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Corby Castle
Corby Castle
	Corby Castle with the River Eden in the foreground, 2003
Type	Tower House, developed into a Country House
Location	Great Corby
Coordinates	54°52′47″N 2°49′35″W / 54.87971°N 2.82626°W
Area	Cumbria
Architect	Peter Nicholson
Architectural style(s)	Medieval and Georgian
Listed Building – Grade I
Official name	Corby Castle
Designated	1 April 1957
Reference no.	1087717
Listed Building – Grade I
Official name	Cascade to West of Corby Castle
Designated	1 April 1957
Reference no.	1335535
Listed Building – Grade I
Official name	Salmon Coops to South of Corby Castle
Designated	1 April 1957
Reference no.	1087677
Listed Building – Grade I
Official name	Wall and Gatepiers to East of Corby Castle
Designated	1 April 1957
Reference no.	1087674
National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens
Official name	Corby Castle
Designated	1 July 1985
Reference no.	1000662
	Location of Corby Castle in Cumbria

Corby Castle is a Grade I listed building^[1] and ancestral home of a cadet branch of the prominent Howard family situated on the southern edge of the village of Great Corby in northern Cumbria, England.

History

It was originally built in the 13th century,^[1] as a red sandstone tower house by the Salkeld Family, who also owned the nearby Salkeld Hall of similar age.^[2] It was sold in 1611 to Lord William Howard (1563–1640), the third son of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, who added a two-storied L-shaped house onto the peel tower.^[3] Henry Howard (1757–1842) inherited the estate from Sir Francis Howard, Lord William Howard's second son. The present façade was built for Henry by Peter Nicholson between April 1812 and September 1817.^[4]

In 1981 the castle was used as a location for the filming of a five-part BBC dramatisation of Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White.^[5] Robert Martin and Ian Yeates started a glassworks in the grounds of Corby Castle in 1986.^[6]

Corby Castle was sold^[7] by Sir John Howard-Lawson Bt.^[8] and Lady Howard-Lawson in 1994 to Edward Haughey, Baron Ballyedmond, a Irish businessman and Ulster Unionist Party life peer. The principal contents of the castle were sold in 1994 through Phillips of Scotland.^[9] Lord Ballyedmond carried out a total refurbishment of the castle, using it for both family and corporate entertainment. After his death in a helicopter crash in 2014 the castle was put up for sale by his estate in 2024, with an asking price of £15 million.^[10]

Historic listing designations

Corby Castle is a Grade I listed building, the highest grade.^[11] The estate has a number of other Grade I listed structures including: the eastern gate lodge and its walls and gate piers;^[12]^[13] the cascade which descends to the River Eden,^[14] a dovecote;^[15] a walled kitchen garden;^[16] a set of salmon coops;^[17] a small garden temple known as The Tempietto.^[18] and a set of caves, known as St Constantine's Cells, believed to have been excavated in medieval times by the monks of Wetheral Priory.^[19] A statue of St Constantine was added to the grounds to commemorate the cells by Philip Howard in 1843. It is a Grade II listed structure.^[20] A statue of Polyphemus is listed at Grade II*.^[21] The estate itself is listed at Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England.^[22]