While the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire have continued to live at their Derbyshire home, the planned public opening of the house, garden and farmyard in March was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Having put in place stringent safety measures including significantly reducing the number of tickets available each day, requiring all visitors to book tickets in advance for a specific arrival time, a one way visitor route and a raft of new cleaning procedures, Chatsworth will soon welcome back visitors to the house, which will be open from 10.30am to 5.00pm daily. 

Over the past month, Chatsworth has been undertaking a carefully considered phased reopening of the estate, including the garden, shops and restaurants. The farmyard and adventure playground remains closed, with plans currently being developed to enable its safe reopening at a later date.

Visitors will once again be able to enjoy the splendour of the Painted Hall with its spectacular ceiling by Louis Laguerre; the Great Dining Room for entertaining the great and the good; the Chapel that has witnessed the christenings and marriages of the Devonshire dynasty over the centuries; the magnificent Sculpture Gallery, once the grandest private sculpture gallery in Europe; the State Rooms and much more.

Sally Ambrose, Head of Visitor Experience: “We’re delighted to open the doors again, the house really comes alive when visitors are there to enjoy all of its treasures.

“Our number one priority remains the health and wellbeing of our visitors and staff, so we’ve implemented a number of new safety measures, including limiting the number of visitors each day, with bookings only available in advance, to ensure our visitors and staff can practise safe social distancing.”

Chatsworth’s garden reopened in late June with a display of more than 50,000 new flowering perennials, shrubs and trees as well as a huge, new stone sculpture called Natural Course by the artist Laura Ellen Bacon. Open for pre-booked visits from 10.30am to 6pm every day, the garden is currently undergoing its biggest transformation for nearly 200 years with previously underdeveloped areas opening up across its 105 acres.

The house opening is the latest part of the phased reopening plan that Chatsworth has put in place. It follows the garden, car parks, restaurants, shops and the installation of temporary toilet facilities, to enable visitors to access the estate’s surrounding parkland. As an essential food outlet, the estate farm shop in nearby Pilsley has remained open to the public during the pandemic and has also been delivering food supplies to vulnerable households in the local area.

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Notes to editors:

Having completed the £32m Masterplan project to restore the house a few years ago, the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire have now begun a new plan to have a similar revitalising effect on the garden.

Laura Ellen Bacon

British Sculptor, Laura Ellen Bacon (born 1976) is based in Matlock, Derbyshire and works raw materials into large-scale or ‘human-scale’ artworks, in both interior and landscape settings.

Working with predominantly natural materials and her bare hands, her works embrace, surround or engulf architectural and natural structures. Her work has been described as ‘startling but beckoning’; ‘monumental yet intimate’; ‘frenzied yet calm’.

In 2017 Bacon was shortlisted for the BBC Woman’s Hour Craft Prize. Her work has been commissioned by Chatsworth House Trust and the Holburne Museum, Bath. She has had exhibitions at the Welbeck Estate, Ruthin Craft Centre and Roche Court.

Chatsworth

The Chatsworth House Trust is dedicated to the preservation of Chatsworth House, the art collection, garden, woodlands and park for the long-term benefit of the public. 

The charity promotes the study and appreciation of Chatsworth as a place of historic, architectural and artistic interest and of natural beauty, and encourages the use and enjoyment of Chatsworth by visitors for education and recreation. 

Chatsworth is a member of the Treasure Houses of England, 10 of the most magnificent palaces, stately homes and castles in England. www.treasurehouses.co.uk

Chatsworth is only 16 miles from the M1, 10 miles from Chesterfield, and 8 miles north of Matlock, in the heart of Derbyshire’s Peak District National Park and is well served by transport links throughout the UK.

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For Chatsworth press enquiries, please contact:

Steve Houghton, [email protected] (07917 671516 outside office hours)

Redbrick Communications, 68 St James’s Street, Nottingham, NG1 6FJ

T: 0115 910 1500