The first fortified manor house that existed on the site was built around 1090 by the Constable family,[3] and it is mentioned between 1180 and 1193 when a constabularius existed on the site.[4]
The surviving Farnborough Castle structure was built on the site of an oratory constructed in 1319. Construction began on 12 February 1352[5] by Marmaduke Constable (c.1300 – 1378) after he obtained a licence to crenelate from King Edward III on 24 May 1351.[3][6] The main tower of the Castle was the Danish Tower,[1] and the building was in use by the Constable family until it was abandoned when Sir Robert Constable was executed on 6 July 1537,[3] causing his family to forfeit Flamborough Castle among thirty-four other manors to the King.[7] It was in ruins by c.1540 until some repairs were carried out in 1543 but the building was largely demolished by c.1573 when the kitchen was removed.[8][9]
Although the Constable family were able to regain their Flamborough estate from Queen Elizabeth I in 1582, they did not live there as it was in a state of ruin.[10] They sold the Castle in 1636 and the Strickland family purchased it in 1656. The ruins of Flamborough Castle were then in use as a cattle barn by 1798,[4] and was used as a cattle barn until at least 1892.[10] Stones from the castle were stolen over time to construct later buildings in Flamborough[11] with evidence of lime kilns being built on the site in the form of surviving earthworks.[8]
Flamborough Castle between 1900–20, before the north wall collapsed
The north wall collapsed no later than 1925,[12] and the vaulted chamber collapsed before 1971.[12]
Excavation
The earthworks surrounding the castle were first excavated by J. R. Earnshaw in c.1964,[13] and Flamborough Castle was excavated again and also partially repaired between 2017 and 2018.[10]
Description
In 1537, John Leyland visited Flamborough Castle.[8] He mentioned that the building included a tower, a hall, a 'great parlour', a 'lord's parlour', a chapel, a court house, a mill house, and a great barn.[4]
Today, alongside the surrounding earthworks, three walls of the Danish Tower survive and they only stand to 4 metres (13ft) tall.[1][2]
↑ Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1907, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward III (1350-54) Vol. 9 p. 75
↑ Hugill, R. (1970) Castles and Peles of the English Border.
↑ 'Constable of Flamborough', in J. Foster (comp.), Pedigrees of the County Families of Yorkshire, 3 volumes (W. Wilfred Head for the author, London 1874), II (recte III): North and East Riding, unnumbered sheet in alphabetical sequence (Internet Archive).
1 2 3 Purdy, J. D. (1974) ‘Flamborough’. In Allison, K J (ed) A History of the County of York East Riding (=VCH) vol 2, 151-164
↑ McDonagh, B. (2007) Manor Houses, Churches and Settlements: Historical Geographies of the Yorkshire Wolds before 1600. (University of Nottingham PhD thesis, available online at http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11632/1/439852.pdf)
1 2 Brearley, F. (1971). A History of Flamborough, p. 183
↑ Earnshaw, J. R. (1965). ‘Flamborough, E.R’. In Ramm, H G 1965 ‘Yorkshire Archaeological Register 1964’. Yorkshire Archaeological Journal vol 41, 315-337
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