Winter's tale of entertainment as castle opens its doors for nights to remember

Still recovering from a recent hip operation, a walking stick helps him get around. Sir Thomas admits the doctor has told him to "take it easy".

"I normally do stop after lunchtime," he says, both admissions followed by a wicked grin. It's now well after lunch, but Sir Thomas's indefatigability owes much to his passion for artists and audiences.

The baronet of Ripley Castle, near Harrogate, is the philanthropic sort and, with the arts in crisis, is the sort of friend that artists need at the moment.

His family seat, which has been part of the Ingilby family for 701 years, runs a series of commercial ventures within the building, including a hotel, restaurant, and bistro bar. It also caters for conferences and weddings, but in recent years events of a more artistic bent have been enjoyed at the North Yorkshire venue by audiences from around the region.

Six years ago, the enterprising husband and wife team Liam and Hester Evans-Ford approached Sir Thomas with an idea. They wanted to set up a company, Sprite Productions, which would stage outdoor Shakespeare within the grounds of the castle.

Sir Thomas remembers meeting the enthusiastic couple, who were then in their mid-20s at the time.

"I could see that they were two people who desperately wanted to do this and that inspired confidence in me," says Sir Thomas, who is not a Shakespeare buff – or at least, he wasn't, before Sprite came along and brought the Bard to the grounds. "Like the vast majority of people, my only contact with Shakespeare was when I studied him for my O-levels and I can't say that it had a particularly galvanising effect on me. I was far too busy concentrating on the text and trying to understand it to actually enjoy it. I remember being left with the impression that it wasn't for someone like me.

"When Sprite brought it here, what they did was really bring it to life in a way that I had never seen it done before. The audience really appreciate the work and seeing children's eyes light up as they watched it was a wonderful experience."

It transpires that a love of Shakespeare may run in the Ingilby family. Sir Thomas reveals that the estate once owned a "couple of copies of Shakespeare's first folios", but they were sold off sometime in the 1780s.

"So someone in the family at some point had an interest in the work – it's just taken a while for that to come through in the blood," he says.

It was more a love of the arts in general that inspired the distant relative of the Queen to hand over his grounds to Sprite, and even more than that, a desire to encourage an entrepreneurial spirit in local people. It's these two factors, which have resulted in Sir Thomas' latest venture, which will see him again handing over the castle keys this week.

On Wednesday, the White Rose Winter Festival opens at Ripley, the brainchild of another two local people, Shan Robinson and Emma Ramply. Robinson has a background in managing commercial sponsorship and Ramply in events management.

Having left their high profile jobs – Ramply in London and Robinson in Australia –to move back to Yorkshire and work freelance, they were introduced by mutual friends and set up Temple Roberts, an events management company.

Two years ago, they came up with an idea. Aware of Ripley Castle and the opportunities it might offer, they too decided to approach Sir Thomas and see if they could pique his interest. The pitch was to replicate high profile events already established at places like Hampton Court in Yorkshire.

"In Yorkshire, there are these wonderful stately homes and we thought it would be fantastic to bring some really high quality concerts to them," says Robinson.

"We approached Sir Thomas and he was incredibly enthusiastic and really encouraging."

The festival opens with a performance of The Four Seasons by Candlelight. It is followed on Thursday by A Night at the Opera, which combines three internationally renowned soloists with the Canzonetta Choir and the Manchester Concert Orchestra. Friday sees Sound of the Musicals performed by stars from the West End and on Saturday there will be two performances of the Ripley Castle Winter Proms with John Pryce-Jones conducting the Manchester Concert Orchestra.

The artists brought to the venue by the pair, who have experience of working with internationally renowned acts like Cirque Du Soleil, are seriously impressive.

They have also brought on board Raymond Gubbay, who has been promoting concerts since 1966 – no mean feat in a field which has few long term survivors.

The calibre of acts booked is also all but a guarantee of quality, but the final programme came as little surprise to Sir Thomas.

He says: "When they first came to me two years ago with the idea, I realised it was a huge undertaking, but I really didn't have to think long and hard about it. We want them desperately to succeed. Here are two local girls showing terrific enterprise doing something that is new and exciting and brave."

Sir Thomas admits that he gets a number of people approach him every year with ideas for similar events, but his enthusiasm for a project rarely over-rules his head. This, after all, is a man with a whole castle to maintain.

"When people come to us with an idea, I do choose the one that is going to be fun and the ones which I have a soft spot for," he says. "But you only back people if the organisers are very organised and if they have both the determination and skill to pull something off.

"I'm interested in supporting people who want to bring interesting projects here, but if someone is clearly out of their depth then I'm not prepared to gamble with something that could turn out to be more trouble than it's worth."

The inaugural White Rose Winter Festival is clearly going to be a huge undertaking. The concerts will be performed in a huge marquee, which is being erected to cover the central courtyard and will have room for 1,000 guests.

Sir Thomas says: "I am enormously excited. It is just great to see something like this attempted, they've worked so hard, everything is now in place to make sure that this is going to be an enormous success. They have a great range of acts and a really good programme which I think will appeal to a wide range of audiences.

"We have been a little more hands on this time because it's the first year of the festival and because we will be hosting hospitality in the castle itself, but I really do think it will be the first of many."

With another artistic venture looking set to be a success in the home of Sir Thomas in troubling times for the arts, what is it that inspires the baronet to get on board with these ventures?

"For me if there's a cheque at the end of it, that's great, but I

get far more pleasure when you see people come to the castle and have a great time when they see wonderful art being presented here.

"Success isn't always about making lots of money, it's about having the great satisfaction of seeing people get something from the arts that enhances their lives.

"Even if my bank manager doesn't always agree."

Tickets for the festival are on www.whiterosefestivals.com or 01423 563563.