| Thirsk Castle | |
|---|---|
| Thirsk, North Yorkshire in England | |
 Castle Croft, Thirsk. The castle was to the left. | |
  Thirsk Castle Location within North Yorkshire | |
| Coordinates | 54°13′55″N1°20′42″W / 54.232°N 1.345°W |
| Grid reference | SE427820 |
| Type | Castle |
| Site history | |
| Built | c. 1092 |
| In use | c. 1176 |
| Fate | Demolished |
Thirsk Castle was a defensive Medieval castle in the town of Thirsk, in North Yorkshire, England. The castle was one of three held by the de Mowbray family in Yorkshire.
Thirsk Castle belonged to the de Mowbray family, who possessed two other castles in Yorkshire, at Burton-in-Lonsdale and Kirkby Malzeard. [1] Additionally, the de Mowbray family had a fourth castle at Epworth on the Isle of Axholme (now Lincolnshire). [2] Thirsk Castle is believed to have been built in the 1090s, with the castle becoming a holding place for the gathering fighters for the Battle of the Standard at nearby Northallerton. The massed fighters set out for the battlefield from Thirsk Castle. [3]
The date of the castle's construction has been the subject of some debate, with writers in the 19th century believing it to predate the Conquest, however there is no evidence of this. [4] [note 1] In the late 1130s/early 1140s, monks who had lost their lands in Cumbria to Scots raids, were offered sanctuary at the castle before being given lands by the de Mowbray family at Byland for their own house. [7]
Roger de Mowbray lost favour with the king (Henry II of England), and rebelled against him in the Great Revolt. [8] Henry later besieged Thirsk Castle, and de Mowbray was forced to give up his castles, including Thirsk in 1175. [9] Henry II ordered that the castles at Kirkby Malzeard and Thirsk be destroyed in early 1176. [10] Roger de Mowbray left to Crusade in the Holy Land, dying after being taken prisoner after the Battle of Hattin. [3] [11]
The castle was said to have covered 4 acres (1.6 ha), being quite prominent on the skyline in Thirsk, and commanding the road north from York. [12] [13]
After its destruction, material from the castle was said to have been used in the construction of the church in Thirsk, (which can be seen in the background of the image). [2] The de Mowbray family still owned the land, and a manor house that was built upon the site was supposedly destroyed in a Scots raid in 1322. Excavations on the site have determined that the Bailey rampart was about 460 feet (140 m) in length, which had a ditch on the outer side some 33 feet (10 m) wide, and 6 feet 7 inches (2 m) deep. The site is now scheduled monument. [14]
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Thirsk is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England; it is known for its racecourse and depiction as local author James Herriot's fictional Darrowby.
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Borrowby is a village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is situated halfway between Thirsk and Northallerton, about 25 miles (40 km) north of York, in the Vale of Mowbray, a low-lying agricultural landscape shaped by the last glaciation, that lies between two national parks, the North York Moors to the east and the Yorkshire Dales to the west.
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William Grainge was an English antiquarian and poet, and a historian of Yorkshire. He was born into a farming family in Dishforth and grew up on Castiles Farm near Kirkby Malzeard in the North Riding of Yorkshire, where he studied the archaeological site beneath the farm buildings, now known as Cast Hills settlement. Although he left school at age 12, he educated himself well enough to become a clerk to a solicitors' firm in Boroughbridge. He later established a bookshop in Harrogate and published numerous books on local history and topography, besides publishing a number of anonymous poems and discourses about local natural history.
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Sir Roger de Mowbray was an Anglo-Norman magnate. He had substantial English landholdings. A supporter of King Stephen, with whom he was captured at Lincoln in 1141, he rebelled against Henry II. He made multiple religious foundations in Yorkshire. He took part in the Second Crusade and later returned to the Holy Land, where he was captured and died in 1187.
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The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Masham, is the parish church in the town of Masham, North Yorkshire, England. The church stands on the site of an Anglo-Saxon place of worship with some the original Saxon stones incorporated into the current church. Archaeology has determined that the site has been used as a place of Christian worship for over 1,400 years.
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Scawton is a village and former civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. The hamlet lies just east of Sutton Bank, north of the A170 road, and 5 miles (8 km) west of Helmsley, in the Hambleton Hills. The wider parish was the setting for the Battle of Old Byland, on Scawton Moor to the south. The road through the village used to link the two abbeys at Byland and Rievaulx, with the church, and possibly the village pub, being instigated by the monks for the use of travellers. In 1961 the parish had a population of 84.
Henderskelfe is a civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. The parish does not contain any villages, though it is named after a previous settlement and castle which occupied the land on which Castle Howard is now built. Historically the area was a township in the ecclesiastical parish of Bulmer, however it has been its own civil parish since 1866.
