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Lulworth Castle from 1700
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 April 2016
Extract
The owners of Lulworth Castle were Roman Catholic. That distinction from the mainstream of English culture gave Lulworth Castle a special character in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Welds were, and remain, English landowners with their roots firmly in this country, but they were also part of a network which stretched across Europe. Rome had a double significance for cultivated English Catholics. On the one hand was the Augustan idyll perceived through patrician English eyes, which inspired the elegant refurbishment of so many English country houses in the eighteenth century, Lulworth included. On the other, Rome was the head and heart of a religion so alien to the eighteenth-century English establishment that its devotees paid for their loyalty financially, socially and politically.
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- Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 1991
References
Notes
1 Berkeley’s, Joan history of the family, Lulworth and the Welds (1971)Google Scholar has been invaluable in preparing this article. Where no separate reference is given for a point of family history, the source may be assumed to be this work.
2 Barrett, C., ed., The Diary and Letters of Madame D’Arhlay 1778-1840, vol. IV (1905), p. 308 Google Scholar.
3 Publication of a fuller account than space permits here of the whole building and development of Lulworth Castle is the ultimate intention.
4 Dorset Record Office D/WLC/E12.
5 Dorset RO D/WLC/E99. An undated plan of a small, walled formal garden on the south side of the castle (Dorset RO D/WLC/P55) may be mid-seventeenth century, representing the earliest element of the garden shown in 1721. The walls and gates of this garden can be seen in the print, though the layout of the beds is different. A Buck print of 1733 shows the walled southern garden still there, and gives a glimpse of the square beds behind the castle, with the orchard beyond, as in 1721. The garden north of the castle with a central fountain is not shown by Buck, but the removal of a fountain is mentioned in an account of 1754 (Dorset RO D/WLC/AE7), at the time when a new block of outbuildings was being erected on the north side of the castle.
6 Dorset RO D/WLC/P55. The survey of the structure by David Greenhalf confirms that the entrance was not part of the original construction.
7 Identified on their removal in 1965. Berkeley (1971), p. 157.
8 In the manner of, for example, Francis Bird of Oxford.
9 The family’s financial difficulties in the aftermath of the Popish Plot would almost certainly have ruled out any major alterations in the last two decades of the seventeenth century. See Manco, Jean, Greenhalf, David and Girouard, Mark, ‘Lulworth in the Seventeenth Century’, Architectural History, 33 (1990), p. 33 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Recent investigation has shown that as it stands now the entrance is the result of heavy remodelling at the end of the eighteenth century.
10 Oswald, A., Country Houses of Dorset, 2nd ed. (1959), pp. 30–38 Google Scholar; Morrice, R., Archaeological journal (1983), PP- 43–45 Google Scholar.
11 Dorset RO D/WLC/AE5.
12 Dorset RO D/WLC/AE19A, f. 3.
13 Dorset RO D/WLC/P56.
14 Dorset RO D/WLC/AE19A, f. 8.
15 In the centre of the ceiling when it was photographed were the arms of Thomas Weld, for whom the redecoration of 1780 was done. ( Hussey, Christopher, Country Life, 9 Jan. 1926, p. 59)Google Scholar. This and the Weld badge appear to be the only additions to John Bastard’s work on the ceiling. The painted frieze appears to be nineteenth century, replacing a ‘swelling’ frieze with acorns and oak leaves. (Dorset RO D/WLC/AE19A, f. 15.)
16 For Coupar House, see Oswald, A., Old Towns Revisited (1952), p. 88 and n. 10 aboveGoogle Scholar. For 75 East Street see Colvin, H. M., ‘The Bastards of Blandford’ Archaeological Journal (1948), p. 187 Google Scholar, revised in his Biographical Dictionary of British Architects (1978), p. 96.
17 Dorset RO D/WLC/AE6, AE7.
18 Dorset RO D/WLC/P56.
19 Dorset RO D/WLC/AE7.
20 Dorset ROD/WLC/P55.
21 Dorset RO D/WLC/F25, F26, AE7.
22 Dorset RO D/WLC/E89. Catalogued, but the document itself misplaced.
23 Dorset RO D/WLC/AE9. The rooms for which it was bought are not named but the crimson damask curtains of the dining room and Mr Weld’s bedroom were lengthened in 1770 (Dorset RO D/WLC/AE89).
