Castle Eden - History

History

During the Danish occupation, the village was known as South Yoden, or "Yew Dene," but following the end of Danish occupation in 960AD, the village took its present name of Castle Eden, thus no connection with its biblical namesake. (Note also Horden) Both the Domesday Book and the King's Book record Castle Eden as a small village, but make no mention of any castle. In 1764, the estate of Castle Eden was purchased by Rowland Burdon from William Turner, in which the deeds describe a pathway passing a ruined medieval chapel across a bridge and through the village leading up to the ruined manor and castle. It is commonly considered that this is the area named "The Village" and that the present Parish Church of St. James (Parish of Monk Hesleden) is built on the site of the chapel mentioned.

In the 1760s, a farm labourer digging out a hedge discovered a fine glass beaker, known as "The Castle Eden Beaker". It now resides in the British Museum.

Rowland Burdon returned to the estate in 1766 to work on "The Castle" as it became named, adding the present Regency Gothic wing. Sir John Soane, renowned Regency architect, visited the completed castle on his way from another project. He drafted plans, proposing a potential Neoclassical remodelling of the structure. Burdon in the end chose not to commission him.

The Nimmo family would go on in 1826 to found what would come to be known as the Castle Eden Brewery, trading as J. Nimmo and Son Limited. Other families such as the Savilles owned their rope works and bleachery for sail cloth manufacturing, making the village, at the start of the 19th century, a fairly industrious one. However, as with so many similar sites, as the Victorian era moved on, so did much of the industry.

In the course of the 19th century, the by now much expanded, but still lowly populated and spread out village, acquired a railway and railway station, a police station and a magistrates' court. These were all closed in the 1960s and their buildings demolished. The village also had its own primary school which closed in the 1970s.

Until the 1980s, the village still had a post office, which subsequently closed, leaving the Castle Eden Inn, the golf club and the village hall as the only amenities. In 1998 the national brewer Whitbreads, who had purchased the brewery from the Nimmo family in the 1960s, announced its closure. For a short while brewing continued there but the site was finally sold and in 2003 redeveloped as houses. The only evidence that the brewery existed is the fine roadside Victorian façade which was retained.