Barnard Castle (grid reference NZ04911641 ) is a ruined medieval castle situated in the town of the same name in County Durham, England.
Barnard Castle (grid reference NZ04911641 ) is a ruined medieval castle situated in the town of the same name in County Durham, England.
A stone castle was built on the site of an earlier defended position from around 1095 to 1125 by Guy de Balliol. Between 1125 and 1185 his nephew Bernard de Balliol and his son Bernard II extended the building. [2]
In 1216 the castle was besieged by Alexander II, King of Scotland. It was still held by the Balliol family although its ownership was disputed by the Bishops of Durham. When John Balliol was deposed as King of Scotland in 1296 the castle was passed to the Bishop of Durham. Around 1300 Edward I granted it to the Earl of Warwick. [3] In the 15th century the castle passed by marriage to the Neville family. [4] In 1477 during the Wars of the Roses, Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) took possession of the castle, which became one of his favourite residences. [5]
Over the next two centuries the Nevilles enlarged and improved the estate and created a substantial and impressive castle. During the Rising of the North (1569) Sir George Bowes shut himself up in the castle, where he was besieged. Following the failure of the revolt, Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland was attainted for his leading role in the Rising of the North and the Neville estates were sequestered. In 1626 the Crown sold the castle and also the Neville property at Raby Castle to Sir Henry Vane.[ citation needed ]
Vane decided to make Raby his principal residence and Barnard Castle was abandoned and its contents and much of its masonry was removed for the maintenance and improvement of Raby. [6]
The castle is in the custody of English Heritage and is open to the public. Of particular interest are the ruins of the 12th-century cylindrical tower and the 14th-century Great hall and Great chamber. [7] It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, [8] and was designated as a Grade I listed building in 1950. [9] The remains of the medieval chapel of St Margaret in the outer ward are listed as Grade II. [10] [11]
"Barney Castle" is a phrase in the dialect of County Durham meaning "a pathetic excuse", generally thought to derive from the incident when Bowes retreated into the castle. Eric Partridge included the phrase in A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (1937). [12]
Barnard Castle is a market town in Teesdale, County Durham, England. It is named after the castle around which it was built. It is the main settlement in the Teesdale area, and a popular tourist destination. The Bowes Museum's most famous exhibit is the 18th-century Silver Swan automaton, and its artworks include paintings by Goya and El Greco.
Eric Honeywood Partridge was a New Zealand–British lexicographer of the English language, particularly of its slang. His writing career was interrupted only by his service in the Army Education Corps and the RAF correspondence department during World War II.
County Durham is a historic county in North East England. The county town is the city of Durham. The ceremonial county spawned from the historic County Palatine of Durham in 1853. The largest settlement is Darlington, followed by Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees. The county borders are shared with multiple counties: Northumberland as well as Tyne and Wear to the north, North Yorkshire to the south and Cumbria to the west.
Baron Barnard, of Barnard Castle in the Bishopric of Durham, is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1698 for Christopher Vane, who had previously served as a member of parliament for County Durham and Boroughbridge. Vane was the son of Sir Henry Vane the Younger and grandson of Sir Henry Vane the Elder. His grandson, the third Baron, notably served as Paymaster of the Forces and as Lord Lieutenant of County Durham. In 1754 he was created Viscount Barnard and Earl of Darlington, both in the County Palatine of Durham. Lord Darlington was the husband of Lady Grace FitzRoy, daughter of Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Cleveland, the illegitimate son of King Charles II by his mistress Barbara Villiers, 1st Duchess of Cleveland.
Raby Castle is a medieval castle located near Staindrop in County Durham, England, among 200 acres (810,000 m2) of deer park. It was built by John Neville, 3rd Baron Neville de Raby, between approximately 1367 and 1390. Cecily Neville, the mother of the Kings Edward IV and Richard III, was born here. After Charles Neville, 6th Earl of Westmorland, led the failed Rising of the North in favour of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1569 Raby Castle was taken into royal custody. Sir Henry Vane the Elder purchased Raby Castle in 1626 and neighbouring Barnard Castle from the Crown, and the Earls of Darlington and Dukes of Cleveland added a Gothic-style entrance hall and octagonal drawing room. From 1833 to 1891 they were the Dukes of Cleveland and they retain the title of Lord Barnard. Extensive alterations were carried out in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is famed for both its size and its art, including works by old masters and portraits. After 1733 it was frequented from his young age of eleven by the poet Christopher Smart, who eloped briefly at the age of thirteen with Anne Vane, daughter of Henry Vane, who succeeded to the Barnard title. It is a Grade I listed building and open to the public on a seasonal basis.
