En route to Lancaster, I stopped off at Pontefract Castle. Now in ruins, having been demolished in 1649, it’s a place where Henry VIII was betrayed twice: first by the Pilgrims of Grace rebels, who amassed there in 1536, and second by Catherine Howard, who entertained Thomas Culpeper there on progress in 1541. Quite the place of intrigue and ghosts.

Neither of these events are mentioned in the visitor centre, although the chap there was terribly nice to this nosy southerner.

One for my new book, A Visitor’s Companion to Tudor England.