AN historic castle which was home to Richard III and Henry VIII among others now has a new owner.

The ruins of Sheriff Hutton castle have been sold as part of an estate, along with a large farmhouse and adjoining cottage, outbuildings and land extending to about 11.5 acres.

Estate agents Stephenson & Son said they understood “the property was sold privately and we were not party to that sale”.

The quadrangular stone castle was built by John, Lord Neville in the late 14th century. It was home at various times to Richard Neville, known as “Warwick the Kingmaker”, as well as Richard III and Henry VII. In 1525, Henry VIII gave the castle to the French nobleman Sir Henri Le Carre.

The estate was last put up for sale in 2007 by long-term owners Dr Richard Howarth and his wife Jenny, but it was then withdrawn from the market in 2011 after the sale fell through. In 2017, they then made the “difficult” decision to sell the estate.

The lot had been for sale through agents Stephenson & Son, who described it at the time as “a very rare thing to come on the market”.

Dr Howarth wrote a history of Sheriff Hutton castle in 1993.

In it he described how it was built in the late 14th century from sandstone quarried in Terrington, and how it became a key royal residence in the north of England for several centuries.

The castle was an important seat in the north for Richard III. The last Plantagenet king helped establish the “Council of the North” here in 1484.

In his history Dr Howarth added: “For two hundred years, the castle was extended and modernised, but from the middle of the 16th century, King’s Manor in York became the more convenient and preferred seat of the Council of the North.

“The stone was plundered to build neighbouring houses including Sheriff Hutton Hall and by the late 1700s it was pretty well in its present state.”

According to the agents, Sheriff Hutton Castle is a Grade-II listed building. The remainder of the land was designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument in the 1950s.