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The castle is thought to have been built by Sir John de Pulteney (died 8 June 1349) , financier and 4x Mayor of London, who was granted a licence to to furnish a wall or a manor house with battlements at the dwelling place of his manor in Cheveley in 1341. The resulting structure, which is the only Edwardian castle in Cambridgeshire, is more likely to have served as a mark of Pulteney's status than as a military stronghold, and to have provided a prestigious hunting lodge as the centerpiece of a deer park established shortly thereafter. The walls and towers were still standing in the early 17C. The park may have been created around the castle by John Pulteney. Sir Robert Cotton's imparkment of 12 a. c. 1510 was probably an addition and perhaps marked the abandonment of the castle for a new site. His grandson Sir John Cotton (d. 1620) built a brick house at the south-west corner of the park. In the 1660s and 1674 it had 21 hearths. Henry Jermyn rebuilt it by 1681, when two views were painted for him by Jan Siberechts. The main rooms occupied a double-pile east wing, of two storeys with attics and basements, facing down an avenue leading from the northern end of the village high street.
Jan Siberechts (1627–1703) was born in Antwerp, the son of a sculptor with the same name. After establishing himself as an artist in Flanders, he moved to England during his forties. Siberechts was one of scores of Dutch & Flemish artists who came to Britain in the 17C. He was baptized in Antwerp in 1627. He was elected to the Guild of St Luke in 1648. By 1674, he was in England, apparently at the encouragement of George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, who had seen some of Siberechts's landscapes in Antwerp in 1670. The artist was a Catholic, & one of his daughters became a lace-maker for the Queen. He was best known in England as a painter of topographical views of country houses & more general landscapes. He seems to have traveled widely in Britain, and was in Wales in 1696. He remained in England until his death.
