Upsall Castle in South Kilvington

UPSALL, in the parish of South Kilvington, and wapentake of Birdforth; 4 miles NNE. of Thirsk, in an elevated situation upon the Hambleton hills. The Mowbrays had formerly a castle here, and were succeeded by the Scroops, who were lords of Masham and Upsall. Pop. 118.

The ancient family of Scropes had formerly a castle here; Sir Geoffrey le Scrope, Chief Justice of England in the reigns of Edward II. and Edward III. being Lord thereof. The last male branch of the Scropes who held this manor and castle, was the second Thomas, Lord Scrope, whose sister, Elizabeth, married Sir Ralph Fitzrandolph, and with her went the castle of Upsall. --Archaeol. vol. xvi. What little remains here, have been converted into a farm house and out-offices. In 1814 some remains of a round tower at the north-west corner were to be seen. It is now the property of Mr. Peters, bequeathed to him by the late Dr. Turton.

Near the great house on the steep hillside is the fine forge of 1859, with the words Upsall Town craved over its horseshoe archway. Higher still climb the few cottages, to where an opening in the road suddenly reveals a magnificent view to the west, over the great Plain to the long low lines of the fells.

Built by the Turtons who have lived here for nearly two centuries, the 19th century Upsall Castle was destroyed by fire in 1918. The first castle was from the 14th century a home of the Scropes, though their story belongs to Masham and Bolton Castle. A tale of their association with Upsall concerns a Scrope who found the first castle in ruins, and dreamt that at if he stood on London Bridge he would find enough money to build it again. We are told that, dressed as a begger, he stood there for three days till a tinker said, 'I see you are as poor as I am, but if only I could get to Yorkshire, I would soon be rich.'

'What would you do?' Scrope asked. 'I would find gold under an elder tree near Upsall Castle,' replied the tinker. The tale goes on to say that Scrope hurried back to Yorkshire, found the gold, and rebuilt the castle.

Upsall Castle

England

Many years ago there resided in the village of Upsall a man who dreamed three nights successively that if he went to London Bridge he would hear of something greatly to his advantage. He went, traveling the whole distance from Upsall to London on foot. Arrived there, he took his station on the bridge, where he waited till his patience was nearly exhausted, and the idea that he had acted a very foolish part began to arise in his mind.

At length he was accosted by a Quaker, who kindly inquired what he was waiting there so long for. After some hesitation, he told his dreams. The Quaker laughed at his simplicity, and told him that he had had that night a very curious dream himself, which was, that if he went and dug under a certain bush in Upsall Castle in Yorkshire, he would find a pot of gold; but he did not know where Upsall was, and inquired of the countryman if he knew, who, seeing some advantage in secrecy, pleaded ignorance of the locality; and then, thinking his business in London was completed, returned immediately home, dug beneath the bush, and there he found a pot filled with gold, and on the cover an inscription in a language he did not understand.

The pot and cover were, however, preserved at the village inn, where one day a bearded stranger like a Jew made his appearance, saw the pot, and read the inscription, the plain English of which was:

Look lower, where this stood
Is another twice as good.

The man of Upsall, hearing this, resumed his spade, returned to the bush, dug deeper, and found another pot filled with gold far more valuable than the first. Encouraged by this, he dug deeper still, and found another yet more valuable.

This story has been related of other places, but Upsall appears to have as good a claim to this yielding of hidden treasure as the best of them. Here we have the constant tradition of the inhabitants, and the identical bush still remains beneath which the treasure was found -- an elder near the northwest corner of the ruins.

Source: Eliza Gutch, County Folk-Lore, vol. 2: Examples of Printed Folk-Lore Concerning the North Riding of Yorkshire, York, and the Ainsty (London: Published for the Folk-Lore Society by David Nutt, 1901), pp. 408-409.