24 Dorset RO D/WLC/AE9, F26, E89.
25 Lockett, T. (pub.), The New Weymouth Guide (1798), p. 51 Google Scholar.
26 Colvin, H. M., Biographical Dictionary of British Architects (1978), p. 96 Google Scholar.
27 Oswald, A., Country Houses of Dorset (1935), pp. xxii, 92Google Scholar; Newman, J. and SirPevsner, N., Buildings of England: Dorset (1972), pp. 129-30Google Scholar.
28 Dorset RO AE10, AE11. The Bastards installed sash windows at Lulworth from 1767 (Dorset RO D/WLC/AE15), but at this period, it seems they simply upgraded the traditional diamond lattice casements with square glass to fit the old mullioned frames.
29 Dorset RO D/WLC/AE10, AEn, AE13.
30 ‘Lullworth Castle’ inset top, Isaac Taylor map of Dorset 1765; ‘Lullworth Castle, the Seat of Thomas Weld Esqr. North East View, taken from Heath Hill’, 1773 and ‘Lullworth Castle the Seat of Edward Weld Esqr. South West View taken from the Grove’, 1774, both engraved by James Basire and published in Hutchins, J., History of Dorset, Vol.I (1774)Google Scholar.
31 Dorset RO D/WLC/AE89. The dining parlour was clearly different from the dining room, on which the Bastards were also working at this date and is itemized separately.
32 Dorset RO D/WLC/P54. The tower room for which this design was made was not indicated on the drawing. The height of the room and position of the fireplace identify it as either the north-east or south-east first-floor tower rooms. The fact that no wall is left free for a bed suggests that it was the dining parlour redecorated by the two Thomas Bastards in 1770. The south-east tower room was being called the Red Tower in 1865 (Dorset RO D/WLC/P58 Chimney plan). The design is not signed, but is on paper with the same watermark as another in the same bundle with notes that match the hand on the Thomas Bastards’ account (D/WLC/AE89).
33 Paine designed a house in Park Lane, London for the 9th Lord Petre. See Paine, , Plans, Elevations . . ., Vol. II (1783), pp. 89, 98, Pb 72-75Google Scholar.
34 Dorset RO D/WLC/AF12.
35 Dorset RO D/WLC/F46.
36 His account for work on Lulworth 1780-82 (Dorset RO D/WLC/AE19A) is mainly for joinery and furniture, though he also provided plasterers and painters. By 1803, he is listed in the Post Office Directory as a builder.
37 Dorset RO D/WLC/AF11. Two survey drawings of a small unidentified chapel signed Tasker are among James Wyatt’s designs for Milton Abbey 1775-76 (RIBA drawings collection cat. no. 15). Joseph Towsey, the Blandford builder who did the masonry work for Tasker’s alterations at Lulworth in 1780, went on to work under James Wyatt in 1788 at Ammerdown Park ( Colvin, H., Biographical Dictionary of English Architects (1978), p. 836 Google Scholar.
38 Dorset RO D/WLC/AE19A, f. 25. Tasker’s account includes a sum for ‘all the plans of the several Storys of Lulworth Castle ... as Improved compleated & Finished in the Year 1782’. These now lost plans appear to have been used as the basis of plans for the electrical wiring of the castle c. 1900 (Dorset RO D/WLC/P62A). Later room alterations have been added, but details betray the borrowing. They show, for instance, the pre-1867 fireplace positions. We are indebted to David Greenhalf for pointing this out. The plans illustrating the text are reconstructions and some details are inevitably speculative.
39 Dorset RO D/WLC/P54.
40 Where no separate reference is given to descriptions of Tasker’s work, the source may be taken to be this account (Dorset RO D/WLC/AE19A), interpreted in conjunction with later plans and the photographs taken in 1925. Some of these photographs illustrated in Christopher Hussey, Country Life, 9 Jan. 1926.
41 Girouard, M., Life in the English Country House (1978), pp. 205, 233Google Scholar.
42 Delamotte, P., The Weymouth Guide, 3rd ed. (c. 1792), p. 93 Google Scholar.
43 Girouard, pp. 206, 231.
44 Dorset RO D/WLC/E99.
45 Dorset RO D/WLC/AE19A, f. 13. Tasker removed the old stair and put in a small spiral stair, shown on a ground plan c. 1900 (Dorset RO D/WLC/P62A: see note 38 above).
