Lowther Castle
Above: Lowther Castle
EVEN now, abandoned to its ghosts, to the winds and rains rushing in from the Lakeland mountains in the west, it is easy to imagine grand times at Lowther Castle. By day, sportsmen would ride and shoot on the fells. By night, the Bentleys would approach along the great tree-lined drive and, inside, the gentry and the titled, the ladies in elegant gowns, would enjoy the best food and wine, dance to midnight and beyond under the chandeliers or walk the terraces in the moonlight. Apart from energetic days and nights of jollity Lowther was a centre for cultural and political life.
Hogarth, Boswell, William Pitt were among those who counted the Lord Lonsdale of their time as a friend, as did William Wordsworth. Now there are just the records and old pictures to recall the riches and the splendour that was Lowther. One shows a line of about a dozen posh cars which were all owned by the fifth earl. They were also all painted yellow, a mark of his eccentricity which was Lowther's undoing. The place is a ruin. ‘We'd call it a romantic ruin,’ says John Turner, land agent of the Lowther estate. He adds the words ‘at the moment’ for in the language of the planners Lowther is due for ‘regeneration’.
Lowther now is best known for its fair and the horse trials. But in one of the major restoration jobs in Britain the plan is to make it a huge tourist attraction of international fame, a place for conferences, festivals, exhibitions, performances, music, art and drama in a great amphitheatre, and a centre for world class educational facilities. A raised walkway will allow visitors to explore the castle ruins and a rooftop restaurant and viewing platform on the main tower will give views across the spectacular land.
The project will be set in 140 acres of gardens which will be reclaimed and restored with the help of world-class designers. It is described in the literature as ‘one of the most exciting projects to have happened for many years in the UK.’ Unofficially it has been likened to the awe-inspiring Eden Project in Cornwall. Meanwhile the first job has been to stabilise the castle which means halting the decay. It stands alone in the field, collapsing and rotting.
There is no roof. Entire walls and floors have gone. Bits of masonry fall to the ground and, until the workmen arrived, the only life here was the visiting birds, the weeds, nettles, ragwort, even trees growing out of the walls and rubble. Yet the Lowthers have a long, distinguished and colourful past. A William de Lowther lived in the time of Henry II. A de Lowther served with Henry V at Agincourt and a Sir Richard was twice imprisoned in the Tower of London by Queen Elizabeth. The splendid castle and huge estate obviously required sound management, which were not the characteristics of the fifth earl.
He was a fanatical sportsman who did much to take raise the standing of boxing and who sponsored the Lonsdale belt. He was chief steward of the Jockey Club, a master of foxhounds and president of the AA. His passion for yellow extended beyond painting his cars, to his pet Labrador - he is even the reason the AA badge is yellow. But his great talent was spending money and his love of the high life.
This social circle included Edward VII. The wealth of the estate evaporated. Finally the trustees of the estate called an end to such extravagance. The free-spending earl moved out in the mid-1930s and others were left to rebuild the fortunes of the Lowther estate, near Penrith. The contents of the house, including pictures and statues, were sold. Some of the vacant spaces remain, a hint of the treasures that were here. One has the inscription.
‘From the Palace of Caesars Rome.’ The roof and some interior walls were also removed. During the war the Tank Regiment moved in. Top-secret work was carried out, something to do with lights or lasers to blind the enemy. But when the tank men left, leaving behind the concrete hard-standing areas which remain today, no one else moved in.
Lowther has been deserted for more than 50 years. Besides restoring the castle, the other huge task is reclaiming the gardens in what is a strange, lost world. A machete would be useful to explore but hidden in the woods, the weeds, nettles and tangled undergrowth there are the remains of a beautiful fantasy created long ago.
There are summer houses, perhaps as many as a dozen, silent fountains and ponds, mossy stone terraces and seats, a tiled floor in the orangery and almost lost traces of paths made with worked stone removed from Shap Abbey. Somewhere there are imported specimen trees which will also have to be identified and reclaimed. Amid the once beautiful gardens now lost in the wilderness piped water flowed over the plants arranged at different heights in small stone towers, seven in a kind of circle, like a mini-Stonehenge.
The job will take ten years and cost more than £70m. But the people behind the plan hope to recoup some of that when Lowther becomes a major UK visitor destination, attracting 750,000 people a year for pleasure, business, learning, leisure, and simply to walk the lovely acres and the reclaimed gardens. ‘The challenge is to find a 21st century use for a castle which simply has become a modern day liability, a black hole in the estate,’ says Turner. ‘Now with money, people with vision and energy we are on the way to bringing the land, gardens and a derelict ruin into public use again.’
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