Lambton Castle

Lambton Castle
Lambton Castle in the late 19th century.
Lambton Castle  Lambton Castle shown within County Durham
OS grid reference	NZ298526
List of places: UK • England • County Durham

Lambton Castle, located in County Durham, England, between the towns of Washington and Chester-le-Street, is a stately home, the ancestral seat of the Lambton family, the Earls of Durham. It is a Grade II* listed building.

The Entrance of Lambton Castle in 1929. Everything on the right hand side of the picture (including the Great Hall, the roof of which can clearly be seen) has been demolished, along with the end of the wing that was built out towards the location of the camera. The crenellated towers on the end of the entrance portico were rebuilt to suit the narrower facade. A similar view post-demolition can be found here.

Largely constructed in its present form in the early 19th century by John George Lambton, first Earl of Durham and one-time Governor General of Canada, it was built around the existing Harraton Hall, a 17th century mansion. The castle was designed by architects Joseph Bonomi the Elder and his son Ignatius and built in the style of a Norman castle, as was the fashion of the time. The building overlooks the wooded Wear Valley and it was paid for with coal mining wealth accumulated from the mines which ran below the castle and others right across County Durham.

Later additions to the house built in 1862-5, including the great hall, were largely demolished in 1932. Also at this time, the contents were auctioned off to pay death duties and the family moved to the smaller Biddick Hall on the estate.

The park that surrounds the castle is bordered by a high wall and is still used for an annual pheasant shoot. For a time in the 1970s, the castle's grounds were also home to Lambton Lion Park, opened in 1972 and closed in 1980.

Penshaw Monument, an Ancient Greek-style memorial to the first Earl, is located on nearby Penshaw Hill, which was formerly part of the Lambton Estate. This is also reputed to be the resting place of the mythical Lambton Worm, as depicted in the famous North East folk song.

The northern edge of the castle's park marks the boundary between the counties of Tyne and Wear and County Durham.

Since the 1960s, the Lambton family have continued to sell off parts of the estate to developers, most notably the land that was used to develop Washington New Town, which was the subject of a compulsory purchase order. A more recent transaction was the sale of the Biddick Woods Estate, which now includes the link road from the A182 to the A690 in Houghton le Spring and new business units.

The Castle and Estate is quite a local secret, many people living in the north east of england are not aware there is a castle within the estate. Its often mixed with Lumley Castle. There are very few pictures on the internet of the castle as it stands today. A limited number of pictures of the Estate and Castle have surfaced on Google Earth.

As of 2011, the recently refurbished castle is available for weddings, conferences, banquets, and as a location for filming. It now features a new website http://www.lambtoncastle.co.uk/

See also

• Castles in Great Britain and Ireland
• List of castles in England

External links

• English Heritage: architectural description of listed building