What noble ranks would commonly own a medieval castle in England?

Answer 1

In short, those that could afford it, and had permission to build one.

Land in medieval England was held of the king in the era of castle building. It was portioned off to reward those who the king liked, in the simplest terms, and the vast majority was handed out by William I after 1066 to those families who helped him. One, for instance, was the de Clare family who took their name from Clare in Suffolk, one of the manors they had been given. They had permission to build a castle here. They also built one at Tonbridge in Kent on another manor they owned, all paid for by the tithes and taxes brought by the people who lived on the land. The de Clare family shared a grandfather with William I and one member gave his life to protect the young William during an assassination attempt, hence the gift of most of Suffolk, parts of Essex, Norfolk and around half of Kent. A later member of the de Clare family built Caerphilly castle in Wales, probably the most highly defensive castle ever built in the British isles, not just to protect his own lands, but to aid the king in protecting the realm from the Welsh. These wealthy king's tenants-in-chief, who held their land directly from the king, were the ones who built the great medieval castles.

Those who built castles without the permission of the king had them destroyed, regardless of the size. During the civil war between Stephen and Matilda in the early to mid twelfth century so-called 'bastard' castles were raised by those with the cash and audacity taking advantage of the various power vacuums that persisted but many of these, including Allington in north Kent, were pulled down on the instructions of Henry II, even though Allington was only a small castle, not much more than a hall with a few attached outbuildings. In the case of Allington, a manor house was built immediately on the same site and later permission was sought and granted to crenenlate it, i.e. make it into a castle.

As wealth became more widespread through trade and and the release of the strangle-hold of feudalism on land holding, other, less lofty lordlings built castles as well as the ruling families. These tended to be more houses than defensive structures. By the fifteenth century castles were dying out as a defensive structure. Tudor residences were rarely defensive in the same way and the castle had outlived its usefulness.