 Duchy records for the honour, show that the castle had a constable and a porter in the 1480s.A survey in 1602 described the castle as very ruinous, warning that buildings were very likely to fall down, with another in 1608, stating that parts of the decayed buildings had actually collapsed.In 1644, during the Civil War, Prince Rupert left a garrison at the castle on his way to relieve the parliamentarian siege of York.