New incentives to attract visitors' investment in Chatsworth House, gardens and parkland

As the magnificent stately home, gardens and parkland prepare to welcome visitors back for the new season, Jane said: "We need to grow income but we also need to remove price as a barrier for those who can't afford it. This year we've moved to a peak and off-peak pricing offer, we are also launching a £10 child ticket (giving access to the house, garden, farmyard and adventure playground) and we're leading with a Gift Aid price because every single penny that is given to us is reinvested."

Challenges that the charitable organisation Chatsworth House Trust faces in managing the estate include the upkeep of historic monuments. Jane said: "We have many listed structures that will cost £32million to restore. The conservation management panel will look at what is in most urgent need of repair and also what will have the greatest impact when thinking about our visitors and our wider community."

New incentives to attract people to visit Chatsworth will include a free guide book for those travelling on public transport.

There’s a packed programme in store for this season including the Picturing Childhood art exhibition, a family festival, a show by a well-known fashion designer and a Classic Ibiza concert. A renowned children’s author is helping to write the Christmas story for Chatsworth.

Derbyshire’s premier stately home and gardens attracts more than 600,000 paying visitors a year. Its membership scheme has attracted 11,000 people, of which 90% are within an hour's drive and on average, members will visit Chatsworth six times a year.

Last year 14,000 schoolchildren visited, with 30 schools arriving free under the Chatsworth House Trust's travel subsidy.

The number of tourists from North America and Canada has shown a marked increase over the past 12 months. Visitors from Australia have also been returning to Chatsworth after the lifting of travel restrictions. But the Chinese share of the visitor market has yet to return to the level of pre-Covid days.

Jane said: "We're developing international strategies and there is a real opportunity here not just to shout out about Chatsworth but Derbyshire and what incredible and historical assets we've got outside the capital."

The charity was set up in 1981 by the entrepreneurial 11th Duke and Duchess, "to conserve and preserve this place to share with everyone now and forever." Jane said: "That was very much a key moment because essentially what you're doing is relinquishing your family home. Whilst the family still live in the house today, they have to pay rent to the charity in order to live there. They also wanted to ensure that there was some financial stability to start with so they made the decision to sell some works of art, particularly a Poussin which generated an endowment that could at least give the charity some stability when it first started. The Duke and Duchess ran the charity incredibly well and then passed it over to a group of trustees.

"The current Duke and Duchess very much had the commitment to charity at the heart of everything they were doing at Chatsworth. The charity by definition is for public benefit - if you can't demonstrate your public benefit, you can't be a charity. So keeping this place going, making sure it was shared with everyone, using every penny of income generated to reinvest into the conservation was absolute key.”

Jane said: “The Duke and Duchess have retired as much as you can retire – you will be the Duke and Duchess for all of your life but they have very much stepped back and they wanted to make sure that the preparation and handover was as smooth as possible. Lord and Lady Burlington, the future Duke and Duchess, are keenly aware of the privilege of Chatsworth and the privilege of being able to continue to support the charity.”

Lord Burlington has succeeded his father, the 12th Duke of Devonshire, as chairman of the Chatsworth House Trust. The charity's independent trustees are drawn from the world of art, law, business and investment banking.

Chatsworth House opens to the public on March 16. To book tickets, go to www.chatsworth.org