Wressle Castle: The history of Sir Thomas Percy and East Yorkshire's only medieval castle

Sir Thomas, who later became the Earl of Worcester, created a castle with a central courtyard and surrounded by a moat.

A later occupant, Henry Percy, the 5th Earl of Northumberland, ordered extensive refurbishments, and his famously lavish lifestyle led to him being given the nickname Henry the Magificent. King Henry VIII was a guest there in September 1541.

Wressle Castle was occupied by Parliamentarian forces during the Civil War. To render its defences useless the north range was demolished, leaving just a manor house for the Percy family’s local estates. Only the ground floor was used when a farmer was given a tenancy in the late 18th century.

Records suggest that some rooms still retained their magnificent 16th century woodwork and other decorations.

Today, the ruin - the only medieval castle in East Yorkshire - can be seen across a field near the small village of Wressle. It more or less what was left after a severe fire in February 1796.

Minor repairs to the castle and its bakehouse were carried out by the Department of the Environment in the 1980s, otherwise it remained more or less untouched until a major repairs programme was undertaken between 2012 and 2016 by its owner, Robert Falkingham, with financial help from Natural England, Historic England the Country Houses Foundation. Much vegetation was removed from the overgrown interior and the moat cleared.

Visits to the ruin are permitted by prior arrangement, and occasional open days are announced on the castle’s website.