APPROACHING MIDDLEHAM A.J. Pollard It is only in recent years that Middleham has taken on the mantle of the Ricardian point of pilgrimage. Once upon a time, before Kendall, it was just a remote northern town, known more for its racehorse training and Neville connections. It is the late twentieth-century rediscovery of Richard III's northernness, allied to the grandeur of the castle ruins, which has really put it on the map. That and some cunning marketing by English Heritage and the town council led by its indefatigable mayor, Peter Hibbard. Perhaps the turning point was the summer of 1983 during which the people of the town mounted a highly successful festival to celebrate their most famous (adopted) son. We ought to bear in mind therefore that Richard III's Middleham is really a modern invention. Yes, Richard III did his bit for it; yes, he set up a collegiate church there; yes, he used its resources to recruit followers in the region. But then Richard did his bit for all sorts of places, south as well as north; once he was king he turned to York Minster for a far grander chantry chapel; and, if equivalent documentation had survived for elsewhere, the 'Middleham Connection' would not stand out as much. Besides which, he didn't stay there that often: not at all in the year 1473-4 for which a bundle of estate documents has survived. He is to be found more frequently at Pontefract, and as often at Barnard Castle to the north upon which, literally, he left a more lasting mark. But then nothing beats Middleham as a place to visit. Come over from Catterick garrison and the moors to the north. The view as you drop into Wensleydale is superb. Moreover, as you approach up the hill from the river, you get an unmistakable sense of a hill-town in south-western France. Until recently you would have been welcomed in the square by 'Richards Butchers.' No, not an indication of a Yorkshire sense of humor, but actually the surname of the butcher. Now it is the 'Middleham Butchers,' which is not as evocative. But the Black Swan next door is still as welcoming; there is no need to visit any other pub in the town. You must however visit the 'Old School Arts Workshop' up the hill where there will be an exhibition of local artists' work on display, some books to buy, a cup of tea to be had, and, if you feel inclined, a lesson in sculpture from one of Henry Moore's pupils. The church is disappointingly Victorian, but now displays a replica of the Jewel unearthed nearby in 1985 in addition to the sentimental glass window put up by the Richard III Society. But of course it is the castle looming up behind the market square which is the high point of the visit. Remember that in the fifteenth century there were no buildings between it and the market place. Remember, too, as you go round the lawns cut every morning with nail scissors that this is not the interior aspect of the castle Richard III knew. At ground level it would have been cramped, dark and dingy -- as it still can be on winter days. But this murky zone is where only the menials mingled; literally below stairs. To go with the lord of the castle and his entourage, you need to go up the great flight of steps on the side of the keep. There at the top lay the chapel on the left, the great hall on the right. And it might have been Richard who raised the roof to create the clerestory. And then the private and guest apartments were mainly in the curtain walls, linked by wooden passages that bridged the yard below. To get the sense of Middleham as it was lived in you have to be on the first floor, not down in the basements. English Heritage has recently opened up access to the oratory off the main hall; you might like to imagine Richard himself, and his duchess, withdrawing there with their primers and books of hours: Richard himself seeking protection from all those enemies lurking in the crannies. And you must go up to the new viewpoint on the battlements of the keep. Here with Kendall's Richard you might rediscover the native spirit of your soul as you contemplate the vast sweep of the landscape. And you never know: you might also catch the glint of gold glistening in a furrow recently turned by a farmer. Middleham was other things than a residence in the fifteenth century. The north range, holding the auditor's chamber, reminds us that it was the administrative centre of an extensive lordhip, and for most of the fifteenth century the de facto heart of the honor of Richmond which the lords of Middleham controlled. Councilors, lawyers and accountants met here to execute their lord's business, often of a highly sensitive kind, such as agreeing to rise in rebellion against Henry VI in 1458. Even Henry VII, the earl of Richmond himself, continued to use it as an office block long after 1485. Its massive walls and secure gate fitted the castle for another purpose. Edward IV was twice a guest of Warwick the Kingmaker: on the second occasion, for two months in 1469, unwillingly. The unfortunate Anne, Countess of Warwick, spent ten years of her life staying as her son-in-law's guest; and her nephew, George Neville, the degraded son of John Neville, also enjoyed a grace and favor apartment there; on the other hand, the widowed countess of Oxford seems to have preferred to transfer her estates to Richard of Gloucester, rather than spend a winter holiday in Wensleydale in 1473, an offer she did refuse. Not all of Richard III's contemporaries appreciated Middleham in the same way as we do today. To us in the twentieth century Middleham is a romantic spot in unspoilt countryside; a vestige of Merrie England, and all that was good before 22 August 1485. Then it was a residence, an office block, and a prison, the headquarters of a a mighty lord and a grim reminder of the immense power wielded by him over the inhabitants of the district. About the Author: A. J. Pollard, professor of history at the University of Teesside, is the author of The Middleham Connection, North-Eastern England During the Wars of the Roses, and Richard III and the Princes in the Tower, and is widely regarded as the leading authority on the history of the region during the Yorkist era. This article is reprinted from the Winter 1994 issue of the Ricardian Register.