We dropped a bit of a clanger last week by confusing Lumley and Lambton castles - now let's see if we can worm our way out of it

THERE was one 'ell of a mistake in last week's Memories. Many thanks to all who spotted it. We got Lambton Castle muddled with Lumley Castle, and although they are only a mile a part and both their names begin with the same letter of the alphabet , there is an 'ell of a difference.

Let's try and get it right...

LAMBTON CASTLE

The famous architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner said of Lambton Castle: "Nothing of the building, except the solid, beautifully biscuit-coloured stone, is genuine, not even its name."

Work creating it on the northern bank of the River Wear started in 1792, although the Lambton family had been kicking around in County Durham since at least the 12th Century, doing what Durham people traditionally did: mine coal and kill dragons.

Over the centuries, as the family prospered, they acquired land, and houses, on both sides of the Wear to the east of Chester-le-Street.

In 1792, William Lambton, the MP for Durham City, decided that the family needed a residence that befitted their status near the top of the county's pecking order.

He demolished Lambton Hall, their principal home with a medieval background, on the south of the river, and he had architect Joseph Bonomi build him a grand castle on the top of another elderly house, Harraton Hall.

Unfortunately, William died in 1797, aged 33, of consumption in Livorno in Italy. As his heir, John, was only five, work on the half-built castle was stopped.

John very quickly grew up: in 1812, he eloped to Scotland to marry Henrietta, the illegitimate daughter of Lord Cholmondeley, and as soon as he turned 21, he ordered that work on the castle should restart, this time under the supervision of Ignatius Bonomi, the son of the original architect. He also became the MP for County Durham.

Henrietta died in 1815 leaving John a 23-year-old widowed castle-owning father-of-three. He clearly was a remarkable fellow although, because of his erratic mood swings caused by a lack of sleep, he was not easy to get on with.

Still, in 1816, he found a second wife: Louisa, the daughter of Earl Grey of Northumberland.

From 1819, John was talking about the need for Parliamentary reform. He wanted shorter parliaments, a wider franchise, fairer seats and the secret ballot – views so far advanced that he was nicknamed "Radical Jack". But when his father-in-law became Prime Minister in 1830, Parliamentary reform was the great cause of the moment, and it was John who wrote the Bill that became the Great Reform Act of 1832.

Back home, his castle was now complete, but even in his time of political triumph, his domestic life was falling a part.

On September 24, 1831, his "beautiful and remarkable" son, Charles, died aged 13, after a long illness. It is Charles who is Sir Thomas Lawrence's Red Boy – a painting commissioned for 600 guineas by John which gained critical acclaim when it was exhibited in Paris in 1827.

Seven months after the boy's death, John's mother died unexpectedly followed, a month later, by his 17-year-old daughter, Harriet.

"I shudder to think who could be the next victim," he wrote, and within seven months he'd lost his 19-year-old daughter, Georgiana.

Such tragedy made sleeping even more difficult and his temper even more fractious. Partly to get him out of the country, he was made ambassador to Russia and then Governor-General of Canada.

John, who'd become the 1st Earl of Durham, died in 1840, aged 48. His castle was the home of his heirs until 1932 when they were forced to sell off its furniture and retreat to Biddick Hall, a more manageable mansion on their vast estate. In fact, from 1932 onwards, the expensive mock castle was probably more of a liability than an asset.

But the estate was so large that in 1972, the 6th Earl of Durham joined with circus magnate Jimmy Chipperfield to create the Lambton Lion Park – with giraffes, elephants, wildebeest and, yes, lions, taking up residence. A hippo once strayed into the nearby village of Fatfield and, on a couple of occasions, baboons were found playing with the traffic on the A1. It closed in 1980.

The 6th Earl was every bit as spirited as his predecessors. In 1973, a tabloid newspaper photographed him smoking marijuna in bed with two prostitutes, one of whom was renowned as a dominatrix. As he was a junior Conservative defence minister, this caused quite a kerfuffle, although he calmly explained to Robin Day: ‘"People sometimes like variety. I think it's as simple as that and I think that impulse is understood by almost everybody."

He fled to Italy, where the political classes certainly understand those impulses. When he died in 2006, his children – including the renowned TV historian Lady Lucinda Lambton – fell out spectacularly over his £11m estate which had the fake castle at its centre. Disappointingly for those who enjoy watching an aristocratic legal battle, peace seemed to break out at the start of this year after eight years of High Court hearings.

LUMLEY CASTLE

By contrast, Lumley Castle is the real deal. Like the Lambtons, the Lumleys had been kicking around the county since at least the 12th Century, but whereas the Lambtons were generally politicians, the Lumleys were military men.

Indeed, Sir Ralph Lumley, the 1st Baron Lumley, was instrumental in keeping out the Scots in the 14th Century.

In 1388, he led the defence of Berwick-on-Tweed, but while he was away, some renegade Catholic priests broke into his manor house at Lumley, near Chester-le-Street, and attacked his wife, Lily. Sir Ralph and Lily were followers of John Wycliffe, the religious reformer, and the priests tried to persuade Lily of the error of her ways.

Unfortunately, they were too forceful and killed her, carrying her body down the stairs and dumping it in a well.

To cover their tracks, the found an unwell local girl, took her to Finchale Priory, near Durham, where she died under the care of the monks. On his return from Berwick, Sir Ralph was told by the priests that everything possible had been done to save Lily, and he believed them. Which is why, to this day, Lily rises up from the well in a ghostly attempt to tell her husband the terrible truth...

Anyway, the following year, Sir Ralph led the charge against the Scots at the Battle of Otterburn. Unfortunately, they captured him and kept him prisoner for a year.

When they released him, he returned to his manor house at Lumley and asked the Bishop of Durham for permission to crenelate it – to turn it into a castle. As the Scots could not be relied upon to keep their side of the border, the Bishop agreed, and Sir Ralph had completed his castle by 1392.

But in 1399, Sir Ralph was one of the leaders of the Epiphany Rising which aimed to overthrow Henry IV and reinstate Richard II. Sir Ralph led an attack on Cirencester in Gloucestershire that so outraged the townsfolk that they captured him and beheaded him on the spot. His son, Thomas, was arrested and Henry IV had him executed for treason.

However, Sir Ralph's grandson, another Thomas, played a canny game. He helped Edward IV beseige Bamburgh Castle and was rewarded with the return of Lumley Castle and his title.

From then on, the Lumleys prospered. They received further honours and titles, and in 1688, Richard Lumley was one of the "Immortal Seven" who invited William of Orange to invade England in the "Glorious Revolution". Richard secured the North-East for the new king, and was made the 1st Earl of Scarborough as a reward.

In 1976, the 12th Earl of Scarborough, whose main home was near Rotherham, leased Lumley Castle to a hotel company so that a business use to generate funds to keep its ageing fabric in repair.

Despite what Memories said last week, it is Lumley, not Lambton, castle which provides the backdrop from Durham County Cricket Club's Riverside ground. Indeed, in recent years, both West Indian and Australian cricketers have been badly spooked by the appearance of Lily of Lumley, who just goes to show that, unlike Lambton, Lumley is a genuinely medieval castle.