2008 is set to be an exciting year for Brodsworth Hall & Gardens
2008 is set to be an exciting year for Brodsworth Hall & Gardens, with new rooms opening, garden developments and a packed events programme running throughout the year to entertain and delight people of all ages.
Inside the Hall itself, English Heritage curators are planning to open more of the historic rooms to the public, giving visitors an insight into more of the rooms as they were when the building was occupied. In total, four rooms will re-open to the public, including the Aga Kitchen and Scullery. Unlike the imposing Victorian kitchen just down the corridor, the Aga Kitchen and Scullery are represented to visitors as they would have been in the post-War era, complete with retro kitchenware.
Upstairs, in the living quarters, two rooms have been restored to how they were at the end of the 1980s, when the house's last owner, Sylvia Grant-Dalton, lived there. The two bedrooms show an eclectic collection of items dating from the Victorian era to the late 1980s, showing how items were simply added as fashions and needs changed over the years. The rooms have been restored down to the tiniest detail using photographs taken when English Heritage took custodianship of the property, from bedding to the bar of soap and nailbrush on the sink.
Outside, in Brodsworth Hall's extensive gardens, visitors will be able to see the new Alpine Garden developing before their very eyes! Reuniting many of the species of alpine that the Thellusson family - the family who built Brodsworth - would have seen on their tours of the world, as documented in the family's own photographic records, the Alpine Garden will be mostly complete by the spring, with a small number of additional plantings in the autumn.
Over the summer months, it is the rose gardens that will draw the eye, with over 75 different species of wild rose growing in the grounds, and a labelling project underway so that visitors can identify the different varieties.
In the autumn, the grounds not only come alive with colour as the leaves turn, but also with light and spectacle as the Enchanted Garden illuminated spectacular returns for its third year. The site re-opens at dusk each day during the October half term holiday to show the Victorian gardens in a whole new light - well, several hundred new lights, to be precise!
The site is also promising more to do for its younger visitors, with a new play area opening in the Spring. A real boat will provide nautically-themed areas for imaginative play for children!
The summer months will see Brodsworth Hall preparing to welcome picnickers for Sunday afternoons on the lawn, with band concerts on the terrace every Sunday, and Victorian garden games every Saturday for the children to enjoy.
For further information please contact Brodsworth Hall & Gardens on 01302 722598
