NORTH NOTTINGHAMSHIRE.- The Red Tapestry Drawing Room, the Gothic Hall, the Print Corridor and other grand State Rooms at Welbeck Abbey on the Welbeck Estate, ancestral home of the Dukes of Portland, are opening their doors to the public this August.

Welbeck Abbey contains one of the World’s largest privately-owned collections of British portraits in what remains a private, family home. Works on show will include pieces by Sir Peter Lely, John Wootton and Sir Joshua Reynolds as well as jewellery, furniture, ceramics, silver and textiles. Built over several centuries by the Dukes of Portland, The Portland Collection (http://www.harleygallery.co.uk/portland-collection/) is internationally significant.

The ninety-minute tours must be booked in advance and are limited to twenty people, twice daily. Running from 3-30 August, for the first time, the house will also open at weekends. (http://www.harleygallery.co.uk/event/welbeck-abbey/). The Welbeck Estate covers some 15,000 acres, with Welbeck Abbey at its heart, and is nestled between Sherwood Forest and Clumber Park in north Nottinghamshire. The Abbey’s reception rooms have been host to royalty, aristocracy and statesmen over the centuries. Selected tour highlights include:

Entrance Hall: Edward Harley made a wager that he had an oak in Welbeck park so large that a hole cut through it would be big enough to ride a horse and carriage through. The Greendale Oak cabinet is made from the wood that was cut from the oak to win the bet, and has inlaid images of the horse and carriage riding through the oak.

The Gothic Hall: Contains the Countess of Oxford’s soaring plasterwork ceiling which was commissioned by the Countess of Oxford in 1751, and portraits including one of Bess of Hardwick’s (founder of the dynasty) granddaughter, Arbella.

The Red Tapestry Drawing Room: The tapestries that line the walls were found in storage in 1879 by the 6th Duke of Portland. The tapestries, woven at the Gobelins factory in France in around 1780, were found packed in tin trunks with peppercorns to keep moths at bay.

The Print Corridor: this long, curved corridor is a densely hung space containing dozens of portraits including works by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Caspar Netscher and Thomas Hudson.

Welbeck is one of the great, traditional landed estates and holds Welbeck Abbey at its heart, a stately home which dates back to 1153 when it was founded as a monastery. The estate is set in the rolling countryside of ‘The Dukeries’ in Nottinghamshire, an area of great natural beauty, so called because it contained four ducal seats: Welbeck Abbey - principal seat of the Dukes of Portland, Clumber House, Thoresby Hall and Worksop Manor.

Welbeck Abbey has been home to the Cavendish-Bentinck family from 1607 to the present. It was acquired by Charles Cavendish, Bess of Hardwick’s third son, in 1607 and over the next four centuries, the family collected artworks, commissioned architecture and combined family names. Unusually, three females in succession inherited the Estate and this line of descent includes marriages with the Dukedom of Newcastle, Earldom of Oxford and the Dukedom of Portland, each bringing additional wealth, status and power to Welbeck.

Tour visitors will be collected from The Harley Gallery at the entrance to the Welbeck estate and taken by mini bus through the 5th Duke of Portland’s Victorian village, to Welbeck Abbey. No photography is permitted during the tour but a complimentary pamphlet with images of the house is supplied.