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At one time the site of a modest Elizabethan manor house, built by Sir Ralph Bourchier on his inheritance to the estate in 1556, the present house a few miles outside of York was created for John Bourchier during the early part of the 18th century. This young man had a keen interest in Italian architecture, and Beningbrough Hall certainly suggests that the expertise of Thomas Archer was sought for the Italiante touches. The Baroque architecture bears all the influence of Vanbrugh and the craftsmanship of William Thornton, a local joiner and architect responsible for work on many of the great buildings in Yorkshire.
The Bourchiers occupied Beningbrough until 1827, when their distant relatives, the Dawnays, came into ownership until 1916. At the sale of the estate, it was feared that the Hall would be demolished but, after months of uncertainty, the beautiful red brick house found a new owner in Lady Chesterfield. A wealthy heiress, Lady Chesterfield wasted no time in renovating the neglected house, and soon filled it with furnishings and pictures taken from her ancestral home, Holme Lacy, until it once again resembled a comfortable family house.
During the Second World War, Beningbrough Hall was taken over by the RAF, and Lady Chesterfield reluctantly moved into a smaller property on her estate. As soon as the military departed, the house was suitably restored and Lady Chesterfield was able to return to the Hall in 1947, where she remained until her death ten years' later. Few alterations or improvements were made at Beningbrough throughout the Bourchier's occupation, and a beautifully crafted marquetry panel from the first Elizabethen house still survives in the Great Staircase panelling of the present Hall. Delightful displays of delicate Chinese and Japanese porcelain appear on corner china closets throughout the house, and a few family portraits from both the Chesterfield and Bourchier collections. Beningbrough, however, is most noted for its collection of 120 important English portraits from the 17th and 18th centuries, on loan from the National Portrait Gallery. For a taste of over-indulgent luxury, the superbly crafted state bed heavily draped with crimson damask, and decorated with all the ostentatious trimmings very much in vogue at the beginning of the 18th century, surely takes pride of place.
With little known of the building history, when the National Trust acquired Beningbrough Hall in 1958, they were only able to re-create 'the spirit of the house' rather than restore the house to a virtually unknown arrangement of rooms and décor. With the Trust's careful attention to detail, the exceptional interiors, and the impressive art collection.
Sitting atop its impressive mound, Clifford's Tower is the only remaining medieval section of York Castle. It was named after the Lancastrian Roger Clifford who was hung in chains here after the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322. The present keep was erected by King Henry III in the 13th century. It replaced a previous wooden structure which had a twin on Baile Hill over the river. Clifford's Tower is notorious as the site of York's most shameful hour. The city's Jewish population took refuge there after being attacked by a local mob in 1190. They were offered baptism or execution, but chose a third option instead. They took their own lives in a mass suicide pact. A modern memorial records the event. The tower is owned by English Heritage and is open to the public. There are great views from the top.