"If this little pile in Lulworth Park shall prove pretty or worth the labour bestowed in the erecting of it, I will acknowledge, as the truth is, that your powerful speech to me at Bindon laid the first foundation of the pile in my mind, which ever since has laboured for a speedy finishing for the contentment of those for whose further liking of that place the care is taken".
According to the NHLE listing, the building was subsequently remodelled 1609-11 for Thomas, Lord Suffolk; remodelled again in 1641 for Humphrey Weld; in the early 18th century by the Bastard brothers of Blandford Forum; and in the 1780s by Catholic architect John Tasker for Thomas Weld. Tasker also built the Roman Catholicchapel in the grounds. Pevsner's assessment of the castle building two hundred years later views it as a Jacobean case of one-upmanship among wealthy landowners whose residential needs are already satisfied elsewhere, hence a series of " 'mock castles', such as the Elizabethan castellated house par excellence that is Longford Castle" which probably inspired Bindon. In 1641, Humphrey Weld, a grandson of Humphrey Weld, purchased it from Howard's heir, Lord Howard de Walden. The castle was seized by the Roundheads during the English Civil War, who used it as a garrison. Weld regained the property after the war finished. Thomas Weld inherited the property after his older brother, Edward, died in a riding accident in 1775. Twenty-five-year-old Thomas set about refurbishing the interiors in the Adam style. He assembled there a rich collection of books in the magnificent library, a few of which are extant. Following the French Revolution, the surviving members of the French royal family were invited to use Lulworth as one of their residences-in-exile. Later Charles X of France and family also stayed there briefly, following the July Revolution of 1830 on their way to Edinburgh.
St Mary's Chapel, Lulworth
Thomas Weld built a Roman Catholic church dedicated to St. Mary's to serve as the family chapel in the grounds of the castle in 1786. Pevsner relates that he needed permission from King George III on condition that it did not look like a church from outside. It was to be the first Roman Catholic chapel to be built in England since the time of the Protestant Reformation. It was designed by John Tasker in the form of a Greekmausoleum at a cost of £2,380. The building has been Grade I listed. On 15 August 1790 John Carroll, an "American" Jesuit friend of Thomas, was consecrated bishop by Bishop Charles Walmesley, in the chapel of Lulworth Castle. Carroll was later to become the first Roman Catholic archbishop of Baltimore. The next episcopal consecration took place there on 19 December of the same year when John Douglass was consecrated bishop of The London District by William Gibson, titular bishop of Acanthus, and Vicar Apostolic of the Northern District. After his sudden death in Stonyhurst in 1810, Thomas Weld was buried in the Lulworth chapel crypt.
Restoration
The castle was gutted by fire on 29 August 1929 and was left as a roofless ruin, the family building a new residence for themselves nearby. In the 1970s, restoration work began with the help of English Heritage. The restoration, finished in 1998, included a new roof and restored surviving walls in the interior, but no new internal walls or replacements for the destroyed upper floors were constructed. In 1986 the Baltimore-born organ builderWilliam Drake restored the 1780 Seede organ at the Roman Catholic Chapel at Lulworth Castle, a project that attracted attention internationally. The castle is still owned by the Weld family and is a tourist attraction, holding medieval-themed events. Part of the Lulworth Estate is in use as an MoD firing range as well as a wildlife conservation area. Since 2017, the site has been used as the location for the Bestival music festival, with the castle's foreground being the location for the main "Castle" stage.
