The gatehouse is tolerably perfect on the ground floor. The upper story is in ruins. The portal, about 32 feet deep, is vaulted throughout at different heights and with arches of different curves. It was defended by a portcullis and a pair of gates. The outer portal is handsome and peculiar. It is of about 10 feet opening, and shoulder-headed, the shoulders being worked brackets. Above is a pointed arch of relief, and the tympanum between the two is composed of stones joggled together with great neatness. Above is a good flat-topped Decorated window of two lights trefoiled. Traces of the chain-holes for the bridge are seen in the spandrels of the portal. The gatehouse is evidently of two periods. All behind the portcullis groove is original, either late Norman or early English. The groove with all before it is late Decorated, probably of the age of the upper story of the keep.
Much as the buildings of this castle have suffered, it is curious that the piers, counter-piers, and bridge-pits of the four bridges should remain quite perfect, and all of excellent ashlar. The inner, or pier from which the bridge dropped, is from 9 feet to 12 feet long, and the pit across which it dropped of 12 feet opening. The counter-pier, upon which the bridge dropped, is much longer, from 40 to 45 feet, and as this long and exposed causeway was but 12 feet broad, any body of enemies approaching by it would be placed at a great disadvantage.
It is difficult to form an opinion upon the age of the earthworks of this castle. Either the Romans or the Normans might have laid out an earthwork on a rectangular plan, but when either people desired to construct a place of excessive strength, they employed masonry rather than earthworks. The Saxons and early English, on the other hand, though much given to employ defences of earth, and often upon an immense scale, are not known ever to have made them rectangular. What was the practice of the Romanised Britons, who, inheriting something of Roman arts and military rules, might also well have derived from their Celtic forefathers a taste for works in earth, is not known. Such a fortification as the present may possibly be in part their work. Of course, it is possible that the whole may have been the work of Robert Fursan, especially as, remarkable as it is, it is not named in Domesday nor any early record.
Helmsley appears, as has been stated, in Domesday as “Elmeslae, in the wapentake of Langeberg.” It is now in that of Ryedale; but that this is the place meant seems certain, from its entry in company with Sprostune, now Sproxton, one of its townships, and Harun, now Harome, a chapelry in the parish. The entries are of a very ordinary description. The tenants are—“In Sprostune Turloge Normand et Sortcolf; in Elmeslae, tres Taini; in Harum Sortcol.” When these holders were swept away and who succeeded to them, is not known; but, according to Dugdale, Helmsley was held in the reign of Henry I. by Walter L’Espec, a very famous baron. He appears as connected with Yorkshire, Bedfordshire, and Carlisle, in the Pipe-roll of 31 Henry I., 1130–1; and having lost his only son by a fall from his horse, he founded the abbeys of Kirkham and Rievaulx in Yorkshire, and Wardon in Bedfordshire. L’Espec was a Norman, and held estates in Normandy, but when or how he came over is not recorded. A certain William Spech is recorded in Domesday as a great tenant in Bedfordshire, and he may be the father of Walter, who had lands there. He died in 1153, and in 1157–8 Walter de Bussei is found moving against Robert de Ros for the partition of this estate. Who this Robert de Ros was is uncertain. Adelina, Walter’s daughter and co-heir, married Peter de Ros, who in her right was of Helmsley, or, as it was always called, Hamlake.
Peter de Ros, whose name was derived from his lordship of Ros, in Holderness, was, by Adelina, father of Everard de Ros, who appears in the Liber Niger as the tenant in capite of several Yorkshire fees, which no doubt included Helmsley, as many of the tenants’ names are local, as Hairun, Spouston, and Stainesgrave. Everard, being under age, was then in the wardship of Ranulph de Glanvill. He died before 1186, and was succeeded by his son Robert, third Lord of Hamlake, surnamed Fursan, one of the Magna Charta barons, and the reputed builder of Helmsley Castle. He died as a Templar, and his effigy is still pointed out in their church in London.
Robert de Ros, his grandson, who probably executed the earliest additions to the work of his grandfather, married Isabel d’Albini, heiress of Belvoir.
From them came William de Ros, seventh lord of Hamlake, who died 1342–3, and probably completed the keep and the outer gatehouse and barbican at Helmsley. With his descendant, Edmund, fifteenth lord, the male line failed, and Helmsley passed with his sister and co-heiress Eleanor, to Sir Robert Manners, or rather to their son, George Manners.
His descendant, Francis Manners, sixth Earl of Rutland, became Lord Ros of Hamlake by patent, which, however, died with him, as he left a daughter only, Katherine, who married George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, whose son dissipated the estate, which, at his death, was sold to the ancestor of the present owner. The barony of Ros, or Roos, of Hamlake, was called out of abeyance, but exists quite separated from the castle or estate.