Walworth castle

THIS IS NOT A FULLY DATED TIME LINE, JUST KEY POINTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE CASTE.

Walworth castle, the estate and the planned village were developed nearing 1150AD by the Hansard family. The family were later named as the ‘handsome hansards’. Their ancient estate is around 1100 acres and is one of the townships of parish of Heighington.

Walworth castle was possibly built in 1189.

In the summer of 1349, a bubanic plague also referred to as the Black Death. Brown rats are known to bring the disease. The Black Death killed off between one third and one half of the population of England. Once the Black Death was no more the manor of Walworth castle was in the hands of others. In 1367 Ralph Neville was granted the manor of Walworth.

In 1391, the 9^th lord of the manor Robert Hansard reclaimed the castle and gave it to his 14year old son, Richard Hansard who was later knighted.

11^th lord of the manor Richard Hansard, the son of sir Richard hansard died in 1466, the estate of Walworth castle was then passed on to his grandson 13^th in line Richard. Richard was 9 years old when he took control. He died in 1508.

In 1508, 14^th in line, and the richest of the Hansard family, Sir William Hansard inherited the estate.

Son of Sir William Hansard, William aged 19 and 15^th in line of the manor inherited Walworth castle in 1520. William married when he was just 15years old, but he died in 1521, so 16^th in line of the manor Elizabeth Hansard was given her father’s estate.

In 1539 Elizabeth Hansard married Sir Francis Ayscough. Elizabeth and Francis had a son together in 1542 and named him William Ayscough. His mother died in 1558 and his father died in 1563. William then went on to inherit Walworth caste and estate as 17^th in line.

William Ayscough married the daughter of earl of Lincoln. They went on and had no children together. So in 1579 they sold Walworth caste and the estate to Thomas Jenison.

Auditor general for Ireland Thomas Jenison married Elizabeth Birch the daughter of an official in the royal household of King Henry the VIII. Thomas continued to work in Ireland. He died in 1586.

Elizabeth Jenison died in 1605. William Jenison inherited the estate, but was sent to prison for refusing to take oath of allegiance to the crown of being Roman Catholic in 1610 and 1612. This caused a lot of suffering to his family and dilapiclation to Walworth castle.

William Jenison died in 1634 and the first John Jenison inherited Walworth castle.

Ralph Jenison bought all of Walworth castle estate in 1687. In 1689 Walworth castle was searched for arms to prevent rebellion against King William and Queen Mary.

Ralph Jenison was passed the Walworth castle estate in 1704. He was 10years old. In 1727 and 1734 Ralph was a member of parliament for Northumberland. Ralph Jenison died in 1759. His widow had to sell Walworth castle because of debts.

Mathew Stephenson a wine merchant from Newcastle upon Tyne bought Walworth castle in 1759, but then went on and sold the castle to john Harrison, also a merchant from Newcastle upon Tyne in 1775.

Ann Stephenson inherited Walworth castle from her father when he died in 1819. Ann went and married General Arthur Aylmer, who was also lieutenant general of the Durham light infantry in 1825. General Arthur died in 1831.

1831 John Harrison Aylmer had re-roofed the castle and he decorated two towers with pillar capped with balls reminiscent of solider statues. However tragedy struck john Harrison Aylmer, his wife Rosanna and their 18year old son on august 20^th when they were killed in the Abergele railway accident. There were 33 victims.

Vivian Aylmer aged 12 and Edmund Aylmer aged 9 became the owners of Walworth castle in 1868. Vivian was a high sheriff of Durham in 1887. Vivian was the only known survivor of the first party to explore Somaliland. He died in 1931 and was buried in Caerleon. When his brother Edmund Aylmer passed away later he was buried right beside him.

During the Second World War, Walworth castle let the Durham light infantry use it as a high ranking Italian and German officers.

Walworth castle was sold to Durham county council in 1950. Durham council then went on to turn the castle into a residential school for girls.

Darlington borough council sold Walworth castle in 1981 to john and Jennifer Wayne who then opened it up in the summer as a hotel.