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Lambton Castle
Lambton Castle stands above Chester-le-Street, County Durham and is a stately home, the ancestral seat of the Lambton family, the Earls of Durham. It is listed in the mid-category of listed building, Grade II*.  HistoryLargely constructed as it is between 1820 and 1828 by John Lambton, first Earl of Durham and one-time Governor General of Canada, it was built around 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.[1] Later additions to the house built by Sydney Smirke in 1862–65, including the great hall, were largely demolished in 1932.[1] The structure had suffered from subsidence.[2] In the 1930s the family moved to the smaller Biddick Hall on the estate.[3] The park that surrounds the castle is bordered by a high wall. The family keep going its annual pheasant shoot. The grounds from 1972 until 1980 accommodated a venture which closed, Lambton Lion Park.[4] Later the family have sold Biddick Woods enabling a link road from the A182 to the A690 in Houghton-le-Spring and new business units.[5] In 2012, the castle was the setting of the BBC One drama The Paradise.[6] On 30 December 2015 plans for the estate's development were submitted to the local planning authority to help fund park upkeep and conservation, with a vision to turn the castle into a wedding venue, boutique hotel or both, aiming to spend £26 million to £28.5 million on building and labour. The plans were submitted by the Trustees of Lord Durham’s 1989 Voluntary Settlement, which manages the estate on behalf of the family.[7] See alsoReferences
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