Butterknowle is a village in Teesdale, County Durham, England. Butterknowle is situated between the market towns of Bishop Auckland and Barnard Castle. It has an attractive rural setting within the Gaunless Valley, overlooked by the gorse-covered Cockfield Fell. The fell itself is a scheduled ancient monument, containing evidence of Roman settlements and a medieval coal mine (Vavasours), thought to be the earliest inland colliery recorded.
Staindrop is a large village and civil parish in County Durham, England. It is situated approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) north east of Barnard Castle, on the A688 road. According to the 2011 UK Census the population was 1,310, this includes the hamlets of Cleatlam and Killerby.
Bishop Auckland is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Dehenna Davison, a Conservative.
The Rising of the North of 1569, also called the Revolt of the Northern Earls or Northern Rebellion, was an unsuccessful attempt by Catholic nobles from Northern England to depose Queen Elizabeth I of England and replace her with Mary, Queen of Scots.
Henry John Neville Vane, 11th Baron Barnard, was a British peer, the son of Christopher Vane, 10th Baron Barnard.
Christopher Vane, 1st Baron Barnard was an English peer. He served in Parliament for Durham after his brother, Thomas, died 4 days after being elected the MP for Durham. Then, again from January 1689 - November 1690 for Boroughbridge. He served in the Commons as a Whig collaborator during the passage of the Bill of Rights which his father, Sir Henry Vane, the Younger had fought for religious and civil liberty before his beheading in 1662. He is known for his disputes with his heirs and for employing Peter Smart, father of the poet Christopher Smart, as a steward.
Henry Vane, 1st Earl of Darlington, PC, known as Lord Barnard between 1753 and 1754, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1726 to 1753 when he succeeded to a peerage as Baron Barnard.
Barnard Castle School is a co-educational independent day and boarding school in the market town of Barnard Castle, County Durham, in the North East of England. It is a member of The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC). It was founded in 1883 with funding from a 13th-century endowment of John I de Balliol and the bequest of the local industrialist Benjamin Flounders. The ambition was to create a school of the quality of the ancient public schools at a more reasonable cost, whilst accepting pupils regardless of their faith.
The Right Honourable Henry Francis Cecil Vane, 12th Baron Barnard MBA BSc, known as Harry Vane, is a British landowner and nobleman. He inherited his title in 2016 when his father died.
Brancepeth Castle is a castle in the village of Brancepeth in County Durham, England, some 5 miles south-west of the city of Durham. It is a Grade I listed building.
Mitford Castle is an English castle dating from the end of the 11th century and located at Mitford, Northumberland. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade I listed building, enlisted on 20 October 1969. The castle is also officially on the Buildings at Risk Register. The Norman motte and bailey castle stands on a small prominence, a somewhat elliptical mound, above the River Wansbeck. The selected building site allowed for the natural hill to be scarped and ditched, producing the motte.
The Neville or Nevill family is a noble house of early medieval origin, which was a leading force in English politics in the later Middle Ages. The family became one of the two major powers in northern England and played a central role in the Wars of the Roses along with their rival, the House of Percy.
Henry de Vere Vane, 9th Baron Barnard FSA, JP, Hon. DCL was a British peer and Senior Freemason.
Christopher William Vane, 10th Baron Barnard was a British peer and military officer.
The Neville–Neville feud was an inheritance dispute in the north of England during the early fifteenth century between two branches of the noble Neville family. The inheritance in question was that of Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland, a prominent northern nobleman who had issue from two marriages. Westmorland favoured as his heirs the children of his second wife, Joan Beaufort, closely related to the royal family, over those of his first wife, Margaret Stafford.
Media related to Barnard Castle at Wikimedia Commons
