Haggerston Castle was a castle located in the county of Northumberland, England at Haggerston about 5 miles (8 km) south of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Only the tower, rotunda and stable block (Grade II listed buildings) remain. Today it is part of a caravan park owned by Haven Holidays.^[1]

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Haggerston Castle
Northumberland, England
Haggerston Castle showing tower and Rotunda
Haggerston Castle Location in Northumberland
Coordinates	55.687°N 1.935°W / 55.687; -1.935
Grid reference	NU042436

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Haggerston Castle was first mentioned in sources in 1311 when Edward II visited the castle and again in 1345, when it was described as a 'strong tower' and was granted a licence to crenellate by Edward III. This licence is recorded in the Calendar of patent rolls (1343–45),^[2]

The inhabitants of the castle, the de Hagardestons, are believed to have been part of the 11th century invading force of William the Conqueror, which penetrated as far north as Berwick-upon-Tweed. The land at Haggerston was then boggy and wet, the remaining lake a remnant of that time. There are few records of the early history of Haggerston Castle as fires have destroyed much of the castle with its documents. It is known that John de Hagardeston inhabited the castle in the late 12th and early 13th century, his death having been documented as circa 1210. He married into the Manners family of Cheswick, Northumberland. The name de Hagardeston appears to have been changed to the anglicised spelling of Haggerston with Thomas Haggerston, born circa 1458.

In 1642 Sir Thomas Haggerston was created the first baronet of Haggerston in the Baronetage of England. The Haggerstons married into many great families such as the Cheswick family, gaining large amounts of land. In 1785 Haggerston was in the ownership of Sir Carnaby Haggerston who married Francis Smyth, and their daughter Mary, in 1805 married Sir Thomas-Massey Stanley of Hooton Hall in Cheshire, to whom the ownership of Haggerston Castle devolved. The Baronetcy passed to Sir Carnaby's nephew, Thomas Haggeston of Sandoe and Ellingham, Northumberland. Sir William Thomas Stanley-Massey-Stanley, 10th Baronet (1806–1863) of Hooton amassed considerable gambling debts and c.1839 both Hooton Hall and Haggerston Castle came into the ownership of the Naylor/Leyland family.

While developing the gardens and landscaping at Haggeston, Christopher Leyland was sent by his brother John, six Cupressocyparis × leylandii, a hybrid tree that was the result of spontaneous cross-pollination at Leighton Hall in 1888 when the female flowers or cones of Nootka cypress (Cupressus nootkatensis) were fertilised by pollen from Monterey cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa).^[5] In 1925 a firm of commercial nurserymen specialising in conifers were looking for a particular breed; one that was fast growing and could be deployed in hard-to-grow windy and salty areas such as Cornwall. Eventually they found the six original trees developed by Leyland and began propagating the species, calling them "Haggerston Grey" in respect to their origins.^[6] In 1953 a freak tornado blew down one of the original trees; subsequently the Forestry Commission started developing hybrids from the five survivors. Commercial nurseries spotted the potential of the now termed "Leylandii", and it is one of the biggest-selling items in garden centres in Great Britain.^[7]