Lambton Castle and Estate, Co. Durham

 

Lambton Castle and Estate, Co. Durham

The Lambton Estate is a sylvan enclave of 800 hectares in the midst of the urbanised North East. It was formed by the Lambton family in the early 18th century and straddles the picturesque gorge of the River Wear. There are over 20 listed buildings, including Grade-II* Lambton Castle and Grade-I Biddick Hall, and the park is Registered Grade II.

The Estate had been in economic decline since its heyday in the 19th century, when the family lived off the vast proceeds of coal mining. To arrest the decline and fund regeneration of the historic structures and landscape, high quality housing is being developed in the least sensitive parts of the park.

Our conservation team and structural engineers collaborated with the Landscape Agency and a QS to prepare a Conservation Management Plan as part of the evidence base for a Local Plan housing allocation. The CMP includes a costed 15-year Action Plan to repair and reuse numerous historic buildings and the landscape. This was instrumental in securing Historic England’s support for housing in the registered park, and is an exemplar of how landscape and buildings conservation can work intelligently together to revive complex historic places.

We have since compiled a Restoration Management Plan to aid the long-term restoration of each building and structure on the Estate, in accordance with the Section 106 obligations, and our engineers are now assisting the Estate with repairs to historic structures, notably the elegant Grade II* Lamb Bridge. Deformed by scouring and mining subsidence, the engineers have carried out complex investigation and analysis to understand the causes and develop sensitive solutions to prevent the collapse of the bridge.

Client: Lambton Estate