- Ford Castle
Ford Castle is a
Grade 1 listed building and aScheduled Ancient Monument situated at a shallow crossing point on theRiver Till ,Ford, Northumberland (gbmapping|NT944375).The castle dates from about 1278. The owner Sir William Heron was granted a licence to
crenellate the castle in 1338. It was captured by the Scots in 1385 and dismantled by them. However by the beginning of the 16th century it had been rebuilt and refortified. It was taken byJames IV of Scotland on the eve of theBattle of Flodden in 1513. The castle passed from the Heron family to the Carr family by marriage in 1549 and again by marriage passed to Sir Francis Blake of Cogges, Oxfordshire in the 1660s.Blake built a substantial mansion in
Tudor style within the castle in 1694. On Blakes death in 1717 the Ford estate passed to the husband of his late daughter Mary and then in 1723 to her sonFrancis Blake Delaval (1693–1752). In 1761John Delaval, 1st Baron Delaval (1728–1808) rebuilt the Hall with the assistance of architectGeorge Ruffield in aGothic style .On his death the property passed to his granddaughter Susannah who had married the
Marquess of Waterford . In 1862 Louisa, Countess of Waterford (d 1891), widow of the 3rd Marquess restored and substantially remodelled the Hall.The castle was acquired in 1907 by
James Joicey, 1st Baron Joicey and it remains in the ownership of his family, although since 1956 it has been leased toNorthumberland County Council as a Young Persons Residential Centre.References
* [http://www.northumberland.gov.uk/Fordcastle/welcome.html Ford Castle 1]
* [http://www.northofthetyne.co.uk/FordCastle.html Images and History of Ford Castle]
* [http://www.castleuk.net/castle_lists_north/74/fordcastle.htm Ford Castle 2]
* [http://www.homepage.mac.com/philipdavis/English%20sites/2561.html Gazetteer Historical Castles]
*Fry, Plantagenet Somerset, "The David & Charles Book of Castles", David & Charles, 1980. ISBN 0-7153-7976-3
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.