Cracking Good Fun At Chatsworth this Easter

Easter at Chatsworth

With the house, garden and farmyard wreathed in spring flowers and decorations, there's something for visitors of all ages to enjoy at Chatsworth this Easter, from free face painting in Flora’s Temple to egg hunt trails in the house and garden and of course, the chance to spot the Easter Bunny who will be hopping by to deliver treats every day of the Easter weekend (3 - 6 April).

As well as the hugely popular Easter Egg hunts in the Chatsworth Farmyard over the Easter weekend, catering for up to 1,000 egg hunters a day, children can also climb aboard the Easter Eggspress setting off several times a day.

For more information please click here: http://www.treasurehouses.co.uk/news/Cracking%20Good%20Fun%20At%20Chatsworth%20this%20Easter

10 Exhibitions not to miss at The Treasure Houses of England 2015

Winston Churchill Exhibition

From artistic masterpieces to fascinating historical exhibitions, The Treasure Houses of England look set to deliver a captivating programme of exciting events this year. Here are 10 exhibitions not to miss!

Beaulieu’s new Motorsport Exhibition opens on Friday 6 March 2015. The new exhibition will include two exciting new displays: Grand Prix Greats and Road, Race and Rally perfect for motoring enthusiasts and families to enjoy.

Blenheim Palace unveils a reinvigorated Winston Churchill Exhibition on 14 February. The exhibition marks the beginning of a year of commemorative activities and events at Blenheim Palace and includes a series of new and never-before-seen displays and features, providing a fascinating insight into Churchill’s life.

Burghley’s exhibition Oriental Ceramics, showcases star items from Burghley’s World- famous collections including the unusual Wrestling Boys, who were famously used as a doorstop for many years before their provenance was discovered.  The exhibition highlights the differences between Japanese and Chinese variants.

Burghley Collectibles and Curiosities

Duty Calls, an exciting exhibition from Waterloo to World War II, explores the stories of Castle Howard in times of war, giving a glimpse into a hitherto unknown chapter of the family and estate.

From 28 March - 23 October, experience Chatsworth in a whole new way with contemporary seating exhibition Make Yourself Comfortable at Chatsworth. Contemporary seating by international designers, such as Marc Newson, Moritz Waldemeyer and Thomas Heatherwick will be shown throughout Chatsworth, bringing to light new stories about the interior and the historic collection.

Harewood will showcase a collection of gift boxes in a special display on the State Floor in the new A Gift from the Whole Nation from 3 April –1 Nov. The gift boxes are some of the ‘thank you’ presents given by Princess Mary in 1914 to send to the troops at Christmas time. In total over 426,724 gift boxes had been made and distributed in just two months helping boost moral for serving troops.

Art in Clay at Hatfield House is an outdoor summer exhibition from 3 - 5 July. Showcasing over 190 ceramists in the beautiful parkland visitors can see some of the finest ceramics currently being made by individual makers in the UK and Europe.

For one year renowned Magnum photographer Chris Steele-Perkins had unrestricted access to Holkham Hall and the estate. Behind Closed Doors:  A Year in the Life of a Working Estate is the stunning collection of extraordinary and intimate photographs that resulted. Runs from 29 March - 31 October.

From May the world famous Leeds Castle Dog Collar Collection returns to public display. More than 130 collars will be on view in a new display, in the largest public collection of dog collars and it documents the history of canine fashions dating from the 16th century into modern times.

Visitors can experience the largest private collection of Venetian Views by Canaletto on public view at Woburn Abbey. There are 21 paintings on display in the Dining Room. Opening 27 March 2015.

Discover ‘Life at Chatsworth’ This Winter with Behind the Scenes Talks and Artisans Showcase

The curious can discover what it takes to run one of the UK’s most prestigious country estates this winter as staff at Chatsworth deliver a series of entertaining talks throughout January, February and March - including two special opportunities to hear about what happens behind the scenes by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire themselves.

The two exclusive talks, entitled ‘Life at Chatsworth’, will see the 12th Duke and Duchess give an inside account on a decade spent occupying the magnificent estate, which has been passed down through 16 generations of Cavendish family and encompasses 30,000 acres of garden, farmland and parkland. Taking place in the Hartington Room at Chatsworth Stables on 5 and 10 March 2015, early booking is advised.

Chatsworth staff will be delivering a number of regular talks throughout the season, including Head Housekeeper Christine Robinson, who recently published her memoires in ‘Chatsworth: The Housekeepers Tale’. Christine, whose family have worked at Chatsworth for over 200 years, will reveal the motivation behind her book with an opportunity to have copies signed. 

