WEDDINGTON CASTLE - An Online History

KEY PEOPLE: Robert Lugar (1773 - 1855)

Robert Lugar was a renowned English domestic architect and garden designer, who was responsible for the architectural Gothic revival in England and Scotland. As Colvin notes Lugar "was a skilful practioner of the picturesque, exploiting the fashion for cottages ornés and castellated Gothic mansions in the manner of John Nash. His two Dumbartonshire castles were among the first to introduce the picturesque formula into Scotland". Lugar's work is associated with the most distinguished and beautiful mansions, castles, cottages and parks in England and Scotland. He was also the County Surveyor of Essex.

In 1809 Lionel Place commissioned Robert to redesign Weddington Castle, incorporating the old Hall and making it castellated. The Castle was transformed into a stone-faced building, possibly using Attleborough sandstone, of a similar nature to Arbury Hall. The North and South Lodges may have been built at this time or modified from earlier buildings, and were designed in the Picturesque and Cottage Orne architectural styles which developed in the 1790s. It is, therefore, Lugar who is responsible for the Castle as it appears in the few remaining images that we have of it.

Lugar's projects were wide-ranging, from farm houses to villas to mansions; and included the design for the Abbey at Balloch, Dumbartonshire and Tillicheun, an extensive neo-Gothic pile situated in a commanding position on the banks of Loch Lomond.

Many of his designs were published in lavish books at the time and are in themselves now highly sought after. Tantalisingly, one such book - 'Plans And Views Of Ornamental Domestic Buildings, Executed In The Castellated and Other Styles. M. Taylor, 1836' includes the illustrated schemes for Weddington Castle itself, although this is a very rare book.