Sheriff Hutton Castle was completed by 1398, consisting of four great towers and a Great Hall built within the courtyard. The castle is not thought to have been built with defenses in mind. It's main function was a high status house - and what a house it must have been. In 1425 it was owned by Richard Neville, who would later support the Yorkist cause during the Wars of the Roses famously becoming known as the 'Kingmaker'. He later switched sides and launched a dramatic coup against the King. Edward IV fled abroad but soon returned defeating and killing Neville at the Battle of Barnet (1471). Sheriff Hutton passed to his daughter, Anne Neville, who married Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who later became the notorious Richard III.
When Richard became King, Sheriff Hutton was a Royal property and key to controlling Richard's core power base in the north of England - and hosted 'Council of the North', a body designed to improve Royal administration in Northern England.
Richard was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field (1485) and, along with Richard's other properties, Sheriff Hutton passed to Henry Tudor (now Henry VII). It briefly became an important residence again in the early sixteenth century when Henry VIII granted the site to his illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond. A landscaped garden was laid out at this time - presumably for the Duke - but when he died in 1536 the site reverted to the Crown.
During the sixteenth century. Charles I sold it in 1618 to Thomas Lumsden who in turn sold it to Sir Arthur Ingram in 1622. The latter had built a mansion house to the south of the village and plundered stone from the castle to support construction of domestic and auxiliary buildings. The ruined fortification was abandoned with its grounds eventually being used as part of a farm and it continues in that role to this day.
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