In line with most of England’s great estates Lowther is not short of tales to tell. The people of its past and present have all contributed to its enigmatic, and at times extraordinary, story that places it firmly as a jewel in Cumbria’s crown.
Condensing 1,000 years of history into a manageable form for 21st century visitors to enjoy is a challenge which Lowther Castle has traditionally told as a chronological narrative.
Now, in a reworking of its permanent exhibition, ‘version two’ has been revealed. Still located in the west wing of the castle, it tells of the highs and lows, the nostalgia and the now, in an opulent yet pared back form that gets to the heart of the Lowther story.
There is humour, irreverence, indulgence, appreciation and innovation – all characteristics that have made the estate what it is and, against the odds, ensured
its survival.
The new exhibition – The Story of Lowther 2024 – was a year in the planning and a labour of love for group creative director Vanessa Lowther, creative director and curator Charlotte Fairbairn and their team. Professional designers were dispatched in favour of an in-house installation made by those who know Lowther best working with local suppliers to produce a final result of which they are justly proud.
Charlotte explains: “The previous exhibition had been up for nearly seven years and we felt that members and regular visitors needed something new to look at.
“Printing is also so much more sophisticated now than it was so the way in which we have been able to present the story is one of the significant differences.”
The exhibition is still in the old stables and coach house of the castle courtyard, accessed through the admissions area and shop. The windows are covered so most of the spaces are essentially dark but are brought to life with lighting designed by
specialist Lucy Record.
The concept honours the Lowther colours of black and gold that date back to the original 13th century crest – or, annulets sable – but perhaps made more famous by the infamous ‘Yellow’ Earl.
It is this colour that dominates the entrance to the exhibition which begins with six rigid, vertical banners covered in printed cotton velvet, reminiscent of heraldic hangings. They hang against a printed backdrop of JMW Turner’s famous 1809 painting Lowther Castle: the North Front, with the River Lowther: mid-day that lines the space from floor to ceiling.
“We couldn’t have done this seven years ago,” says Charlotte, who is a novelist when not working at Lowther and therefore a natural storyteller. “One of the things I’m really proud of is that about two thirds of the installation has been done locally. For the banners we worked with Maurice Oliver, at H&H Reeds, in Penrith, who was just brilliant.”
Set on an angle, the banners guide visitors forward and draw them through to the first main space.
Rather than a chronology, the installation tells the Lowther story through themes: Houses, People, Horses, Treasures and Gardens. It begins with a four-minute film that covers nine centuries in the style of a Pathé newsreel with no sound, just subtitles.
The screening takes place in front of a wall of concave alcove dioramas – this was the idea of an external designer Charlotte concedes – whose content reflects the castle in snapshot: a large mirror, a writing desk, flock wallpaper and photographs of its internal architecture and interiors in its heyday in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Because, of course, Lowther as it was then no longer exists.
The rooms were dismantled, the roof and windows removed and the building deliberately made uninhabitable. Today it is a stone skeleton claimed by trees and wildlife, part of a very deliberate garden masterplan. The photographs therefore
offer a fascinating glimpse into the opulent world of its former inhabitants.
There is the picture gallery, walls covered in enormous artworks; the library full of books from, Charlotte believes, acquired collections. “We do have a floor plan of the castle but the rooms changed over time in how they were used. There were well over 200 rooms. We’ve focused on the most significant and grandest.
“From the technique and evidence in the photographs we think they were staged for a photoshoot. They are immaculately arranged and there are no people in them. The thing visitors most want to see are photographs of the castle to see how the family lived here, which I think is a constant curiosity.”
She continues: “People generally have a few questions like why and when did the roof come off, and they are answered in the film. They aren’t coming here to learn the whole history of Lowther, they just want to know a few fun, pub quiz facts.
“It’s quite grown up and that’s a reflection of Lowther itself; it is growing up and everyone is more confident and can look at what we have achieved. I hope that permeates out and that people in the area are very proud of it too.”
