List Entry Summary
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Name: CRAYKE CASTLE
List Entry Number: 1189213
Location
CRAYKE CASTLE, CHURCH HILL
The building may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
County:
District: North Yorkshire
District Type: Unitary Authority
Parish: Crayke
National Park: Not applicable to this List entry.
Grade: I
Date first listed: 28-Feb-1952
Date of most recent amendment: 17-May-1960
Legacy System Information
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System: LBS
UID: 333416
Asset Groupings
This List entry does not comprise part of an Asset Grouping. Asset Groupings are not part of the official record but are added later for information.
List Entry Description
Summary of Building
Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
Reasons for Designation
Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
History
Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.
Details
SE 57 SE CRAYKE CHURCH HILL
2/16 (north side)
28.2.52 Crayke Castle
(formerly listed as
Crayke Castle and
17.5.60 ruins in grounds of
Crayke Castle)
GV
I
Tower house with attached kitchen range to rear on which the vaulted undercroft
alone survives and ruins on a further range - 'The New Tower'.
Main range: Early C15 with C18 and C19 alterations and additions, it was built
before the kitchen range which is documented to 1441-50. New Tower: probably second
half C15. For the Bishops of Durham. Dressed sandstone. Roof of main range
concealed, lead roof to kitchen. Main range: rectangular block 70 ft 9 ins x
28 ft 4 ins. Four storeys, each being set back slightly. Bands to floor levels and
battlements. Tall, narrow chamfered square headed windows. The entrance to the
south side is an C18 alteration, the original entrance being by an external
staircase range on the north-east side (now disappeared) to the principal room at
1st floor level. The blocked doorways are 2-centred with hollow chamfers. C19
range attached to north-east. Interior is now subdivided but the moulded
cross-beamed ceilings are intact. Fireplaces to ground and 1st floors. C18
features: a cut-string staircase with 2 turned or twisted balusters per tread and
curtail with turned newel.
Kitchen range: The west wall is partly rebuilt in later materials but has a
corbelled-out embattled round turret for spiral staircase to the north-west corner.
Chamfered doorway with key block. Interior: tunnel vaulted with 13 heavy unmoulded
transverse arches or ribs. Now subdivided. (The undercroft is at ground floor
level.)
The New Tower: Completely detached building, now ruinous. Once a 3-storey L-shaped
block (ground plan 1566-1570). All that remains are the barrel-vaulted undercrofts,
stairs to 1st floor level and the walls of the porch.
To rear of kitchen remains of foundations of a building that was described as The
Old Hall in 1441.
Stands on site of Norman Castle. Dismantled in 1647. In the C18 the main range was
used as a farmhouse. Pevsner, N., Yorkshire, North Riding, 1966, p 131. Victoria
County History, North Yorkshire, Vol II, 1923, p 119 ff.
Listing NGR: SE5590970680
Selected Sources
Books and journalsPage, W, The Victoria History of the County of York: North Riding, (1923), 119
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Yorkshire: The North Riding, (1966)
Map
National Grid Reference: SE 55909 70680
The below map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. For a copy of the full scale map, please see the attached PDF - 1189213.pdf - Please be aware that it may take a few minutes for the download to complete.

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This copy shows the entry on 16-Jul-2025 at 01:52:11.