Upsall Castle is a fourteenth century ruin, park and manor house in Upsall

Upsall

Upsall is a hamlet in and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately four miles north-east of Thirsk. Upsall is part of the Upsall and Roxby estates owned by the Turton family...

, in the Hambleton

Hambleton

Hambleton is a local government district of North Yorkshire, England. The main town and administrative centre is Northallerton, and includes the market towns and major villages of Bedale, Thirsk, Great Ayton, Stokesley and Easingwold....

 district of North Yorkshire

North Yorkshire

North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county primarily in that region but partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

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The earliest extant building on the site is the ruin of a quadrangular castle

Castle

A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

, probably begun in 1327 by Geoffrey Scrope, which was reputedly demolished in the Civil War.
This castle was replaced by a manor house, which was rebuilt in the 19th century and then rebuilt again following destruction by fire in 1918. Upsall castle is part of the Upsall and Roxby estates owned by the Turton family. The present owner of the castle is Gerald Turton, who works to promote the Beef Shorthorn

Beef Shorthorn

The Beef Shorthorn breed of cattle was developed from the Shorthorn breed in England and Scotland in around 1820. The Shorthorn was originally developed as a dual purpose breed, suitable for both dairy and beef production. However different breeders opted to concentrate on one purpose rather than...

 breed of cattle. He is the third generation of his family to run the Upsall herd, which is the oldest in the country having been established in 1909 by Gerald Turton’s great uncle Sir Edmund Turton.

Crocks of Gold

The following story is related in English folklore:

Many years ago there resided in the village of Upsall a man who dreamed three nights successively that if he went to London Bridge he would hear of something greatly to his advantage. He went traveling the whole distance from Upsall to London on foot arrived there he took his station on the bridge where he waited until his patience was nearly exhausted and the idea that he had acted a very foolish part began to rise in his mind. At length he was accosted by a Quaker who kindly enquired what he was waiting there so long for. After some hesitation he told his dreams. The Quaker laughed at his simplicity, and told him that he had had that night a very curious dream himself, which was, that if he went and dug under a certain bush in Upsall Castle in Yorkshire, he would find a pot of gold; but he did not know where Upsall was, and enquired of the countryman if he knew, who seeing some advantage in secrecy pleaded ignorance of the locality; and then thinking his business in London was completed, returned immediately home dug beneath the bush, and there he found a pot filled with gold and on the cover an inscription in a language he did not understand. The pot and cover were however preserved at the village inn where one day a bearded stranger like a Jew made his appearance saw the pot and read the inscription the plain English of which was



Look lower where this stood
Is another twice as good

The man of Upsall hearing this resumed his spade returned to the bush dug deeper and found another pot filled with gold far more valuable than the first encouraged by this he dug deeper still and found another yet more valuable.

the "Crocks of Gold" origins

Similar legends can be found throughout Europe and the Middle-East. The earliest version is one of the poems of the Mathanawi

Masnavi

The Masnavi, Masnavi-I Ma'navi or Mesnevi , also written Mathnawi, Ma'navi, or Mathnavi, is an extensive poem written in Persian by Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, the celebrated Persian Sufi saint and poet. It is one of the best known and most influential works of both Sufism and Persian literature...

 titled "In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo: In Cairo, Dreaming of Baghdad", by 13th century Persian poet Jalal al-Din Rumi. This poem was turned into a story in the tale from The One Thousand and One Nights: The man who became rich through a dream; and spread through various countries folklore, children's tales and literature. More recently the story was adapted into the plot of the novel The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho

Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist.-Biography:Paulo Coelho was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He attended a Jesuit school. As a teenager, Coelho wanted to become a writer. Upon telling his mother this, she responded with "My dear, your father is an engineer. He's a logical,...

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the Upsall curse

John Constable, who resided at the castle in 1610, was a supporter of the Royal cause during the Civil War. He is said to have left a curse on any owner of Upsall who should prove disloyal to his king and country.