Langley Castle

Adam de Tindal held the Langley land from 1165 until his death in 1191, and it passed to his son of the same name, then to his granddaughter Philippa de Tindal; by 1235 her husband Nicholas de Boltby held the property. It descended through their daughter Isobella to her husband Thomas de Moulton, who took his mother's maiden name and became Thomas de Lucy. Their son, another Thomas de Lucy, inherited in 1305 and died three years later, passing the estate to his brother Anthony de Lucy, who from 1308 held annual fairs and markets on the land. Anthony's son Thomas de Lucy inherited in 1343.

The de Lucys' home was a manor house on the site until David Bruce destroyed it in 1346. Sir Thomas de Lucy began building an H-shaped, four-storey tower house with a major tower at each corner soon after; it was completed in 1364, the year before his death. His daughter Maud de Lucy inherited Langley with her second husband, Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland.

Maud de Lucy died in 1398, leaving Langley to Henry Percy and his son Hotspur Percy. In 1405, after the Percys failed to pay tax owed to Henry IV, the king granted Langley to Sir Robert Umfraville; before Umfraville could take possession, the castle was attacked and severely damaged by fire set by forces loyal to Henry IV during his campaign against the Percys and Archbishop Scrope. Langley lay in ruins for many years. In 1551 the crown restored full ownership to Thomas Percy, sixth Earl of Northumberland; in 1568 Percy joined the Rising of the North, was captured and killed, and Langley reverted to the crown.

In 1625 John Murray, first Earl of Annandale, bought Langley from the crown, selling it on in 1631 to Sir Edward Radclyffe. Radclyffe had his property impounded in 1653 for siding with the king, and Langley passed briefly to a London buyer, George Hurd, before Radclyffe's son Sir Francis Radclyffe raised the funds to buy back his father's estate. Francis was raised to Earl of Derwentwater, Viscount Langley and Baron Tynedale; on his death in 1696 the titles and castle passed to his son Edward, who married Lady Mary Tudor, an illegitimate daughter of Charles II.

Their son James Radclyffe, the new Earl of Derwentwater, took part in the Jacobite rebellion, was captured, and was executed in the Tower of London, after which Langley reverted to the crown once more. In 1749 the crown gave the estate to the Governors of the Royal Hospital, who in 1833 appointed John Grey to oversee Langley; he increased the estate's annual income by £15,000.

The local historian Cadwallader Bates bought the ruined castle in 1882 and began restoring it, enlarging the windows and adding a door on the south side. Bates died in 1902 before the work was finished; his wife Josephine continued the restoration, completing it in 1914. The castle's south-west tower holds twelve garderobes, four to each floor, among the most exceptional surviving examples of this arrangement in European castle architecture.

After Josephine Bates died, the castle stood empty from 1932 until it was used as a barracks during the Second World War, then as a girls' school. The Robb family bought Langley in the 1980s, and in 1986 it was bought by Dr Stuart Madnick, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who converted it into a hotel; in 2022 he acquired a seal that had belonged to Adam de Tindal, the first Baron of Langley. Langley Castle has been a Grade I listed building since 1952.