The talks also feature Head of Gardens and Landscape Steve Porter on designers and fashion and their influence on the Chatsworth Garden; Textiles Department Supervisor Susie Stokoe revealing the secrets behind the Mortlake Tapestries; and Archeologist Oliver Jessop talking about glimpses of the Tudor House revealed by the Masterplan.

The talks will run most Fridays from 23 January 2015 to 6 March 2015 in the Hartington Room. Places need to be booked in advance and start at £12 per person. For more information visit http://www.chatsworth.org/attractions-and-events/events/event/winter-talks

Winter visitors will also be able to enjoy a collection of fine artwork as the ‘Peak District Artisans’ return to Chatsworth, showcasing an eclectic line-up of artists, artisans and designer-makers from across the region.

The second exhibition to take place at Chatsworth, artists will include a variety of big names such as the award-winning Sue Prince and Ingrid Karlsson-Kemp. Earlier this year, Sue’s work was chosen for London Stories, an exhibition for the Serco Prize for Illustration at the London Transport Museum, whilst Ingrid’s display will include pieces created for her exhibition as part of Umea, Sweden’s Capital of Culture celebrations.

The spring exhibition will run daily between 10.30am and 3.30pm, from 7 January 2015 to 22 March 2015, where works from 36 ‘Peak District Artisan’ members will be on display in the Carriage House at Chatsworth Stables. Admission is free.

Chatsworth House, Garden, Farmyard, Shops and Restaurants all will remain open until 4 January 2015 (closed on 24, 25, 26 December and 1 January 2015). The house, garden, farmyard and Cavendish restaurant will re-open for the new season on 28 March 2015. The Carriage House restaurant and the gift shops at the stables remain open every day.

For more information on what’s on during winter, visit www.chatsworth.org

Down the Rabbit Hole with Alice at Chatsworth this Christmas 8 November 2014 - 4 January 2015

Visitors to Chatsworth this Christmas should prepare to head down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass as this year’s Christmas theme takes inspiration from the vivid and fantastical world created by author Lewis Carroll in his classic ‘Alice's Adventures in Wonderland’, from 8 November to 4 January. 

Chatsworth Christmas

Chatsworth Christmas

Chatsworth Christmas

Fifty-two Christmas trees and 900,000 fairy lights will ensure Chatsworth dazzles with lots of traditional Christmas sparkle. Inside the house, 18 fir trees will be adorned with 6,000 tree ornaments. Preparations for this year's Christmas started almost a year ago, with the staff at Chatsworth creating most of the wonderful displays and costumes in-house. 

Head housekeeper Christine Robinson said: "Teams from the textiles department, carpenters, painters and housekeepers have been working all year to create the individual displays to bring the theme to life. This year, we have a giant rabbit's burrow for the White Rabbit, costumes for visitors to try on and a magical hall of mirrors as visitors journey with Alice through her dream of a Chatsworth wonderland."

Chatsworth is extending its Christmas opening period this year and re-opening the house, garden and farmyard after Christmas for visitors to enjoy over the remaining school holiday period. The house will be closed on Dec 24, 25 and 26, and re-open on Dec 27 until 31 December, and from 2 to 4 January 2015. 

Chatsworth will be expecting grins as wide as a Cheshire Cat as visitors are taken on a magical journey through the lower floors of the house.  The interiors are transformed to recreate classic scenes from the enduringly popular story of a girl named Alice, who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar creatures such as the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, a sleepy Dormouse and the Queen of Hearts.

On arrival, the North Entrance Hall will be dressed to create the illusion of tumbling down the rabbit hole into Wonderland, where visitors will encounter the Mad Hatter's Tea Party; the Game of Croquet, and the table with the infamous ‘Drink Me’ bottle and ‘Eat Me’ cake. 

Playing Card Soldiers, White Rabbits, and Tweedledum and Tweedledee costumed guides will be on hand to direct visitors through to majestic woodland scene. There, a giant Caterpillar will be smoking his pipe on top of an oversized mushroom as psychedelic sitar music plays. 

Classic lines from the book are on show en route while sounds include the White Rabbit muttering 'I'm late, I'm late' or Alice crying out 'Curiouser and Curiouser' add to the feeling of entering the disorientating story. 

Always popular with children - and grown-ups too - is the opportunity to get into character themselves by dressing up in some of the Alice in Wonderland themed costumes, made by the Chatsworth Textiles team, in the Inner Court Marquee.

The Painted Hall is the perfect setting for the extravagant Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. The huge dining room table will be adorned with dozens of tea cups, saucers, cake stands, and even an over-sized steaming teapot. 

The displays will also feature traditional Christmas elements, with numerous fir trees and Christmas garlands adorned with baubles and fairy lights. 

