The Castle Garden is a 5 acre public
Visitor
Information park. It is free to enter and open
every day during daylight hours.
The garden has large areas of wildlife habitat, with a
central lawned area surrounded by more formal
paths and seating, where visitors can relax just
minutes from the busy town centre. There is a
woodland walk amongst ancient deciduous trees
and it is a scheduled ancient monument site.
There are 3 entrances: the main gate is in Orchard
Fields, and you can also enter through a gate off
Castlegate or through the Old Lodge Hotel
grounds. There is on-road parking a short walk
away.
A broken oak ring, representing
the 11th century timber fort, circles
a limestone block signifying the
12th century stone castle. The oak
ring is in two parts, representing
the fact that two powerful
women played significant roles in
the castle’s history. The intention
was to add something of interest to the wall that
was suggestive of a fortress in design but was 'of
now', and that communicates the fact that there is
more to this wall than might meet the eye.
Malton
Castle
Marker
a sculpture
by Pete
Coates
Pete Coates is a sculptor and designer working
out of studios in Brawby, Ryedale. He trained as
a stonemason before working as an architectural
sculptor in London and in York, starting his own
practise in 1994. His main medium is stone but he
also designs work in wood and various metals. A
long standing collaboration with Scottish poet
and artist Ian Hamilton Finlay resulted in a series
of international commissions, in both public and
private realms.
www.peter-coates.com
Pete Coate's Castle Marker can be found on
the walls at the top of the steps from the
Castlegate entrance.
For more information about the garden, the
castle, Malton Museum and this project:
www.maltoncastlegarden.org.uk
www.maltonmuseum.co.uk
All images courtesy of
Kirkbymoorside Camera Club.
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The Old
Lodge Hotel
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Malton
Orchard
Fields
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Malton Castle
Gardens
Cast
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River Derwent
Entrances are marked with a
Norton
The Castle
That Malton Forgot
Malton Castle played an
important part in English
history locally and nationally.
Women &
The Castle
Women such as Agnes de Vescy
and Lady Isabella de Vescy, one of
the wealthiest people in Ryedale,
frequently played a significant
role as chatelaines running the
estate in their husband’s absence
or as widows.
Decline
On William de Vescy’s death at
Bannockburn in 1314, leaving no
heir, the castle reverted to the
Crown. Inevitable disputes over
its holding included an incident
when the rightful custodian was
refused entry by ‘certain
ill-disposed persons’, and
occupation by Robert the Bruce
who wrecked it before leaving.
Today all that remains is
a street name and a few
remnants of wall.
Beginnings
The limestone ridge above the
River Derwent had attracted
settlement before the Romans
used its defensive qualities
around 90AD. Ivo de Vescy,
who came from Normandy
with William the Conqueror,
probably built the first castle
next to the ruins of the Roman
Fort. He would have found a
flourishing village – fragments
of 9th-century crosses are
evidence of Christian worship,
and Domesday Book (1086)
records a church and mill.
The Castle
The motte and bailey castle may
have made use of the earthworks
of the fort. Sitting above the river
crossing, the castle dominated
the land all round and gave
control of the road system based
on Roman and earlier routes.
In the early 12th century a new stone castle was
granted by Henry I to his close friend, the northern
knight Eustace fitz John.
The only known illustration of the castle, on a map of
1399 in the British Library, shows a substantial round
tower. John Leland, 16th century antiquary and poet,
described the castle as having been large judging by
its ruins.
Short stretches of its outer wall remain on the
east and on the south just north of Castlegate,
including a buttress thought to be of the 12th
century, and, together with a ditch on the southwest, give some idea of the area it covered.
Sir Ralph Eure inherited Old
Malton in 1387 through his wife.
This ancient Yorkshire family
flourished throughout the 15th
century but probably spent less
time in Malton for, by about 1540,
Leyland describes only ‘a mean
house for a farmer’ on the site.
A settlement supplying the needs of the castle
may have grown up on the west side ministered to
by St Leonard’s Church.
The De
Vescys
Eustace fitz John gained the
castles and estates of Alnwick
and Malton through marriage to
Beatrice de Vescy (later the
family name) making him a
powerful force in the northeast.
The family’s friendship, and later marriage, with
the Scottish royal family led to problems with the
English kings. In 1138 King Stephen laid siege to the
castle for 8 days during his wars with Matilda. Later
Richard I and William the Lion, King of Scotland,
may have met there, but an order for its
demolition by King John during the Barons’ Revolt
was only reprieved by the king’s death.
The
Jacobean
Mansion
By 1608 the next Lord Eure had
built a magnificent house on the
castle site, described as the rival
of other great houses, but his
son was a Catholic and both
house and family suffered during
the Civil War.
The house passed eventually to two sisters,
Margaret and Mary, who could not agree. A judge
ordered the mansion to be demolished stone by
stone into two piles, one for each sister.
The lodge survived. Only it and the gateway arches
remain to give some idea of what has
been lost.