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Stockton Castle was situated at the southern end of the High Street, in the area now occupied by the Swallow Hotel and multi-storey car park.
The castle was originally a manor house owned by the bishops of Durham; they used it as an occasional residence, place for entertaining guests and home for dependents and wards of the bishops. The earliest recorded reference to the castle is in the Boldon Book, a survey of County Durham made in 1183. However, decorated stonework found on the site has been dated to between 1150 and 1170, so there must have been a building on the site before the survey. The earliest reference to the building as a castle came in 1376, when one of the bishop's wards was abducted from it. In 1597, Bishop Matthew fled to Stockton to escape the plague in Durham.
The castle is known to have had a moat- it is clearly shown on the 1856 map of the town- although this does not mean that the building was a castle as we think of them. During the medieval period many structures had moats, including manor houses, farmsteads and even gardens. The moat at Stockton was probably constructed during the early thirteenth century.
The bishop of Durham was a wealthy and powerful local lord and the building, judging from the quality of the excavated stonework, was an impressive one. King John stayed at Stockton in 1246 and Bishop Farnham was resident in Stockton from his retirement in 1249 until his death in 1257.
The castle was much more than just a home for the bishops. It was the administrative centre of the bishops' manor of Stockton. A bakehouse was roofed in 1503-4 which, along with a furnace and great barn, was for the use of the bishops' tenants. In 1515 the bishop had a staithe built on the river. Each September during the years 1531-5 a number of men were admitted to various ranks of the church in an ordination ceremony held in the castle's chapel.
Under Bishop Pilkington (who died in 1575) the castle seems to have gone into decay and the survey of the castle, made after Pilkington's death, puts the cost of repairs at £1585 3s.
In 1640, the King's forces were stationed at Stockton. Unfortunately they were unruly and in 1641 the residents of Thornaby complained about them. In August 1644 Stockton was taken by the Scots, who remained there until 1647. In the same year, on the 13th July, Parliament resolved to dismantle the castle and by 1652 it had been removed.
Sadly, we do not have a reliable picture of the castle. An artist's impression was produced during the last century, but the reliability of the picture is not known.
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