Lost rooms reopen after revamp at Castle Howard

Castle Howard has served as a filming location for Bridgerton

Rooms damaged by a fire 80 years ago at a country estate have been restored and reopened to the public.

Castle Howard in North Yorkshire unveiled the revamped Tapestry Drawing Room, Gallery and Grand Staircase as part of its 21st Century Renaissance project.

The rooms were damaged in 1940 during a suspected chimney fire, which swept through nearly a whole wing of the building.

Nicholas Howard, who runs the estate with his wife Victoria, said that rebuilding the Tapestry Drawing Room around the pieces that were woven to hang there was like "making a suit to match the buttons".

Stately home Castle Howard is a private residence and has been home to the Howard family for more than 300 years.

The fire destroyed the building's dome and more than 20 rooms in the house while it was being used as a school for girls during the Second World War.

The dome was restored in 1962 and the filming of Brideshead Revisited at the site helped pay for the reconstruction of the the Garden Hall and New Library.

Before the latest work was carried out, the tapestry room was a shell with a hole in the wall where the fireplace had been.

The four tapestries which were woven for the room in 1706 by John Vanderbank and depict the four seasons have now been returned to their original positions.

Specialists install the autumn-themed 1706 Vanderbank tapestry in the Tapestry Drawing Room at Castle Howard

Eleanor Brooke-Peat, curator of collections and archives, said the tapestries revealed information about the original home.

"This would have been a house filled with colour," she said.

"We know from some very early visitor accounts to the house in the early 18th Century that people were really blown away by that."

Speaking about the newly reopened rooms, Victoria Howard said: "Ironically, we're hoping that people who've never been to the house before will just see them as part of the house because we want it to look as though it has always been here."

Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.