Helmsley, North Yorkshire

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Just a few miles north, nestling on the edge of the North York Moors in Ryedale, lies the unspoilt market town of Helmsley, complete with four former coaching inns and a dazzling half timbered rectory. Helmsley hasn't always been such a peaceful backwater. At the height of its prosperity as a weaving centre in the seventeenth century, the loom operators were famous for their thirsts, their songs and their leather breeches" and historic accounts of the local fair suggest an event which was fraught with fist-fights and drunkenness.

Today visitors can expect an all together more peaceful reception now that Helmsley is a favourite haunt of walkers rather than drinkers. Indeed many walkers gather at the market cross to begin England's longest long-distance footpath journey, The Cleveland Way, which continues for 108 miles in a broad horseshoe round the North York Moors national Park.

The Helmsley skyline is dominated by its castle ruins, which date back to around the year 1200. Like so many Royalist strongholds, it was blown up by the Parliamentarians in the Civil War to prevent it from being used again.

The town, with its beautiful riverside walks, traditional tea rooms and genteel country pubs, has certainly lost nothing of its timeless appeal which draws people from all over the world, but perhaps its most famous asset is Duncombe Park, a fine baroque mansion which has been, in turn, the Duncombe's family seat for nearly three centuries, a hospital and a girls' school until it was bought in 1985 by Lord Feversham, a cousin of the third and last Earl, who restored it to its former glory and opened it to the public in 1990.

The Duncombes were originally seated in Bedfordshire in the 15th century - one of the ancestors, Sir Saunders Duncombe, introduced and patented the Sedan Chair in England in 1634 while his nephew, Sir John, became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1672. Cousin Charles, meanwhile, was amassing a vast fortune as a goldsmith, eventually retiring to his huge estates in Wiltshire and Yorkshire. The Yorkshire estate was inherited by one of Sir Charles' nephews, Thomas Duncombe, from whom the current Lord Feversham is directly descended. The family became great land magnates and, in 1826, Thomas' nephew, Charles, became Baron Feversham.

The house and grounds remained in the family until 1916 when the Second Earl of Feversham died in the Battle of the Somme and the mansion became a girl's school. When the present Lord and Lady Feversham decided to turn it into a family home once again, they began a mammoth restoration project which has brought the beautiful home back to its former glory, including the glorious 40ft high hallway, a vast saloon measuring 115 feet long and an opulent withdrawing room hung with gold silk damask.

The grounds, with their ancient trees and beautiful temples, have also been painstakingly restored and, in order to preserve the rare wildlife which flourishes here, part of the parkland and garden has been designated a site of special scientific interest by the Nature Conservancy Council.

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