was badly damaged. At the time it was estimated that the damaged to the castle and surrounding area would take £1,000 to repair. Wressle Castle was slighted (partially demolished) on several occasions in 1646–50. The 1648 demolition work was focused on the castle's battlements, with a contemporary letter noting that “[Parliament’s] agents would show no care in preserving any of the materials, but pitched of[f] the stones from the battlements to the ground” Destruction was more extensive two years later, when Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland, was ordered to demolish everything that remain except the south range of the castle. The earl would be allowed to use the surviving range as a manor house. The damage was not confined to the castle buildings, and probably affected the ornamental landscape. The castle remained with the Percy family until the mid-18th century when it passed to the earls of Egremont. The lands and castle were then inherited by Elizabeth Seymour who assumed the name Percy and was later Duchess of Northumberland. Wressle Castle was occupied by a tenant farmer who on 19 February 1796 caused a fire which gutted the castle's remaining wing. He had been trying to clear the chimney. A report three months later in The Gentleman's Magazine noted that “This loss was of truly national significance". The farm continued to be leased to tenants, and the farmhouse which still stands was built . By 1880 the castle was partially covered in ivy. In 1957 the castle and farm were sold to the Falkingham family who own the site today. Wressle Castle is now a Grade I listed ruin and a scheduled monument. The remains include earthworks indicating the moat, and some parts of the castle: the remains of the two towers of the south range; and a building fragment, thought to have been a bakehouse. According to Historic England, the site was first investigated archaeologically in 1993, when Humberside Archaeology Unit held a watching brief. The state of the site deteriorated to the point at which in 1999 Wressle Castle was included on the Heritage at Risk Register. Historic England, Natural England and the Country Houses Foundation invested £500,000 in repairing the castle and in 2015 Wressle was no longer considered ‘at risk’ and was removed from the register. This included architectural and landscape surveys carried out by Ed Dennison Archaeological Services, with funding from the Castle Studies