The mystery castle I didn’t know I was passing in 1957-1960….

In 1958-1960, when I lived just outside Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, I remember that about 1.74 miles/2.80 kilometres from my home I often passed an old farm close to a parish church. I simply noticed, that’s all. Back then I wasn’t particularly interested in history. I was a teenager, more concerned with the likes of Buddy Holly, Duane Eddy, Marty Wilde, the Everly Brothers, Lonnie Donegan et al. And more fearful of upcoming ‘O’ levels than what fate might have befallen an obscure castle.

So imagine my surprise when, in the course of delving around in my research today, I happened upon a certain Greasley Castle in Nottinghamshire. Imagine my even greater surprise when I looked on Google Maps and found that it had once occupied the site of the very farm (called Greasley Castle Farm, see Facebook) that I’d observed so frequently back in 1957-1960!

The castle dated from the middle of the 14^th century, when it was built by Sir Nicholas de Cantilupe. The Cantilupes were a very important family who included a saint among their number. Nicholas’s great castle wasn’t only close to Nottingham, but also to Bestwood, where the kings and nobility enjoyed the very finest and most exclusive of hunting. Their hitherto almost lost castle was thought to have greatly resembled nearby Haddon Hall, and it flourished until a later owner fought in vain for Richard III at Bosworth. A century after that it was “a roofless ruin” and soon after that had almost vanished. It’s thought the stonework was robbed to build local farms and cottages. Alas, ‘twas ever thus.

But interest in Greasley Castle was rekindled back in May 2022, as you can read here. It can never be restored to its former glory, of course, but at least much more is now known about it.