A stone castle was built on the site of an earlier defended position from around 1095 to 1125 by Guy de Balliol. Between 1125 and 1185 his nephew Bernard de Balliol and his son Bernard II extended the building.[2]
During the rebellion of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland, in the reign of Elizabeth, the castle, which was then the property of the crown, was garrisoned by Sir George Bowes, of Streatlam. During the Civil War, the castle was besieged by Cromwell, to whom, after a severe cannonading, the garrison surrendered. After frequent grants and reversions, the castle, lands, and appurtenances, were purchased by Sir Henry Vane, an ancestor of the Duke of Cleveland, himself a Viscount Bernard.[6]
Sir Henry Vane the Elder, Member of Parliament and important member of Charles I household, at first his Governor, later his Treasurer, purchased Raby Castle, Barnard Castle and Estate for £18,000. He chose to make Raby his principal home and de-roofed and removed stone from Barnard Castle to repair and maintain Raby.
The castle is in the custody of English Heritage and is open to the public. Of particular interest are the ruins of the 12th-century cylindrical tower and the 14th-century Great hall and Great chamber.[7] It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument,[8] and was designated as a Grade I listed building in 1950.[9] The remains of the medieval chapel of St Margaret in the outer ward are listed as Grade II.[10][11]
"Barney Castle"
"Barney Castle" is a phrase in the dialect of County Durham meaning "a pathetic excuse", generally thought to derive from the incident when Bowes retreated into the castle. Eric Partridge included the phrase in A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (1937).[12]
References
^Mackenzie, James Dixon (1897). The Castles of England: their story and structure. New York: Macmillan. p. 386.
^"Barnard Castle". SINE Project, University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 6 December 2007.
Austin, David (2007), Acts of Perception, A study of Barnard Castles in Teesdale, Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland Research Report 6, ISBN978-0-9510388-5-7