Langley Castle.

Driving from the A69 up to Allendale we passed Langley Castle. All the years we have been in Cumbria we have associated the castle with the meals and entertaining. However AG Bradley's book on the "Romance of Northumberland " , first printed in 1908 tells an altogether different story. The early owners were the Tindall family but the house eventually passed by marriage to the Lucy's. The third generation of the new owners was Sir Thomas who fought at Crecy and immediately afterwards was sent to fight the Scots at Neville's Cross. It was the money from these two famous battles which went into changing the house into the Castle. And it was no folly either, for those times were dangerous indeed with the Border raids. The next owners were the Percies. and it then passed to the Nevilles and in the seventeenth century to the Ratcliffes. The Earl of Derwentwater then passed it, wlong with the rest of his estate to the Trustees of Greenwich Hospital. From there it was passed to Cadwallader Bates who started the restoration work.When his wife died in 1932 it was used as an army barracks and then a girls school. It is now a luxury hotel.





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