Winkies Castle

General information

Winkies Castle is a 16th Century (or even earlier) half cruck cottage, originally believed to be a long house. The museum was founded by local Master Shoemaker Jack Anderson in the early to mid 1970’s.

Jack died in May 2001 and left the building and his collection (The Anderson collection) to Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council on condition that they maintained it as a museum. The Council agreed to take it on as long as a group of local volunteers could be found to run the project and find funding.

The Friends of Winkies Castle was officially launched on 17th July 2003, initially with only 15 people who formed a committee. FOWC was established by and for the local community to manage and develop the building and the Anderson collection for the benefit, interest and enjoyment of the people of the borough of Cleveland and visitors to the area.

The building was surveyed and an action plan drawn up. Sources of funding were identified and approached for help.

An enthusiastic group of volunteers cleared the building of its contents, removing them to Kirkleatham Museum in Redcar where they began painstakingly conserving, identifying and cataloguing. A process which took thousands of hours.

The rubble and debris were removed from the garden and a sustainable design was drawn up incorporating the existing apple tree. After 2 years of hard work the museum reopened in 2005.

The garden has evolved and now has a wide range of fruits, herbs, vegetables and flowers and a small pond, encouraging various wildlife such as birds, bees and frogs. The office extension has an environmentally friendly biodiverse sedum living roof which was installed a couple of years ago.

FOWC is a “not for profit" organization and any funds received from memberships, entrance charges etc are used to sustain the work of the organization, thus preserving Marske and surrounding area’s history and heritage.