Baynard Castle, Cottingham

The castle earthworks were rectangular in shape, with a bank and ditch, enclosing approximately 11 acres (4.5 ha), a second line of ditch fortifications protected the northern half of the castle.

[1] The male line of the de Stutevilles ended in 1233, and the castle was acquired by the le Wake family.

[5] In 1327 a second licence to crenellate was issued to Thomas Wake, but by the time of his death in 1349 the manor house was said to have fallen into decay.

[4] The manor of Cottingham was split between three daughters in 1407, after which the castle appears to have fallen out of use, though the gatehouse was rebuilt in 1500–1.

[4][7] Entering into the South Part of the great Uplandisch Town of Cotingham, I saw wher Stutevilles Castelle, dobill dikid and motid, stoode, of the which nothing now remanynith.A legend exists relating to an earlier manor, supposedly destroyed on the orders of its owner in 1541, who, expecting a visit from King Henry VIII, and fearing the possibility of the King's amorous attentions towards his own wife, not least the effect on his own well-being, ordered the house set fire to, so that he could avoid the monarch's visit.