Yorkshire 12 - Middleham , From Larkrise to Candleford , mellow stone cottages and another link with Richard III

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And so to our third castle of the trip. We left the lovely town of Richmond and it all brought to mind the story Larkrise to Candleford. The market towns in this part of the world feel like the fictional Candleford with their wide streets and independent shops . It is not hard to imagine the inhabitants of the town enjoying their lovely church which they attended with the regularity of a metronome. The non conformists railing against them. The small shops selling clothing and fabrics. The ironmonger and the grocer. The stables and the coaching inn. The advent of the railways which were gradually creeping across the length and breadth of our small country.

The little villages outside of the town with their mellow stone cottages felt quieter as if left behind. Their inhabitants donning their Sunday best to walk to church , a big house where the landed gentry lived and many of the villagers worked. The fields being ploughed in the time old traditional way and harvest being celebrated as it had for centuries . The smithy and the blacksmith. Each villager knowing his neighbour. Life must have been hard and probably less than idyllic but it all looked pretty here in Middleham.

We again though had the problem of parking. In Suzy it would have been nigh on impossible to drive from the one road through , up the hill and down the narrow lane to the castle . You can park a handful of cars there alongside the perimeter wall but the road is so narrow that you have to cling to the wall and climb out over the passenger seat . Impossible for a motorhome. That is one of the things we have noticed here. Many campsites along the way. Some large and some smaller but all in the middle of the country . Ideal for a caravaner with his stand along car but hardly ideal for us motorhomers. Perhaps the bus passes through but there wasn't much sign of it . This part of the world seems to cater more for the car driver than us in our Suzys.

The castle is impressive standing as it does opposite a row of cottages with their pretty painted exteriors and stone obviously robbed from the castle . Why not? You needed stone from somewhere and why bring it in when there was a ready supply within yards.

Walking in we were greeted as always by a friendly assistant who explained where we could go and what we could see. The castle looked more impressive than Barnard Castle and less so than Richmond with its majestic keep. Both Richmond and Barnards Castle had been high up on a hill and close to a river. This one was barely on a hill and no sign of a river. But what it lost in the scenery department it more than made up with its interior .

We stood on the top overlooking the rolling fields and read about the motte and bailey castle that once stood just a few hundred yards up the hill. You could still see the motte in the landscape. The new castle was some way down from the original.

This castle stands in Wensleydale of the cheese fame rather than Swaledale of the sheep variety and was built by Robert Fitzrandolf 3rd Lord of Middlham and Spennitorne in the year 1190. It came into the hands of the Neville family. Now here is the start of the Richard III connection . Robert Neville the 16th EArl of the same name as come down in history as the Kingmaker because of his part in the Wars of the Roses. He rose to prominence following the death of Richard Duke of York in 1460 . Both George Duke of Clarence and Richard Duke of Gloucester came into his care. Both lived at Middleham the castle we were standing in with Warwick's own family. Even their brother King Edward IV was imprisoned at Middleham for a short time, having been captured by Warwick in 1469. Following Warwick's death in 1471 and Edward's restoration to the throne, his brother Richard married Anne Neville Warwicks younger daughter in order to cement the throne and the relationship with the crown. It is hard to believe that all these people saw these walls, touched these stones and walked in the castles grounds. Richard ascended to the throne , but spent little or no time at Middleham in his two-year reign. After Richard's death at Bosworth at the hands of Henry Tudor the castle remained in royal hands until the reign of King James I. when it was sold. After this like many castles it fell into disuse and disrepair . It was garrisoned during the English Civil War but saw no action .

As we walked it was clear the castle was more for comfort than for defence. Much had fallen down but for me the most impressive feature was the inner halls where it was possible to see how a canilevered stairway was constructed . It was a lovely castle in a lovely spot . Of the three in the end we thought this was probably the most complete.

We had enjoyed our short stay in Yorkshire and plan to return . All that was left was to get back onto the A1. Easier said than done. Sally had the usual hissy fit as she struggled to find a way out of what seemed like a maze of closed roads. Eventually though we did hit the road south and home beckoned .

Only 53 days left until Suzy hits the road. In between I am sure we will find other interesting places to visit . Britain has such a lot to offer.

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