You rang, my Lord? Our life below stairs at stately home

Brodsworth Hall and Gardens, which is near Doncaster, is staging the Meet The Household event, which runs on Saturdays from late July until the end of August.

Each weekend, visitors will have the chance to meet different characters from the 1860s household, including head groom, housekeeper, cook and gardener.

The Events Manager at English Heritage, Carl Hutton, said: “This hall is steeped in so much history and has been a part of the local landscape for so many years, that we think there’ll be quite a few people coming over the summer able to relate to some of the stories being told here.”

Other events are planned during the summer, and as well as the Meet the Household event, the English Heritage managed property will be putting on theatre performances, a thoroughbred car event, brass bands on Sundays and an Alice in Wonderland trail in the Victorian garden.

Brodsworth Hall was built and the pleasure gardens laid out in the 1860s, as an up-to-date new home for the Thellusson family and their servants.

The historic property survived with remarkably few changes until taken on by English Heritage in 1990.

The gardens have been restored, and the faded and worn interiors gently conserved, telling the story of the changing fortunes of the people who lived and worked here.