Wilton is a small village in

Redcar and Cleveland Redcar and Cleveland is a unitary authority area with borough status in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. Its council has been a unitary authority since 1996. The borough was created in 1974 as Langbaurgh, and was one of four ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

, England.

Geography

It is located between

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

and

Eston Eston is a former industrial town in the Redcar and Cleveland unitary area of North Yorkshire, England. It is part of Greater Eston, which includes the outlying settlements of Grangetown, North Yorkshire, Grangetown, Normanby, Redcar and Clevel ...

at the base of Eston Hills – to the east of Eston Nab. The village is noted for its golf course and castle, Wilton Castle. It lies just south of the A174 trunk road. On the other side of the A174, is the village of Lazenby.

Demographics

In 1951 the parish had a population of 958.

History

The Anglican parish church is dedicated to

St Cuthbert Cuthbert of Lindisfarne () ( – 20 March 687) was a saint of the early Northumbrian church in the Hiberno-Scottish mission, Celtic tradition. He was a monk, bishop and hermit, associated with the monastery, monasteries of Melrose Abbey#Histo ...

. Wilton Castle was sold to ICI in the 1940s. On 1 April 1974 the civil parish was abolished and merged with Guisborough.

St Cuthbert's Church

St. Cuthbert's Church, now an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church, was founded before 1100. As with the nearby church in

Kirkleatham Kirkleatham is an area of Redcar in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland in North Yorkshire, England. It is approximately north-northwest of Guisborough, and south of Redcar centre. It was listed in the Domesday Book of 1086. The area has a ...

, also named after St Cuthbert, it is s believed that the body of St Cuthbert was carried through Wilton by the monks of Lindisfarne, on their way from Ripon to Durham. The church is included in the map of this journey at Durham Cathedral. In Norman times, the parish of Wilton-in-Cleveland came under the domain of Gisborough Priory. Following the dissolution of the monasteries, the church fell into disrepair. It was only in 1850 that restoration of the church took place. This was with the financial help of the landlord of Wilton, Sir J.H. Lowther. Original stones, as far as possible, were used in the restoration. In 1907 another restoration began, Again, the original stones were used, this time they were numbered so that they could be placed in the same position again. Marks on the walls inside the church are believed to have been made by Cromwell's soldiers from sharpening their arrowheads and other weapons.

Wilton Castle

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 is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

. The Bulmer family owned the manor of Wilton in the 13th century and were granted a licence to fortify 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 usually held the lord's manorial courts, communal mea ...

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 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 hereditary titles, but ...

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 d ...

arising out of their part in the

Pilgrimage of Grace The Pilgrimage of Grace was an English Catholic popular revolt beginning in Yorkshire in October 1536 before spreading to other parts of Northern England, including Cumberland, Northumberland, Durham and north Lancashire. The protests occurre ...

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 or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

. 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 is sometimes extended to the contents of buildings and the surrounding landscape. It ...

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

Swillington Swillington is a village and civil parish near Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough. It is situated east from Leeds city centre, north of the River Aire, and is surrounded by streams including Fleaking ...

, 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 design includes a fifteen bay frontage with a four-storey castellated 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 industry, chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain. Its headquarters were at Millbank in London. ICI was listed on the London Stock Exchange ...

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 ...

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 is a multi-occupancy chemical manufacturing site located on the north side of the

A174 road The A174 is a major road in North Yorkshire, England. It runs from the A19 road at Thornaby-on-Tees, across South Teesside and down the Yorkshire Coast to Whitby. The A174 is the coastal route between Teesside and Whitby; the alternative 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 most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

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

Enron Enron Corporation was an American Energy development, energy, Commodity, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. It was led by Kenneth Lay and developed in 1985 via a merger between Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth, both re ...

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

The Wilton Centre

Village history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilton, Redcar And Cleveland Places in the Tees Valley Villages in North Yorkshire Imperial Chemical Industries Unparished areas in North Yorkshire Former civil parishes in North Yorkshire Redcar and Cleveland