They have certainly been a colourful bunch at Lowther over the centuries. Dolfin, believed to be of Viking descent, was the first to settle there in 1150. A medieval ring wall castle was replaced by a pele tower, then a tower with rooms. Later, members of the family fought in the Battle of Agincourt.
Sir Richard Lowther was responsible for defending the country from invasion across the Scottish border and hosted Mary Queen of Scots at Carlisle Castle in 1568 and at Lowther Hall.
The first Sir John Lowther in 1617 left the estate much improved, then a fourth Sir John ‘Jacky’ Lowther, the vegetarian, created a new stable block in classical style. He bought Lowther village but knocked down its tenements, which is why the village church stands alone in the parkland today.
The Queen Anne style Lowther Hall was commissioned in the 1680s with landscaped gardens at a then huge cost of £7,000 (the equivalent today of £120 million), but a fire in 1718 destroyed the main wing. Henry Lowther, the 3rd Viscount Lonsdale, who was incumbent at the time, skedaddled and the core of the building remained empty for nearly a century.
Henry had no heir so a cousin, the tightfisted James, known as Wicked Jimmy, inherited in 1751. “I think he must have had a split personality. He was the richest man in England at the time, a real powermonger, but also a complete miser,” explains Charlotte. A political operator, Wicked Jimmy gifted the Parliamentary seat of Appleby to William Pitt the younger, who quickly became Prime Minister.
Among Wicked Jimmy’s ‘victims’ was John Wordsworth, poet William’s father, who was his political agent. Jimmy refused to pay him, and John was owed £5,000 on his death, initially leaving his family destitute until heir, William Lowther of Swillington, a distant cousin, generously settled the debt.
William, the 1st Earl of Lonsdale, was wealthy and distinguished and wanted a dwelling that both reflected his position in society and could house his art collection. He appointed architect Robert Smirke to build Lowther Castle, in 1806-1812. It became a beacon of the north and hosted kings and a kaiser, Wilhelm II. Smirke went on to design the British Museum.
The legendary 5th ‘Yellow’ Earl, Hugh Lonsdale, lived at Lowther for 50 years; he was a big spender, on horses, cars and other extravagances but not on his ancestral home. Eventually the money ran out and he had to move to a smaller home, quite a comedown for a man who was well known internationally and a proper celebrity in his day.
In 1938 the castle closed and was requisitioned by the army for the development of a top secret weapon in World War Two, which saw large parts of the grounds covered in concrete.
Historic lack of investment coupled with careless spending and the havoc of the century made the castle impossible to maintain after the war and childless Hugh’s brother and heir, Lancelot, was forced to arrange the great 1947 sale of Lowther’s collections. One of the biggest country house sales of the 20th century, there were 7,800 lots of art, furniture and domestic ware, most going for just a fraction of its true value.
Following Lancelot’s death, the abandoned castle fell to his grandson James in 1953. His father had already died suddenly from an alcohol related disease. James described the castle as “the least desirable and feasible” part of his inheritance.
The estate faced an inheritance tax bill of £25 million and, at the age of 33, James, the 7th Earl of Lonsdale, had to decide whether to sell to the government or completely or partially demolish the castle.
Thankfully the demolition plan did not go ahead, and he settled for having the roof taken off in 1957 and the building shed to its bare bones. A series of sales this time saw the infrastructure dismantled, from fireplaces to windows to doorknobs.
Rather than repair any further deterioration, James determined the castle should
be allowed to fall down over time. For the next 40 years it lay empty and unloved; a
pig farm was installed at the front of the building.
With the bones crumbling, in 2000, thanks to the efforts of trustees, public bodies, volunteers and the single mindedness of James’s son Jim Lowther, the current custodian who saw more potential in the ruin than in a house, work began to stabilise the walls, transform the gardens and create the attraction that Lowther Castle and Gardens is today.
In the exhibition film, the revival of the sleeping beauty is reflected, Wizard of Oz style, with black and white footage morphing into full colour as the castle reawakens.
