depicted as a large two-storied building with gabled dormer windows set into a steeply pitched roof. No trace of the house's structure now remains, though its roofline is still visible on the north side of the gatehouse.
The manor was given to Edward Bruce (later Lord Bruce of Kinloss) in 1603 and the title of Lord Bruce of Whorlton was bestowed on his younger son Thomas in 1641. Thomas's son Robert became the first Earl of Ailesbury in 1664. By the early 19th century the ruins of the castle's keep had largely disappeared, as depicted in a lithograph made at this time. In 1875 a large quantity of the castle's stonework was removed to build Swainby's village church. The Ailesbury family retained the castle and manor until the late 19th century, when they were sold to James Emerson of Easby Hall.
The castle is currently privately owned, having been bought by Osbert Peake, 1st Viscount Ingleby
Osbert Peake, 1st Viscount Ingleby
Osbert Peake, 1st Viscount Ingleby PC was a British Conservative Party politician. He served as Minister of National Insurance and then as Minister of Pensions and National Insurance from 1951 to 1955....
in the mid-20th century as part of a shooting estate. It acquired listed status in 1928 and is a Grade I listed site. The gatehouse received structural repairs from the Ministry of Works
Ministry of Works
The Ministry of Works was a department of the UK Government formed in 1943, during World War II, to organise the requisitioning of property for wartime use. After the war, the Ministry retained responsibility for Government building projects....
in the 1960s but has otherwise largely been left open to the elements.
Description of buildings and surroundings
The mid-14th century gatehouse is the main surviving relic of Whorlton Castle. It is now a roofless and floorless shell, three storeys high, constructed from sandstoneSandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
ashlar
Ashlar
Ashlar is prepared stone work of any type of stone. Masonry using such stones laid in parallel courses is known as ashlar masonry, whereas masonry using irregularly shaped stones is known as rubble masonry. Ashlar blocks are rectangular cuboid blocks that are masonry sculpted to have square edges...
and built on a rectangular plan with a length and breadth of 17.68 m (58 ft) by 10 m (32.8 ft). The height of the surviving walls varies between 8.5 m (27.9 ft) to about 6 m (19.7 ft) The walls vary in thickness between 2.3 m (7.5 ft) to 1.73 m (5.7 ft). None of the interior walls or floors have survived.
Two large segment-arched entrances are present on either side of the gatehouse, flanked by cross-windows. Each entrance is approximately 3 m (9.8 ft) wide by 3.3 m (10.8 ft) high. Above the east (main) entrance is a row of three carved shields in cusped panels. The shields present the arms of Darcy (centre) flanked by Meynell (right) and Gray (left), the latter reflecting the marriage of Philip Darcy to Elizabeth Gray in the late 14th century. Above the shields is a further single shield that shows the arms of Darcy and Meynell impaled, reflecting the original marriage that united the families and brought the castle into the hands of the Darcys. The entrances would originally have been blocked by portcullis
Portcullis
A portcullis is a latticed grille made of wood, metal, fibreglass or a combination of the three. Portcullises fortified the entrances to many medieval castles, acting as a last line of defence during time of attack or siege...
es made of wood or metal that could be raised or lowered by winches set into the gatehouse walls. The grooves for the portcullises are still visible today.
Those passing through the entrances would have crossed through a vaulted central passage, of which some elements can still be seen. On either side were a number of large rooms with smaller mural chambers (small rooms set within the walls) – probably guardrooms – and a great hall would have occupied the entire top floor. The remains of fireplaces are still visible on the ground and first floors. A vice or spiral staircase enclosed by a tower projecting out from the northwest wall gave access to the upper floors. It could not be accessed from within the ground floor of the gatehouse but was accessed from a round-headed doorway set into the north-west wall. The staircase can still be followed up to the remnants of the first floor, though the actual flooring is no longer present. On the outside of the gatehouse's north-west wall, the roofline of a now-vanished building can still be seen.
The castle's keep itself was situated approximately 22 metres (72.2 ft) further west at the other end of the bailey. The only elements of it now remaining are fragments of vaulted cellars or undercrofts, the largest of which measures some 9 metres (29.5 ft) by 4 metres (13.1 ft). They are thought to be of Norman origin and as such may represent the oldest extant remains on the site. It was recorded in the mid-19th century that the local farmer used the castle cellars as pig sties. The cellars are now overgrown and partly infilled with debris.
A large area of the surrounding landscape is also associated with the castle. Much of the land was cultivated during the Middle Ages and traces of ploughing are still visible. The area immediately adjoining the castle was landscaped during the late medieval period, when ornamental gardens were built in two rectangular enclosures a short way to the east of the bailey. Each was some 40 metres (131.2 ft) by 20 metres (65.6 ft) and was surrounded by earthen banks about 1 metres (3.3 ft) high. To the east of the gardens was an extended rectangular pond 190 metres (623.4 ft) long, 20 metres (65.6 ft) wide and up to 3 metres (9.8 ft) deep. It has been suggested that it might have been a fish pond, but its size makes this possibility an uncertain one. A deer park was laid out to the south of the castle where, it is said, Edward II
Edward II of England
Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...
once hunted. The landscape and the site of the deserted village of Whorlton are included with the castle as part of a scheduled ancient monument.
Conservation plans
The castle gatehouse is in poor condition and has been added to English HeritageEnglish Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
's Heritage at Risk
Heritage at Risk
Heritage at Risk is a collective term applied to 'designated' heritage assets that are at risk as a result of neglect, decay or inappropriate development, or are vulnerable to becoming so.In England, an annual Heritage at Risk Register is published by English Heritage...
register. The building has repeatedly been vandalised and is suffering the effects of the weather. The site is within the boundaries of the North York Moors National Park, and the National Park Authority, English Heritage and the site owner have collaborated to develop a plan to conserve the site. A report produced for the park authority in 2005 examined several options, including retaining the building as ruins but improving security by employing a custodian, converting the gatehouse into a liveable property for use as a house or holiday home, or establishing a local community group to help manage and maintain the site. The option of converting the gatehouse was recommended. The report concluded that "retention of the status quo is not felt to be an acceptable option, due to continuing damage through vandalism to the historic fabric and archaeology, together with the impaired public enjoyment and the uneconomic nature of future repairs and maintenance to the site." English Heritage part-funded a feasibility study to assess the prospects of turning the gatehouse into a home.