46 Dorset RO D/WLC/P90. The design is unsigned, but identifiable by his handwriting. The watermark is 1803.
47 Dorset RO D/WLC/E99: Inventory 1722; D/WLC/AE19A: references in Tasker’s account to the ‘doorway out of New Hall leading to Store Room’ confirm its position. Part of this room evidently continued to be used for stores, while the rest was partitioned off as the butler’s pantry.
48 Dorset RO D/WLC/E99: Inventories of 1722 and 1729 name the smoking room adjacent to the store room.
49 Dorset RO D/WLC/F46. A brick dated 1775 is visible in the podium wall in room D3. Presumably one of a batch made the previous year, but used in 1776.
50 Dorset RO D/WLC/P54: ‘Section of the Chappel (No. 1)’, ‘Section of the chappel, with groins (No.2)’, ‘Chappel Section (No. 3)’. None of Tasker’s plans and elevations for Lulworth Castle interiors is signed, but most are identifiable both by his handwriting and a distinctive decorative mark after the scale.
51 Dorset RO D/WLC/P54: ‘North view of the Chappel’. Plan and section evidently of the final design show the windows with mullions and a niche inserted. The east wall was slightly canted in the interests of perfect symmetry in the pilasters and arching of the north wall. Dorset RO D/WLC/P54: ‘Plan of the Staircase, chappel &c’. Scribbled alterations to this plan include blocking in the proposed window and replacing it with a pulpit. Dorset RO D/WLC/AE19A: Tasker’s account for work on the chapel includes painting and gilding the pulpit.
52 Dorset RO AE19A, f. 2.
53 The details of the tribune itemized in Tasker’s account and its appearance in his design No. 1 tally with the tribune in the Country Life photograph of the tower chapel.
54 Though Paine uses them at Nostell Priory 1760s in the dining room, they seem to be linked to the scheme for the old chapel here. Some palms were carved and gilt in burnished gold by Tasker’s men, but not enough to complete his design. References to taking down palms over pilasters in the chapel and then replacing them suggests that some old palms were reused (Dorset RO D/WLC/AE19A ff. 1, 10, 11).
55 Dorset RO D/WLC/E38/167.
56 Dorset RO D/WLC/E92.
57 Dorset RO AE19A, ff. 18, 27; Delamotte, P., The Weymouth Guide 3rd ed. (c. 1792), p. 94 Google Scholar.
58 J. Berkeley, Lulworth and the Welds, p. 169: In a letter to Lord Arundell in 1789, Thomas Weld describes the breakfast room as being on the ground floor. This tallies with Delamotte, P., The Weymouth Guide 3rd ed. (c. 1792), p. 94 Google Scholar where the description of the breakfast room, with its ceiling painted by Mr Hague, is fitted between that of the Saloon and Eating-Room. The breakfast room was in the south-east tower room on the ground floor in 1867 (Dorset RO D/WLC/P58 chimney plan). This room was later known as the Sea-View Tower Sitting Room or Boudoir and contained a mahogany bookcase in the late nineteenth century (Dorset RO D/WLC/E103, E106), which identifies the tower room in the Country Life photograph. The latter identification has been confirmed by Sir Joseph Weld, who recalled the ceiling painting surviving before the fire of 1929.
59 Dorset RO D/WLC/AE19A, f. 17: six doors, ironmongery includes two sets sham furniture. The sham door on the north is visible in a Country Life photograph. The sham door on the east was evidently removed when the real door in that wall was blocked in 1867.
60 Dorset RO D/WLC/AE19A; Delamotte, The Weymouth Guide, p. 95; Hussey, Country Life, 9 Jan 1926.
61 Dorset ROD/WLC/E91.
62 Dorset RO D/WLC/AE19A; Delamotte, The Weymouth Guide, p. 93. There were thirty-three shields over the column screen and four large ones over the doors.
63 The New Weymouth Guide, p. 50.
64 Dorset RO D/WLC/F46.
65 Delamotte, The Weymouth Guide, p. 96, catalogues nine paintings, two drawings and some miniatures as being in ‘Mrs. Weld’s Dressing-Room’. Dorset RO D/WLC/AE19A, f. 26: a large number of picture frames were made for Mrs Weld’s Dressing Room, also referred to as the ‘Ladies Dressing Room’.