The next room in the exhibition offers a chance to meet the characters as Lowther’s People are introduced in portraiture. They are all there: the MPs, the decorated soldiers, the vegetarian and some of the women in their lives.
The Horses section is appropriately housed in the former stables with its flagstone floor and timber stalls. The family was involved in racing and breeding from at least the 17th century. Viscount Lonsdale imported Arabs that became the founding stock of later thoroughbreds and Wicked Jimmy was a founding member of the Jockey Club.
Their love for their horses saw some of the country’s greatest equestrian artists
commissioned to capture them in paint. Throughout the exhibition, text is kept to a minimum in a bid to encourage visitors to look closer and enjoy the exhibits more; the names of the artworks and their painters or makers are listed separately.
In any case, some of the paintings have old captions that are not wholly reliable thanks mostly to the mischievous Yellow Earl. For instance, one of Henry Lowther as a young man out riding is dated 1695, but in that year the subject was actually only five years old.
Some of the equestrian works are presented on easels which allows them to stand at different levels, some in the foreground and larger works further back.
“We’ve got many more, so in a year’s time or so we will swap them around,” says Charlotte. “We’ve had all the paintings cleaned and some have revealed themselves to be much better than we thought. For example, a James Lynwood Palmer painting of Royal Lancer [winner of the 1922 St Leger] looks really beautiful.”
The art continues in Treasures, with pride of place given to the Turner. Some of the paintings have a particular connection to Lowther, others are part of the estate’s collection.
There is Whitehaven by Matthias Reid, the port and town that Sir Christopher Lowther created as a means to export coal and timber, and there is a landscape by Wicked Jimmy’s wife Mary, an accomplished artist.
All the family bought art but the main collector was William, the 2nd Earl of Lonsdale, who spent a lot of time in the great cities of Europe buying porcelain in particular.
There are romantic stories too, such as General Wolfe who fell in love with Wicked Jimmy’s sister in Bath. “They were effectively engaged, it was a real love affair,” explains Charlotte, “but he died on the battlefield at Quebec and on his death he arranged for a locket to be sent back to her.”
It includes the gold Pitt salver that used to sit on the desk of former Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher at Number 10 Downing Street.
Jim is particularly fond of a gold model of the Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s flagship, as it was always on the dining room table at home. It was presented at the Royal International Horse Show, of which the Yellow Earl was a founder.
Some pieces, and some of the artwork, are identifiable in the interior photographs earlier in the installation.
The final space, as visitors emerge into the light, is Gardens, which are presented in a wall mounted timeline that runs along the back of the building facing the interior
of the castle ruins.
Exhibits include a transcript written in 1640 and the first mapping of the gardens.”
There is Capability Brown’s plan of 1763, the gardens created by lauded Cumbrian designer Thomas Mawson and pictures of the 1902 Japanese garden. One photograph of Red Cross nurses reflects the garden in wartime.
“Standards were maintained for a long time but when the castle was closed for good in 1936 it was the death knell for the gardens. They opened for one last time in 1939 then the tank regiments came and for 70 years it was abandoned,” says Charlotte.
A Remembering Lowther Day some years ago invited relatives of former staff to share photographs; one is of William Shand who was head gardener for a decade from 1872.
It comes right up to date with Jim’s launch in 2012 of the 20-year landscape masterplan designed by Dan Pearson the most recent part of which, the Rose Garden of 20,000 roses, opened last year. The aim is to return the 130-acre gardens to a more naturalised landscape.
The exhibition exits into the gardens at the front to offer a grand vista of the building.
Around 125,000 visitors came last year, and it is hoped with tourist numbers rebuilding post-pandemic that the new exhibition will help them understand a little more of the history of the unique castle and its story.
Lowther Castle and Gardens is open daily all year round (except Christmas day), in summer from 10am-5pm, winter from 10am-4pm. Last entry is one hour before closing.
lowthercastle.org
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