This year’s theme extends to farmyard and adventure playground with Alice in Wonderland themed craft activities in the Christmas marquee where little ones can make a mad hat, white rabbit ears, teapot card or a traditional reindeer headband. Magician Professor Shell will be making rabbits disappear while the popular nativities featuring the farmyard animals and young visitors take place on weekends in December. This is offered on a first come first served basis and will incur an additional £2.50. 

Other Christmas at Chatsworth events to look out for include C.W.Sellors* Christmas Wishes on 8-9 November, register online at www.cwsellors.com, the popular Christmas Markets from November 13 to 23, and Wreath Making on December 3-4 2014.For information on opening times, advance tickets, prices and other events, please visit www.chatsworth.org 

Get Ghostly This Halloween at Chatsworth

Halloween at Chatsworth

Choose Your Pumpkin

Spooktacular Chatsworth is full of scary surprises this half term as the haunting Halloween Hoot returns to the eerie Peak District.

With ghoulish fun lurking round every corner, the garden, farmyard and house will be transformed from October 25 to November 2 by a host of Halloween helpers. Families brave enough to enter can witness the tricks, treats and spooky stories on offer, with activities ranging from broomstick making to trips into the spooky spell weavers lair.

Dare to ride the Fright Flight that travels deep into Warlock Wood, but mind your head - you will be shooting the spooks and spotting the bats as you go! A scary scattering of spiders and snakes will also be joining the resident farmyard animals, as well as a craft marquee, for a real hands-on fright fest this Halloween.

Visitors can take a walk through Chatsworth’s Halloween trail, with the house exhibiting a selection of historical items sure to give you a shock, including a man trap, a 16th century book of spells, a death mask, an autopsy report from 1777 and more. Ceramic pumpkins will light the way and highlight items from the collection with extra spooky significance.

In the garden, seek out hidden pumpkins, venture into the abandoned tunnel and much more. Spooky stories fit for the whole family will be taking place under the canopy every 30 minutes from 11.30 am – 4.00pm and afterwards learn how to make a witch’s broomstick.  Included with admission to the house, garden and/or farmyard, check www.chatsworth.org for more information on dates, times and prices.

‘Batsworth House’ in New Conservation Scheme at Chatsworth

A new conservation project at Chatsworth has seen it dubbed ‘Batsworth House’ as it aims to protect and restore the local habitat of hundreds of bats including endangered species.

The ‘Batsworth’ nickname came from conservation team at the Derbyshire estate of the Duke of Devonshire as they created a new home for the area’s bat colony to reduce the disturbance caused by the reopening of the historic Burntwood Quarry to provide new stone for conservation work on the grade 1 listed Chatsworth House.

Made out of excavated sand stone, the bat house features 4-metre deep cellars and a roof space, which will provide cool rooms for the bats to retreat to in hot or cold weather, along with seven bat boxes placed around the quarry perimeter. ‘Batsworth’ will aid the preservation of the local bat population which includes the Common and Soprano Pipstrille, as well as the Brown Long-Eared, Whiskered, Daubenton and Natterer bat.

Sean Doxey, Head of Special Projects at Chatsworth, said: “We do a lot of conservation work around the estate to keep the landscape and its wildlife in the best possible condition for the many thousands of visitors that come here. The bat house will provide a new home for the hundreds of bats that have made Burntwood Quarry their home in the hundred years or so since it was closed."

The reopened site will have almost 30,000 tonnes of new stone removed from a section of the existing quarry face to support heritage repairs to Chatsworth House, stable block and surrounding buildings. The quarry, which has not been used since the early 1900s, was the original source of the Ashover gritstone used to build Chatsworth in 1687.

The Peak District National Park Authority approved plans to reopen Burntwood Quarry last November after agreeing that small scale quarrying of local stone for use on the nationally important Chatsworth House was in the public interest.

See Chatsworth in a Different Light - 4th to 7th October 2014

Illuminated inside and out with subdued lighting and hundreds of candles Chatsworth will open for four special evenings this October, inspired by a selection of Inigo Jones drawings not seen in public for more than 40 years.

Displayed in the Great Chamber, Jones drawings of costumes, actors and set designs were made as he worked alongside the playwright Ben Jonson on the ‘Masque of Oberon, the Fairy Prince’. Sixth in the series of extravagant shows that Jonson and Jones produced for the Stuart Court, ‘Oberon’ was performed on 1 January 1611 in the Banqueting Hall, Whitehall Palace. Henry, Prince of Wales, son and then-heir of James I, the Renaissance Prince took the title role entering in a chariot drawn by two white (polar) bears.

For Chatsworth Luminaire drawings, music and costume will bring the baroque house to life. In the garden an illuminated trail leads the way with Oberon’s Palace revealed on the East façade of Chatsworth House. The illuminated trail transforms many of the familiar landmarks in the 105-acre garden from the Emperor Fountain to the Ring Pond, Cascade and Rockery. Moments from the Masque are featured with lighting, projections and music, ending in the Stables Courtyard.

