Qualla: Wressle Castle

Wressle Castle: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gordon Kneale Brooke, CC BY-SA 2.0. Thomas Percy built Wressle Castle in the 1390s, knowing what kind of man he was: a soldier and diplomat who had spent nearly ten years abroad and risen high in the service of Richard II, and who would shortly become a friend of Henry IV. The castle he commissioned reflected that ambition. The architectural historian Anthony Emery called it a residence "reflecting his pedigree and distinguished state service." Percy had less than a decade to enjoy it. In 1403 he joined his nephew Henry Hotspur's rebellion against the same Henry IV he had once supported, and at the Battle of Shrewsbury Thomas was captured. Two days later he was beheaded. His castle was confiscated by the Crown. It would change hands many times over the next two and a half centuries before Parliament finally pulled most of it down.

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Image: Gordon Kneale Brooke | CC BY-SA 2.0

Wressle Castle: A Quadrangular Castle

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Wressle was a quadrangular castle - four ranges arranged around a central courtyard, with a tower at each corner and a five-storey gatehouse in the middle of the east front. Going clockwise from the northeast, the corner towers were the Constable Tower (where the day-to-day castl...

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Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Wressle Castle: The Percys Return

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonathan Thacker, CC BY-SA 2.0. After Thomas Percy's execution the castle was held by the Crown for most of the fifteenth century, with occasional grants to favoured nobles. Then in 1471 it was returned to the Percy family. Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland, restored it to magnificence and laid out orname...

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Image: Jonathan Thacker | CC BY-SA 2.0

Wressle Castle: Slighted

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Tom Corser, CC BY-SA 2.0 uk. Wressle was never besieged. Its quadrangular design was built for status more than for war. But it was held by Parliament during the English Civil War and badly damaged in the process - contemporary estimates put the repair cost at 1,000 pounds, then a significant sum. Between 16...

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Image: Tom Corser | CC BY-SA 2.0 uk

Wressle Castle: The Bats and the Bowling Alley

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit SMJ, CC BY-SA 2.0. What stands today is the south range - two ruined corner towers, a fragment thought to be a bakehouse, and earthworks marking the moat and gardens. Sheep graze the field where the courtyard once was. Wressle is now Grade I listed and a scheduled monument; the Falkingham family ha...

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Image: SMJ | CC BY-SA 2.0