Middleham Castle
History
Middleham Castle was home to some of the most powerful lords of the 15th century, including Salisbury, Warwick and Richard, Duke of Gloucester who went on to become King Richard III
Originally built by Alan Rufus, also know as Alan the Red to protect the road between Richmond and Skipton. The originally castle was built as a wooden motte-and-bailey castle on Williams Hill to the south west of the present castles location. The building of the present castle was started in 1170 by Robert Fitzrandolph when he built a massive stone keep. This keep had twelve foot thick walls and three floors making it one of the largest in England at the time. At each end of the keep's vaulted basement there were two wells (these are still visible today).
The thirteenth century saw the building of curtain walls which formed an enclosure of 250 feet on each side of the keep. And in the fourteenth and fifteenth century the stables, stores and garrison buildings were built within these walls. The original entrance was through a gatehouse on the East side of the castle across a wooden bridge (possibly having a drawbridge over the now dry moat). The huge wooden gates would have presented an awesome sight! The current entrance is through the Northern gatehouse, known as the 'Neville Gate'.
In 1485 Henry VII became king, and Middleham Castle became his but under Tudor rule the castle fell into disrepair, but in 1604 James I granted the castle to Sir Henry Linley, who made some repairs and lived there until his death in 1610. Sir Henry left the castle to his daughter Jane Linley who married Edward, 2nd Viscount Loftus and they both occupied it until 1644.
During the Civil War it was to be used as a prison and in 1646 Parliament ordered the east range wall be destroyed along with most of the wall-walks, thus leaving the castle the shell it is today, most of the stone was used to build houses around Middleham.
Today English Heritage, run the castle and have opened it to the public.
