Parochial Church of St John the Baptist, Edlingham, with Bolton Chapel.

NU 116092/Ruin/EH

The first Castle dates to around 1295 when the land was sold by Walter de Edlingham to one William de Felton who built fortified hall here on the site of Edlingham's previous moated manor house. His son, also William, inherited the hall in 1328 and began to turn the hall into a Castle proper, adding a gatehouse, a tower which is to all intents and purposes a small keep, and a curtain wall. The last de Felton, John II, died in 1396 and the Castle passed to the Swinburnes who remodelled it along the "fortified manor house" lines more popular by that stage. Only the base of the curtain wall and gatehouse remain standing. The tower was built in the mid to late C14. It was built adjacent to the earlier hall to provide private accommodation for the owner and his family. Because of its role in providing such private living space it is known as a 'solar' tower. The three-storeyed tower's north and west walls survive almost to their full height. Excavated 1978-82 by G J Fairclough.