Harewood Castle
Harewood Castle is a ruined castle on the grounds of Harewood House near Harewood , City of Leeds , in the English administrative division of West Yorkshire . English Heritage has listed it as a Grade I Historic Building.
history
In the 12th century a traditional hall house was built on the site. Sir William de Aldeburgh received royal permission in 1366 to fortify this house (English: "License to Crenellate"). He had a rectangular residential tower built on a steep slope where it was visible for several kilometers. The two-story main block is flanked by four corner towers, one of which is a simple gate tower . The chapel lies above the portcullis room . The lower kitchen wing has four stories; in a vault trained basement of the fountain is located.
When De Aldeburgh's only son died childless in 1391, the castle fell to the Ryther and Redmayne (or Redman ) families , into whom his two sisters had married.
In 1574 James Ryther and his partner William Plompton paid off the Redman family; As a result, Rhyther's financial situation must have worsened, as he died in London's Fleet Prison in 1595 . His son and two daughters sold the castle to Sir William Wentworth of Gawthorpe Hall in 1600 to pay their father's debts. Presumably for this reason, Harewood Castle was no longer the main family seat from then on.
The castle was last inhabited in the 1630s, and in 1656 it was offered for sale as a "beautiful source of building blocks and timber". The Wentworths sold Harewood Castle and Gawthorpe Hall to Sir John Cutler, 1st Baronet , at a time when it was already partially demolished. However, Cutler lived there until the end of his life. After Cutler's death in 1693, the castle fell to his only surviving daughter, Elizabeth, Countess of Radnor , and after she died childless, to Cutler's nephew, the unmarried Edmund Boulter , Member of Parliament for Boston, from Wimpole Hall . After his death, the castle fell to his nephew John Boulter from Gawthorpe Hall and Westminster, who died unmarried in 1738. His estate administrators sold Harewood Castle to Henry Lescelles (1690-1753), whose son Edwin , who later became Baron Harewood, had Harewood House built.
Centuries after its abandonment as an apartment, Harewood Castle was a landmark and was the basis for various paintings by William Turner in the late 1790s .
today
At the end of the 20th century, decay and weather conditions took their toll; the castle ruins, which are now in danger of collapsing, have been included in the heritage-at-risk register by English Heritage . A £ 1 million rescue plan was launched around 2000, jointly sponsored by English Heritage and Harewood Estate. A decade later, the restoration was coming to an end. Architects, geologists, civil engineers, ecologists and employees of the Harewood Estate, Historic Property Restoration Ltd and English Heritage were involved. In 2008 the castle ruins were removed from the Heritage-at-Risk register.
Sources and web links
- Harewood Castle . Images of England.
- Harewood Castle . Pastscape. Historic England. English Heritage.
- Remains of Gawthorpe Hall discovered in Yorkshire . Medievalists.net.
Coordinates: 53 ° 54 ′ 21.2 " N , 1 ° 30 ′ 42.1" W.