Dilston Hall
| Dilston Castle | |
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Dilston Castle, 2005
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 Dilston Castle
 Dilston Castle shown within Northumberland |
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| OS grid reference | NY975633 |
| Coordinates | 54°57′54″N 2°02′20″W / 54.965°N 2.039°WCoordinates: 54°57′54″N 2°02′20″W / 54.965°N 2.039°W |
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Dilston Castle is a ruined 15th century tower house situated at Dilston, near Corbridge, Northumberland, England. It has Scheduled Ancient Monument and Grade I listed building protection.
A three storey tower was built by Sir William Claxton on the site of an earlier pele tower in the 15th century.
In 1621 the castle was acquired by the Radclyffe family as a result of the marriage of Edward Radclyffe to the Dilston heiress. The Catholic Radclyffes built a private chapel adjacent to the house in 1616 ( the chapel also has Ancient Monument and Listed Building status).
In 1622 Sir Francis Radclyffe incorporated the tower house into a new manor house, which was to become known as Dilston Hall.
A later Francis Radclyffe was a supporter of the Royalist cause during the Civil War and his estates including Dilston Hall were sequestrated by the Commonwealth. The property was reverted to the family at the Restoration. The 3rd Earl began in 1709 an ambitious programme to replace the old house with a substantial mansion. The new mansion was never completed. The 3rd Earl James Radclyffe took part in the Jacobite uprising of 1715, was convicted of treason and executed in 1716. The ghost of his wife is reputed to haunt the castle.
His brother Charles Radclyffe, also involved in the rebellion, escaped to France, but was (like his brother) attainted of high treason. He returned to support the later 1745 uprising, was captured and executed in 1746 in accordance with the sentence imposed 30 years before.
The attainder of the 3rd Earl would normally have resulted in his property (including Dilston) passing to the Crown. However, he only had a life interest under his 1712 marriage settlement, so that his estates passed to his 2-year-old son John, who died aged 18. On his death in 1731, the estates would have passed to his uncle Charles Ratclyffe, who he was still living abroad, but he had also been attainted in 1716. After him, the estates might have passed to his son James Bartholomew Radclyffe, 4th Earl of Newburgh, but an Act of Parliament (4 Geo. I c.21) had been passed in 1731 amending ("explaining") an Act of Queen Anne concerning naturalisation (7 Anne, c.5) so as to exclude the children born abroad to attainted persons from being British subjects. This prevented James Lord Kinnard and any siblings from inheriting (since foreigners could not own land in England). Accordingly, the estate would have reverted to the right heirs of the 3rd Earl, but his interest was also forfeit to the Crown.
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Wikipedia