Wilton is a small village in

Redcar and Cleveland Redcar and Cleveland is a borough with unitary authority status in North Yorkshire, England. Its main settlements are Redcar, South Bank, Eston, Brotton, Guisborough, the Greater Eston part of Middlesbrough, Loftus, Saltburn and Skelton. Th ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

, England. In 1951 the parish had a population of 958.

Geography

It is located between

Redcar Redcar is a seaside town on the Yorkshire Coast in the Redcar and Cleveland unitary authority in the county of North Yorkshire, England. It is located east of Middlesbrough. The Teesside built-up area's Redcar subdivision had a population of ...

and

Eston Eston is a Village in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland, North Yorkshire, England. The ward covering the area (as well as Lackenby, Lazenby and Wilton) had a population of 7,005 at the 2011 census. It is part of Greater Eston, which include ...

at the base of Eston Hills – to the east of

Eston Nab Eston Nab is a local landmark to those who live along the River Tees, in north-east England. A nab is a rocky promontory, or outcrop, and Eston Nab, marking the highest point – at – on the escarpment which forms Eston Hills, appears as a ...

. The village is noted for its golf course and castle,

Wilton Castle Wilton Castle is a 12th-century Norman castle located in south-eastern Herefordshire, England on the River Wye adjacent to the town of Ross-on-Wye. The castle is named after the manor associated with it. This castle in Herefordshire, st ...

. It lies just south of the A174 trunk road. On the other side of the A174, is the village of

Lazenby Lazenby is a village in the unitary authority of Redcar and Cleveland and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. It is located just off the A174, a 2-minute drive away from Eston Eston is a Village in the borough of Redcar a ...

History

The parish church is dedicated to St Cuthbert. Wilton Castle was sold to ICI in the 1940s.

Wilton Castle

is an early 19th-century mansion house, built on the site of a medieval castle, now converted into residential apartments. It is a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

Wilton Castle, Teesside (geograph 2264814)

The

Bulmer family The Bulmer family were a noble family of Normans, Norman England, resident in Yorkshire. The family takes their name from Bulmer, North Yorkshire. The name Bulmer comes from British english, English "Bull mere", a lake frequented by a bull, and is ...

owned the manor of Wilton in the 13th century and were granted a

licence to fortify In medieval England, Wales and the Channel Islands a licence to crenellate (or licence to fortify) granted the holder permission to fortify his property. Such licences were granted by the king, and by the rulers of the counties palatine within the ...

their

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

in 1210. In 1331 Ralph Bulmer was granted permission to build a castle on his manor. The estate was confiscated by the Crown following the

attainder In English criminal law, attainder or attinctura was the metaphorical "stain" or "corruption of blood" which arose from being condemned for a serious capital crime (felony or treason). It entailed losing not only one's life, property and hereditar ...

and execution of Sir John and Lady Bulmer for

high treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

arising out of their part in the

Pilgrimage of Grace The Pilgrimage of Grace was a popular revolt beginning in Yorkshire in October 1536, before spreading to other parts of Northern England including Cumberland, Northumberland, and north Lancashire, under the leadership of Robert Aske. The "most ...

in 1536. The manor was restored to their son but was lost again, by sequestration in 1644, following Sir William Bulmers opposition to Parliament during the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

. It was again later restored but the castle had been

slighted Slighting is the deliberate damage of high-status buildings to reduce their value as military, administrative or social structures. This destruction of property sometimes extended to the contents of buildings and the surrounding landscape. It is ...

by Parliamentary forces and made uninhabitable. The estate was purchased in about 1806 by John Lowther of Swillington, brother of the

Earl of Lonsdale Earl of Lonsdale is a title that has been created twice in British history, firstly in the Peerage of Great Britain in 1784 (becoming extinct in 1802), and then in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1807, both times for members of the Lowth ...

. Lowther demolished the remains of the medieval castle and built, in about 1810, an imposing mansion house on the site, to a design by architect Sir Robert Smirke. The

Gothick Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

design includes a fifteen bay frontage with a four-storey

castellated A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

tower at the centre, flanked by castellated and gabled bays and turrets and five bayed two-storey wings. Lowther was created a

Baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

in 1824 (see Lowther Baronets). On the death of the third Baronet in 1894 the Baronetcy passed to his grandson but the Wilton Castle estate passed to his younger son James Lowther. The family sold the property in 1945 to

Imperial Chemical Industries Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a British chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain. It was formed by the merger of four leading British chemical companies in 1926. Its headquarters were at M ...

for use as offices occupied at various times by major industrialists such as

Richard Beeching Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching (21 April 1913 – 23 March 1985), commonly known as Dr Beeching, was a physicist and engineer who for a short but very notable time was chairman of British Railways. He became a household name in Britain in the e ...

and Sir John Harvey Jones. The park was developed as a golf course for ICI staff. ICI sold it in 1999, after which the golf club was acquired by its members and the castle converted into residential apartments.

Wilton International

Wilton International Wilton International is a multi-occupancy industrial site in Redcar, North Yorkshire, England. Originally a chemical plant, it has businesses in a variety of fields including energy generation, plastic recycling and process research. History a ...

is a multi-occupancy chemical manufacturing site located on the north side of the A174 road, beginning less than one mile from the village of Wilton. The site was formerly wholly owned and operated by ICI and was opened by the

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

in 1956. Following the fragmentation of ICI, since 1995,

Enron Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was founded by Kenneth Lay in 1985 as a merger between Lay's Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both relatively small regional companies. ...

owned the facility briefly before it was acquired by Sembcorp, a Singaporean utility company. A number of multinational chemical companies now operate on the site and Sembcorp have built the UK's first wood fired power station, Wilton 10, on the site. In 2013, they announced a new waste to energy plant, to be known as Wilton 11.

References

External links