Barnard Castle

John Burke's Barnard Castle

Wednesday 12 August 1998

Fran and I set off for a few days in the North East of England, a part of the country that we had not visited before. We drove up the M6 motorway, getting off at Penrith and then travelling East along the A66, passing Brougham and Brough Castles on our way across the Pennines.

First stop was at Barnard Castle, the name of the town as well as the castle.

We found a cafe for a cup of coffee and then took a stroll down the main street of the town. It was market day and stalls were set up alongside the pavement, on the road.

At the crossroads near the bottom of the hill was this covered market cross.

The castle overlooks the River Tees, standing on the top of an 80 ft high cliff face.

The picture right was taken from the wooden walkway seen left.

The estate was granted to the de Baliol family in 1095 by King William II (Rufus) after the defeat of the rebelious Earl Mowbray.

The earldom was broken up into smaller baronies and Guy de Baliol built the first castle of earthworks. He was succeeded by his nephew, Bernard, the first of two lords to bear that name.

They built the first stonework castle and gave the town its name.

In 1228 John Balliol inherited the title and estates. The family had grown very powerful and John married Devorguilla of Galloway, eldest daughter and heiress to the Constable of Scotland and related to William the Lion, King of Scotland.

John held many offices for King Henry III of England and played an important part as arbitrator between Royal and Baronial parties.

He died in 1269, his devoted wife founding Baliol College, Oxford in his name in 1282 and granting land to Cistercian monks to start an Sweethearts Abbey near Dumfries. On her death in 1290 she was buried there with a casket containing her husbands embalmed heart.

In quick succession three of John's sons held the Lordship of Barnard Castle, Hugh, Alexander and John. Nothing is known of Hugh, little of Alexander, but John rose to become the most powerful and notorious of the family.

In September 1290 Margaret, the 'Maid of Norway' and the only surviving direct heir of Alexander III of Scotland, was drowned in the North Sea.

The two strongest contenders for the throne were John Baliol, Lord of Galloway and Barnard Castle and Robert de Brus, Lord of Annandale and Hart. To avoid a civil war, King Edward I of England convened a council in 1292 at Norham on the River Tweed.

The council, consisting of both English and Scottish adjudicators, decided in favour of John Baliol, but Edward was to be disappointed if he thought he would have the homage of the new King of Scotland in return and by 1296 the two were at war.

John Baliol was captured and imprisoned in the Tower of London, being ultimately released, but with all his lands and estates being forfeited apart from the family's original estate in Picardy.

The castle passed into the hands of the Beauchamp family, Earls of Warwick, who were disposessed by Richard, Duke of Gloucester, shortly to become King Richard III.

The castle today is an interesting one to visit and we spent quite a while looking at all there was to be seen. The views of the river from the castle were spectacular.

This photograph shows the Brackenbury Tower which, because of the name, has been associated with Richard III's Constable of the Tower of London, who was made notorious by Shakespeare and others as the murderer of the Princes in the Tower. However the tower pre-dates him by some 300 years.

The castle was the first of several visited during the holiday. It was also the first of a good number of English Heritage sites that we visited. Being members of English Heritage we were able to enter the castle for free.

On leaving the castle we walked up the hill and into the Tourist Information offcies where we found this lady sitting quietly, spinning yarn from an old-fashioned spinning wheel.

She was quite happy for me to take her photograph and commented that spinning was a very relaxing occupation!

From Castle Barnard it was back to the car and back to driving North East until we decided to stop at Beamish Open Air Museum. That's a matter for another time!