History of the name:
In the year 1749, Langley Castle was seized by the crown from the Radcliffe family and was given to the governors of the Royal Hospital for Seaman in Greenwich. The Hospital only had an interest in this gift purely as a source of income from the associated rented farms, lead mines at Alston and smelting mills at Langley.
The Castle was left in the hands of the hospital governors until 1882, who, when on discovering that the mines and smelting mills were suffering badly from foreign competition, were quick to sell. They found a buyer in Cadwallader John Bates, a former Sheriff of Northumberland.