Description

NZ 70 NW DANBY CASTLE LANE

7/18 Danby Castle

GV I

Castle, probably late C14, now partly in use as a farmhouse and
farmbuildings. Improvements of mid and late C16. Small square-
plan shell keep with diagonally-projecting corner towers and ranges
of buildings around inner courtyard. Partly ruinous. Coursed
tooled sandstone with pantiled and plain tiled roofs. South front
to road. Centre part is the south-east tower: 3 storeys and
basement, 3 bays with a corbelled-out chimney breast in the middle,
though chimney has gone. Flanking small chamfered windows and at
right on second floor. At basement level a modern window in centre
and a 2-light stone-mullioned window at right. In the left bay a
corbelled-out stair turret with one chamfered light. The 3-bay
left part is the section originally between the towers; the south-
west tower has gone. At left a stable door, at right a narrow
chamfered doorway. On first floor right a 4-light window, with
hollow-chamfered mullions (2 missing) and modern glazing, under
hoodmould. To left a single and a 2-light chamfered mullioned
window and a small blocked opening at far left. The right part is
the C19 farmhouse extension: 2 storeys, 2 bays, sash windows lost
intermediate bars. End chimneys here and to left, of centre section.

On the west side, in place of the lost tower and intermediate wall
section, is the farmyard with farm buildings built into the curtain
wall. On the north side both towers and the intermediate section
survive to at least 2-storey height externally, above a stepped and
chamfered double plinth. 1-light openings on both levels.

Behind the farmhouse, the east side has been mostly lost but the
south-west tower shows a 3-light double-chamfered mullioned window
with Tudor-arched lights. Beyond this is a chimney corbelled out
at first floor level, a 2-centred arched doorway and a similar arch
to an external stair. Seen from within the courtyard the remains
of the castle buildings are of good coursed masonry with various
chamfered openings. At first floor level an arcaded passage and a
fireplace on the west part of the north section; further east a
shouldered-arched window and a Tudor-arched blocked opening, and at
second floor a fireplace under a straight lintel. In the west
curtain wall a fireplace under a flattened Tudor arch.

Farmbuildings extend into the courtyard from these ruins : a 2-
storey barn, with boarded door, and a 1-storey cartshed adjacent.
A wall, with segmental-arched wagon entrance, links barn to house,
near a tall chimney with offset.

Danby Castle (contd)

Interior: the 2-centred arch in the south courtyard section leads
to a medieval barrel-vaulted undercroft, from which steps rise to a
narrow door. A shouldered opening on first floor leads to a large
chamber, with stone-flagged floor, above, called the Courtroom
presumably from past function. There is an C18 corner fireplace,
a "judge's bench" of C17 panelling and a ceiling replaced possibly
circa 1700. Leading from the Courtroom is another large room with
C17 door, two walls of C17 panelling and another corner fireplace.
Between these rooms a newel stair leads to an upper chamber unheated
though with chimney shaft passing through, and with old windows
partly blocked. Roof of fairly light-weight collar-and-tie-beam
trusses is probably late C18.

The castle is said to have been the house of Catherine Parr, the
surviving wife of Henry VIII.

V.C.H. Vol II, Pevsner, The North Riding p.136.
R.C.H.M. Houses of the North York Moors pp 24, 209.

Listing NGR: NZ7172507238

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Danby Castle at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17526147

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)