Danby Castle

Danby Castle - Photo ©
Colin Grice April 2006

Danby Castle and Park are mentioned in 1242, and the castle may have been the 'capital messuage' of the manor which, together with a small park, was only valued at 6s. 8d. in 1274. It was referred to as a ruined peel in January 1335–6. According to local tradition the castle on Castle Hill was destroyed by fire and the materials used in building the church.

Marmaduke de Thweng and Lucy his wife were evidently living at Danby in 1275; Edward II was here on 26 August 1323 and Elizabeth Lady Latimer was living here in her widowhood in 1388. It seems probable that there was already some more commodious dwelling than the old fortress at Castleton. The old castle alone, however, is mentioned in extents of the manor in January 1335–6 and 1388. It has followed the descent of the manor and is now in the possession of Viscount Downe.

Danby Castle is entirely without earthwork defences and is an interesting example of a type of military architecture in vogue in the north in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, and elsewhere exemplified at Castle Bolton and Sheriff Hutton. At Danby the building is rectangular in plan, 117 ft. from north to south and 84 ft. from east to west. At the angles stood four towers placed diagonally, and in the centre was an open courtyard 49 ft. 3 in. by 22 ft. 7 in. The most complete portion of the building is the north front with its two angle towers, but a considerable portion of the south front with the south-east tower is still standing and is used as a farm-house. The courtyard is much encumbered by sheds and farm buildings and the western range and southwestern tower have almost entirely disappeared. The whole of the existing walls belong apparently to the 14th century with the exception of a few subsequent alterations in the south wing. The great hall, a fine apartment 60 ft. 10 in. by 29 ft., occupied the whole of the east front. There are considerable remains of the west side, which was pierced by four two-light transomed windows placed high up in the wall. Only the lower half of these remain, and the northernmost has been cut away to form a modern entrance into the yard. The east side has been entirely destroyed, but the stone foundations remain level with the ground. At the northern end of the hall stood the screens masking four doorways communicating respectively with the courtyard, kitchen, north-east tower and a large vice. At the southern end of the west wall a pointed doorway opens on to a broad stone staircase leading to the great chamber on the first floor of the southern range. The side walls of this stair have a continuous corbelling following the rake of the stair and supporting a roof of stone slabs, which has now disappeared. The southern range, now forming part of a farm-house, is divided on the lower floor into three apartments. The easternmost of these, now a dairy, is entered by an original door at the end of the great hall and has a curious little alcove in the thickness of the south wall, possibly once a garderobe.

A large cellar, 19 ft. 10 in. by 18 ft. 7 in., occupies the centre of the range and is roofed with a heavy barrel vault supported on four double-chamfered parallel ribs. It is lighted by one narrow light on the south side and has a large blocked doorway between it and the dairy. The third and western division of this range retains none of its ancient features and is terminated westwards by a modern wall. A single apartment, known as the court room, but evidently the original great chamber, occupies the first floor on this side. It is in a somewhat dilapidated state, and in the late 16th century a portion of the eastern end was divided off to form a small apartment, the wooden partition being covered internally with panelling of that date. At the same period the three-light east window was inserted and a similar window of four lights pierced the south wall of the court room. The corbelled chimney stack on the north side is apparently part of the original building, and some trace of the junction of the hall roof may be traced on its outward face. An early 17th-century desk with a rough canopy is preserved in the court room, and perhaps formed part of the fittings of the court. High in the eastern gable of this building is a shield of the arms of Brus of Skelton. The south-east tower, half concealed as it is by the modern buildings of the farm-house of which it forms a part, retains few original features. It is divided into three stories and has an open timber roof with a series of small unornamented hammer beams of 16th-century date. It is probable that this building formed the early chapel and that the second floor represents the level of the original private pew or gallery. A small vice (of 16th century date) corbelled out in the angle with the main south wall communicates between it and the great chamber, which is at a somewhat lower level. Several 16th-century windows have been inserted at the first floor level of this tower. Towards the western end of the south front of the castle a sunk panel bears a shield with the arms of Nevill (a saltire and in chief a rose) with a lion and a griffin as supporters. Of the south-west tower only slight traces of the south-west and south-east walls are now discernible, and a small fragment is likewise all that is left standing of the western range. This side must have included the main entrance to the castle, as no other site is available. At the northern end adjoining the angle tower are traces of a second large staircase, evidently similar to that already described. The centre of the northern range is occupied, on the ground floor, by the great kitchen, 44 ft. by 20 ft. 3 in., with two large fireplaces, the one in the southern wall being 16 ft. wide. In the thickness of the north wall is an open gallery, raised somewhat above the floor level, lit by three windows and communicating with the kitchen by as many arched openings. Beneath it and the other window further west are a number of large aumbries. An apartment of the most erratic form adjoins the kitchen on the west and in the dividing wall are remains of a large oven. Further south again is a small smoke room. The ground floor of the tower itself is provided with a small fireplace and a garderobe in the thickness of the north wall. The first floor over this room and the kitchen was occupied by living apartments fitted with fireplaces and garderobes. The corresponding tower on the north-east has likewise a garderobe and two fireplaces, and was perhaps a second kitchen. The small irregular apartment between it and the kitchen is roofed with a ribbed vault. The walls of the whole of this portion of the castle are standing to the top of the first floor, and there is nothing to show that either the angle towers or the range between them was ever carried any higher. The windows on the north face are plain square-headed openings, and the only ornament is a series of four shields built into the external face. They bear the following arms: (1) England (three leopards). (2) Roos (three waterbougets). (3) Latimer (a cross paty). (4) The same with a label of three points.

Plan of Danby Castle

By Danby Beck, a southern tributary of the Esk, stands Stormy Hall, a farm-house, which according to a discredited tradition owes its name to Henry VIII having taken refuge here in a storm when on his way to visit Katharine Parr at Danby Castle. Stormy Hall, however, seems to have taken its name from the Sturmy family, who held lands in Danby in the 13th and 14th centuries. Robert Constable of Bossall made a bequest of Stormy ('Sturmy') Hall in 1454; John Constable, lord of Dromonby (q.v.), died seised of it in 1619; a few years later it is called a farm with an 'under-farm,' Nooke House, and had been sold by the Constables.

From: 'Parishes: Danby', A History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 2 (1923)