We were on our way to the North Yorkshire coast for a weekend of vampire spotting in the rather charming fishing port of Whitby. Taking the scenic route through the Yorkshire Dales National Park, we passed some of its most famous sights: Ribblehead Viaduct, the pretty Dales villages of Hawes (spiritual home of Wallace and Gromit) and Aysgarth, and one of the best-preserved medieval castles in Britain.
The 14th century Bolton Castle sits on high ground above glorious Wensleydale on one side of the broad valley we were travelling along. We hadn’t planned to stop but seeing it in the bright spring sunshine we decided to investigate. Plus some of us needed the toilet. It turned out we had ‘chosen’ a good day to visit because the castle was occupied by a group of volunteers on a Living History Weekend.
This was an eye-opening and entertaining bit of good fortune. The volunteers are just ‘normal’ people who spend the weekend in the castle recreating the medieval life of the household. They sleep in the castle, dress in period clothing, do medieval pastimes like embroidery, play period games, and they cook food that would be recognisable to the average 14th century castle owner.
We began in the kitchens. A mother and daughter explained the food they were cooking, the locally sourced ingredients, and style of cooking. It turns out that while not exactly sumptuous by modern standards – we needed a reminder that medieval Yorkshire didn’t even have potatoes, which only arrived after the Spanish had stolen them from the Incas in Peru – those who lived in the castle ate very well.
There was one particularly unappealing dish, pottage or the forever stew, that involved tossing food scraps into a pot hanging over the fire (hence the phrase, ‘one for the pot’). This included leftovers not eaten by the lords of the castle, and often included ‘green’ ingredients that were going a little mouldy. All types of food combined in the pot – grain, meat, vegetables and fruit. I operated a similar system as a student.
The volunteers who were bringing the medieval castle back to life eat only what’s cooked in the kitchens – I feel certain there must have been a buoyant black market in chocolate. We left the kitchen and headed upstairs where more volunteers waited in other rooms to describe castle life for us. In one room we played a highly competitive proto-board game involving stones, and probably invented by bored soldiers.
For modesty’s sake, I won’t say who claimed victory in the medieval gambling games (it was me). In other rooms, volunteers were doing typical female pastimes, painstakingly creating embroidered cloth. The length of time it took to make things in medieval times would horrify most people today. We went to the basement and dungeons where more volunteers demonstrated various military things.
Lifting up a chainmail ‘vest’ gave me a newfound respect for medieval soldiers. It’s heavy. Very, very heavy. I can’t imagine having to spend hours walking around in it, never might fighting other people. We then went off to explore the grounds and gardens, but not before I’d headed to the rooftops to get the spectacular view over Wensleydale. It really is gorgeous.
The castle dates from 1378 and was the seat of Sir Richard Le Scrope. A man of influence, Le Scope was Lord Treasurer and Lord Chancellor during King Richard II’s reign. It’s said he was the role model for the Knight in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. The castle has been at the centre of some explosive moments in British history. This included getting on the wrong side of King Henry VIII in 1536.
The then 8th Baron Scrope supported the Catholic rebellion, the Pilgrimage of Grace, against Henry’s religious reforms. The castle was burned as a result. Not long after, in 1568, its most famous resident arrived. Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned here. Her retinue was so large that it’s said the village of Castle Bolton grew from the need to house them. The church though, was already there, St. Oswald’s dates to 1325.
