England

County Durham

Lambton Park, North Lodge

54.867

-1.536

circa 1796-97

1801 w/19th century alterations and additions

Partially Extant

In the 1930s the 4th Earl of Durham demolished both Dobson and Smirke’s additions, the service ranges, and the link between Bonomi’s range and the tower.

Grade II*

Grade II

No

2.S. Vol. I, p. 140, 1854.

CXXXIX, 664 [Photocopy], 726 plan, 1966.

Vol. I, 1818.

Limited Access

Individual / Family Trust

Private Home

Earl of Durham; Lambton family here since 1688.

SEATED AT EARLIER HARRATON HALL: D’Arcy family, 17TH century. Hedworth family, 17th century. SEATED AT LAMBTON CASTLE: John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, 19th century.

The current house was build around the 17th century Harraton Hall. Harraton was probably rebuilt for John Hedworth in the early 18th century. A 1716 "Vitruvius Britannicus" plate indicates a plan for remodeling the house in the Palladian style; it seems unlikely that this design was ever carried out.

Rebuilt for William Henry Lambton

The Lambton family acquired what is today the Lambton Estate from the Hedworth family in 1688. Over 100 years later, William Henry Lambton commissioned Joseph Bonomi the Elder to build him a house in the style of a Norman castle. Incorporating the existing 17th century Harraton Hall, the new house was built between 1796 and 1801 and may have been influenced in its design by Brancepeth Castle. Bonomi’s son, Ignatius Bonomi, enlarged and castellated the House in the 1820s for John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham. Lambton was severely damaged by subsidence in 1854 (the foundations, built on old coal workings, began to give way). Over £35,000 was spent to fill the seams and to stabilize the foundations, a cost of approximately £2.5 million in inflation adjusted 2010 values using the retail price index. In the 1850s and 1860s Lambton was largely rebuilt at great expense (over £45,000), including the Great Hall, the port-cochère, and the reception rooms) to the designs of John Dobson and Sydney Smirke. In the 1930s the 19th century additions were largely demolished, some of the contents were sold to pay death duties, and the Lambton family moved to the nearby, smaller, early 18th century Biddick Hall. In 1966 Lambton Castle was leased to Durham County Council as a teacher training school, a purpose it no longer serves.

The Park is the site of an annual pheasant shoot. Between 1972 and 1980 the grounds were also home to Lambton Lion Park. Penshaw Monument, a Greek style memorial to the 1st Earl, is located on nearby Penshaw Hill, which was formerly part of the Lambton Estate.

"The Paradise" (2012 - TV series, as department store interiors and exterior street).