The Castle, its estate and the planned village were developed from around 1150 by the Hansard family. In ancient charters, Walworth is called Waleberge, an Anglo-Saxon name meaning a settlement of the Welsh, or Old British people who were driven westward by the pressure of Anglo-Saxon settlement. The Jenison family ruled over Walworth Castle from the 16th Century until it was sold in 1759 after which it passed through many hands. In 1950 the Castle was sold to Durham County Council where they turned into a residential school for girls. In 1981 it was bought from the Council and turned into the hotel that it is today. Walworth's paranormal residents are many, from ghostly footsteps being heard in one of the turrets on stairs that are no longer there, to the often sighting of a Grey Lady floating down a hallway on the first floor. Residents have woken from their sleep to the feeling that someone is in the room with them. The beautiful Jenison suite is a hotspot of paranormal activity as is the corridor outside room 17. Staff who have worked there have been touched by an unseen entity and one chambermaid regularly had her pigtails gently tugged.