Go Behind The Scenes of Bamburgh Castle's Christmas Display

Charlotte Lloyd Webber and the talented team at CLW Event Design are back at Bamburgh Castle for another Christmas extravaganza. Following successful festive events at Castle Howard in Yorkshire, CLW Event Design branched out, transforming Bamburgh Castle for the first time in 2021, and have worked their magic here every Christmas since.

‘Bamburgh Castle was one of the first clients to approach us based on the work we had been doing at Castle Howard,’ says design director Adrian Lillie. ‘It was great to to hear them say they loved what we were doing and ask “do you think you could do something similar for us?”. All our clients have amazingly different locations, architecture, family backgrounds and history, and that’s what we really love. It’s sort of become our company mantra – that we really embed ourselves in the history of the buildings we’re working on, and understand the history, background and the people who have inhabited those spaces and still inhabit them today, so we can bring that to life when we bring in a Christmas installation. It’s obviously a huge extra layer on the usual visitor experience at any other time of year.’

Living North has been checking in on the team each year since their first display at the castle. That project, Saints & Angels, was inspired by the castle’s 3,000-year history and past as seat of the Saint Kings of Northumbria. ‘We made it real to Bamburgh, but it was an idea that we had utilised for a design previously,’ says Adrian. ‘We also did a design around the 12 days of Christmas which is a theme that everybody loves. It’s an obvious Christmas theme and something that we have presented in different locations.

‘Last year (and this year) we wanted to move on and really give Bamburgh something very particular to the site. Having done two years of more generic themes we could see there was a really big appetite from Bamburgh’s visitors and we were starting to grow visitor numbers. It felt right to give them something that’s very bespoke to them.’

Last year’s theme was Myths and Legends, and this year’s is A Christmas Through Time. ’There’s an embedded feeling for the castle itself and pre-medieval history,’ Adrian explains. ‘We’re commencing with a Christian pagan theme to tell the story of what happened before Christmas was Christmas. We’ve been putting in a lot of folklore and a lot of history. We’re celebrating the winter solstice, we’re going pre-Father Christmas and trying to understand the roots of it, which feels very true to Bamburgh itself.’

The idea for this theme stemmed from an idea from Adrian and senior designer Dave O'Donnell about a Viking longboat in the King’s Hall. ‘We’ve crafted an entire Christmas theme around that one idea – how we can get a frosted, icy, magical longboat that’s just landed in the big central space of the King’s Hall,’ Adrian says. ‘That is a huge playful piece, and it will be the big centrepiece of the show. Flying above our Viking longboat will be Odin and his eight-legged horse – he’s the precursor of Father Christmas and his reindeer. We’ll also have a more traditional Father Christmas taking off in his vintage sleigh [drawn by eight willow reindeer] in the Cross Hall behind.’

Decorations will introduce the medieval tradition of the Yule ‘hweol’ log and the tradition of the kissing bough, a sphere or globe from which mistletoe is hung. Room by room visitors will see the theme unfold in a chronological order. CLW Event Design will bring greenery into the Crewe Kitchen alongside Skandi decorations. In the Billiard Room, guests can join a Tudor feast. ‘We’ll have a feeling of both Elizabeth I and Henry VIII going on in there,’ says Adrian. ‘We then move to the Georgian period with Queen Charlotte (George III’s wife) in the Faere Chamber, who was the first person to actually introduce the Christmas tree to the British Isles. We often think it was Victoria and Albert, but it was Queen Charlotte, and it wasn’t a fir tree, it was a yew tree that she decorated. We also tell the story of Victoria and Albert in the Armoury, and have a Victorian sensibility using that very famous image of their beautifully decorated tree [as inspiration]. Then we’ll move into the 20th century in the Court Room for a more modern/retro feel which will be very playful. Then we’ll end in the oldest part of the building [the Keep Hall] with our most modern interpretation of Christmas, which is going to be a light installation that Dave O’Donnell is designing for us.’

Throughout the display visitors will meet a selection of Mummers – traditional merry-making masked characters who will be represented by mannequins in full costume tailored to each period, with animal heads which will be made by Berwick-based sculptor Mandy Bryson, who also contributed to last year’s display. ‘When I’m not directing the overall design of the team through floristry, construction and big prop making, I get hands on with costuming,’ says Adrian. ‘I was a costume designer in my previous life so I love it when I can get my hands on pattern cutting and making period costume. The fun thing about not working in theatre is that I’m making costumes that go on static mannequins and I don’t have to talk to actors!’ he laughs. ‘I don’t have any complaints… That’s a lot of fun for me to do because I can get into a lot of detail.

‘I do that work with my design assistant Frazer Nugent. He is a fashion design graduate and he’s loved starting to work in a more period sensibility with me. We have a full panoply of period costumes at Bamburgh this year which are going to be worn by our company of Mummers. We have a boar, a swan, a peacock, a horse, a fox, an owl – a plethora of animal-headed mannequins which will be dressed in period costume on the visitor route. It will be a bit of a trail, especially for our younger visitors who can follow the Mummers and have a look at the costumes.’

With Adrian, Frazer looks at historic outfits and costumes as well as fairytales to focus on a theme. ‘I know at Bamburgh we’re looking to recreate one of the dresses that’s exhibited in the castle all year round – we’ll recreate that in a more modern and fun way,’ he says. Frazer also plays a big role in the tree decorating, using various methods depending on the display’s focus. ‘There’s an even spread which is getting as much stuff on and making it look as even, but also random, as possible,’ he explains. ‘Then there’s a cluster method which works really well. We group together decorations to create almost how you’d see a school of fish swimming in a coral, how they’re grouped together. That creates a really nice and different effect to the usual style.’

Frazer hopes these displays will continue to bring more visitors to the castle. ‘Hopefully we can make this even bigger than we have in previous years,’ he adds. ‘It seems to be getting bigger and bigger at Bamburgh and visitor numbers were really good last year so I hope we can improve on that to make it an ever bigger and better experience for everyone.’

Adrian is delighted to be working with Bamburgh Castle again this Christmas. ‘The Watson-Armstrongs are just an incredible family and their extended team that work with them are the most beautiful people to work with,’ he says. ‘Bamburgh Castle is a little bit different because it has such an incredible history behind it and a lot of visitors really do come to take in the history, not necessarily just for the Christmas spectacle. We have to be very respectful of that I think, and make sure that what we’re doing is respectful to the architecture and castle’s interior. We don’t want to transplant something that might feel, dare I say, "a bit Disney” onto an incredibly important historic architectural building and environment. We want to make sure that it feels appropriate.

‘There are also people local to the community who come year-on-year and absolutely love what we do and just want to immerse themselves in Christmas spirit. It’s heart-warming and it kicks off the Christmas season for a lot of people.’

Visit A Christmas Through Time at Bamburgh Castle until 5th January. Tickets are also available to meet Father Christmas at the castle. For more information visit bamburghcastle.com