Castle (formerly known as Castle Acoustics) is a British Loudspeaker brand, first established in 1973. Castle Acoustics was founded in 1973 and takes its name and its logo from the 11thC historic Skipton Castle, the

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

market town of

Skipton Skipton (also known as Skipton-in-Craven) is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the East Division of Staincliffe Wapentake in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the River Aire and the Leeds ...

having been Castle's home from its foundation to 2006.

History

In 1932 the former wool merchant Gilbert Briggs from

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

formed The Wharfedale Wireless Company primarily to further the design and manufacture of loudspeakers to reproduce as accurately as possible the music in which he was keenly interested. His legacy has over two generations passed to the Castle Acoustics of today. Moving to Skipton in Craven (Airedale), located in an old woollen mill, Castle Acoustics was born on 3 September 1973. Almost twenty years later, with the original founders approaching retiring age, a second group of senior executives from Wharfedale made a proposal to buy out the original management team. Castle was rescued from bankruptcy by the International Audio Group (IAG) adding the brand to its portfolio which includes

Wharfedale Wharfedale ( ) is one of the Yorkshire Dales. It is situated at source in North Yorkshire and then flows into West Yorkshire and forms the upper valley of the River Wharfe. Towns and villages in Wharfedale (downstream, from west to east) includ ...

QUAD QUaD, an acronym for QUEST at DASI, was a ground-based cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization experiment at the South Pole. QUEST (Q and U Extragalactic Sub-mm Telescope) was the original name attributed to the bolometer detector instrume ...

, audiolab, Mission,

Leak A leak is a way (usually an opening) for fluid to escape a container or fluid-containing system, such as a Water tank, tank or a Ship, ship's Hull (watercraft), hull, through which the contents of the container can escape or outside matter can e ...

and Luxman. During the mid to late 2000's, Castle found new success with manufacturing at IAG's self-owned manufacturing facility, in China with new models such as Castle Knight, Castle Avon and updated version of Castle Richmond IV, all winning critical acclaim. In 2023, Castle announced the return to UK manufacturing with the Castle Windsor series of loudspeakers. Designed in collaboration with long-term Castle fan, Karl-Heinz Fink, Windsor heralds the re-emergence of the brand as 'Made in UK' loudspeaker brand.

References

Sources

* * * * * {{Authority control Loudspeaker manufacturers Audio equipment manufacturers of the United Kingdom Audio equipment manufacturers of China Electronics companies established in 1973 Companies based in Skipton Skipton 1973 establishments in England