A FAMILY-owned medieval castle is opening its doors today for its first full season of tours.
Brancepeth Castle, in Brancepeth village, will be open four days each month, when members of the family will be giving tours to visitors.
It is part of their plans to give people more opportunities to find out about the history of the castle, which is one of the oldest in the North-East, and to press ahead with further renovations of the Grade I listed building.
Rev Alison Hobbs, who lives in the castle, said: "We've been working closely with Historic England on this. In the wake of my mother's death in 2014, the family has been thinking about being more outward looking.
"We're a medieval castle with a Regency country house and it's one of the oldest and most interesting medieval buildings in the area.
"We are opening within our capacity, but we're trying to build that. We will remain a residence for the 30 to 40 people who live here."
The castle was bought by Margaret Dobson in the late 70s and has been occupied by her family and other tenants ever since.
At the time, it was on English Heritage's 'at risk' register and the family has carried out work to repair as much of the building as it can.
The original castle was a stronghold of the Neville family but an additional portion was added on in the 1800s by the wealthy Russell family, which had made its money from coal mining in the area.
Brancepeth Castle was used as a hospital in the First World War
It was used as a hospital in the First World War and in 1939 became the regimental headquarters for the Durham Light Infantry, who erected a military camp of more than 100 huts to the south of the village during the Second World War.
Rev Hobbs said: "It doesn't quite look the part of a medieval castle or a Regency home but the really interesting thing is we are both and how the architect managed to hold the whole thing together."
She added: "It was my mother's romantic vision to buy it when it was on the at risk register. At that time it was really uncertain what was going to happen.
"The family is now trying to increase the pace at which we can do renovations.
"We've brought it on over the last 40 years but we need to push it and doing the tours will help that."
Members of the family will be giving the tours.
Tickets are priced at £10, with all proceeds going to castle renovations.
Places cannot be booked in advance.
For further details visit www.brancepethcastle.org.uk
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