Luminaire will take place from 4 October to 7 October 2014 with the house opening at 6.30pm and the event closing at 10.30pm. House and Garden tickets will only be available in advance and provide timed entry into the house. For more information, opening times and ticket prices, visit www.chatsworth.org

Spooky Half Term at the Treasure Houses of England

For a happy Halloween and Half Term holiday, schedule in a spooky trip to the ever-spectacular Treasure Houses of England.

There are ghosts and ghouls aplenty at Beaulieu’s half term hauntings (25 Oct – 2 Nov). It’s rumoured to be one of Britain’s most haunted places, with ghostly sightings in the 13^th Century Abbey and at Palace House. They’ll be lots of strange going-ons for all the family to enjoy from Halloween quiz trails to spooky story-telling and lucky dip to face painting.

Halloween at Beaulieu

Experience Halloween tricks and treats at Blenheim Palace this half term. Ride the Ghost Train down to the Pleasure Gardens for a whole host of haunts. Lurk around the Labyrinth or take the 'Which Witch is Which?' trail to win some prizes. Get creepily crafty in the 'Pottering About' studio and try your hand at pumpkin carving in the Pleasure Gardens Deli.

Burghley’s sell-out Spooky Tours return (20 Oct – 1 Nov). Journey down into the creepy cellars, explore the forbidding outbuildings and centuries old cloisters of Burghley by flickering torchlight while unearthing Burghley's secret history. Plus from 18 Oct - 2nd Nov families can enjoy Burghley Pumpkin Trail around the Sculpture Garden. Tread through the crispy Autumn leaves and find the hidden pumpkins to receive a treat.

Follow CastleHoward’s ghosts and ghouls trail through the house during October half term, spotting the spooks hiding in each of the rooms. On 1 Nov will be an evening of family Halloween entertainment with storytelling, pumpkin carving, ghost rides and more. For the first time Castle Howard is taking part in Illuminating York. From 29 Oct –31 Oct the house will be lit with atmospheric light projections creating a unique visual spectacular, whilst the interiors will twinkle with candlelight and roaring log fires.

Chatsworth has ghoulish fun lurking around every corner. Discover the Halloween trail through the house with man traps, a 16th Century book of spells and more. In the garden find hidden pumpkins, travel the scary maze, dare to enter the abandoned tunnel, learn how to make a witch’s broomstick and listen to spooky storytelling. And with spooky crafts, shoot the spook and bat spotting in the farmyard and adventure playground there is plenty of Halloween fun to get involved with.

Perfect for families and lovers of the outdoors, October half term week at Harewood celebrates autumn in all its glory. Smell tasty aromas in the Old Kitchen and join seasonal cooking demonstrations Below Stairs. Try biscuit making in the Pastry Room or have a go at badge making. There are also scarecrow trails around the grounds and bags of room to run around.

A visit to the exciting Bloody Hollow adventure play area at Hatfield House is a must this half term. With its 2.5 metre high model of Hatfield House dominating the central area, Bloody Hollow has a great range of play items for all ages of children. On 1 Nov watch a fantastic fireworks display, the space themed evening will also have a funfair and plenty of family fun entertainment.

Ghoulish adventures, fun and frights will set your heart racing this half term at Holkham Hall. Discover the ‘Curiovan’ and see the natural world in a magical way with specimen jars, dancing skeletons, clockwork ladybirds and tiny skeletal fairies.  Let the yarnsmith enthral you with his spell-binding tales of devils, ghosts and witches. There’s pumpkins to carve, silhouette bingo to try or our ‘skull-duggery’ challenge. In the hall, collect spooky body parts and make your own ‘pencil ghost’ or in the Old Kitchen, join in the fun with ‘Kiddy Cook’ and decorate a delicious Halloween cookie - how gruesome will your creation be?

Children will be thrilled and surprised by the Haunted Halloween Hunt and Spooky Quest at Leeds Castle (25 Oct – 31 Oct). The Spooky Quest takes place around the woodland walk while the Halloween Hunt will involve clues from spooky characters all around the grounds, both with a chocolate prize at the end. Enter the fancy dress competition for the best blood curdling outfit and listen to Spooky Stories with Raggedy Jack.

Pay a visit to the Grotto at Woburn this October half term. The Grotto (built probably between the later 1620s and 1641) was designed as an undersea cavern which included piped water cascading into a basin.  The stone is carved to resemble seaweed and stalactites, with dolphins formed from mother-of-pearl and the ceiling inlaid with ormer shells. A perfect place to imagine spooky stories and gory goings-on.