66 See note 28.
67 Dorset RO D/WLC/E92, D/WLC/AE19A, D/WLC/AF15.
68 Holt, T. G., ‘Thomas Weld’s New Chapel at Lulworth: Some Contemporary Correspondence’, Dorset Nat.Hist, and Arch. Soc. Proc, Vol. 98 (1978), pp. 33–41 Google Scholar.
69 Berkeley (1971), p. 171-5; Holt, loc. cit., p. 33; Dorset RO D/WLC/AE19B.
70 Diary and Letters of Madame D’Arblay, vol. IV, p. 308. The precious stones are in the door of the tabernacle and include lapis lazuli and amethyst. ( Hutchins, J., History of Dorset, 3rd ed., (1861), Vol. 1, p. 376)Google Scholar.
71 This involved building a wall in place of the columns which had supported the tribune to make a passage through to the new tower room chapel in the former sacristy. A holy water stoop in this passage, just before the entrance to the tower room chapel, can still be seen in the wall of the castle. Above the passage, the tribune was converted into a mezzanine passage to the chapel gallery. Furniture was specially made to fit the canted east end of the room. (Hussey, Country Life, 9 Jan 1926).
72 Dorset RO D/WLC/AE19B.
73 Dorset RO D/WLC/C126.
74 The round windows either side of the eastern entrance first appear in a sketch of Lulworth Castle by J. P. Neale dated August 2 1827 (Dorset County Library Extra-illustrated Hutchins III, p. 29). An engraving from this was published in Neale, J. P., Views of the Seats of Noblemen in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland 2nd series, Vol. IV (1828)Google Scholar.
75 Dorset RO D/WLC/AF28-38.
76 Delamotte, The Weymouth Guide, p. 97.
77 Dorset RO D/WLC/P52, P66. Both sets of plans are signed and those for Preston are dated 1812.
78 Works in Architecture of Robert and James Adam (1773).
79 Possibly one of the Flemish or South German Hagues (Haig or Haag) listed by Thieme-Becker, some of whom did spend time in England.
80 RIBA Drawings Collection.
81 Jaggard, Anthony, ‘Lulworth Castle’, Archaeological Journal (1983), p. 52 Google Scholar.
82 Dorset RO D/WLC/E95.
83 The Builder, July 8, 1882.
84 Dorset ROD/WLC/E95.
85 Dorset RO D/WLC/AE69.
86 Dorset RO D/WLC/AE69, E39/7. The area originally housing the stair well was cut back to the north to create a new long hall of uniform width and given a ceiling of panelled wood. In the centre of the ceiling arched glazing lit the stairwell above.
87 Dorset RO D/WLC/E89.
88 Dorset RO D/WLC/E99: Inventory of 1828.
89 Dorset RO D/WLC/AE69: ‘cutting away angles in Billiard room’ appears to fit the masonry work visible in the Country Life photograph; D/WLC/E39/6/9.
90 Dorset RO D/WLC/AE69: ‘pulling down partitions and other fittings in Mr Weld’s study’, ‘lathing partitions outside of study ‘;D/WLC/P58: chimney plan of 1867 gives the new flue for’Mr Weld’s . . .’ (wording incomplete, but presumably new study).
91 Dorset RO D/WLC/E38: Hansom’s estimate for repairs to Lulworth 1865 includes ‘Fitting up one tower as Butler’s pantry; D/WLC/AE69: ‘Altering flues in Butler’s pantry’.
92 Dorset RO D/WLC/AE69.
93 Dorset RO D/WLC/AF38: furnishings for the bed in the red tower were bought from Ben Shaw in Bath and fitted by a Blandford upholsterer in 1806.
94 Dorset RO D/WLC/AE69: ‘Building piers for new entrance to King’s room’.
95 Dorset RO D/WLC/E39/6 doc. 26. This door was later blocked.
96 Dorset RO D/WLC/E39/6 doc. 40.
97 Dorset RO D/WLC/E39/5 doc. 35.: Tender from G. Haden of Trowbridge for Warming Apparatus 1867.
98 Dorset RO D/WLC/P26A.
99 Dorset RO D/WLC/P91. Some surviving fireplaces on upper floors are in the Liberty style, but do not appear to be part of this scheme.
100 Dorset RO D/WLC/E107; Illustrated London News, 7 Sept. 1929.