Stepping up

Castle Howard’s owner is marking Yorkshire Day with a fundraising message from the heart

- Bethan Hyatt

The months of lockdown have been strange for the majority of us: we’ve seen fewer people, been to fewer places and become used to a quieter life lived at a slower pace. But for the Hon Nicholas Howard, who is accustomed to welcoming a quarter of a million visitors to his home, Castle Howard, every year, that strangeness has been magnified.

‘I’ve been here with just my wife, my daughter and her boyfriend,’ he says. ‘It was extraordinary coming out and seeing absolutely no one here. Most of the staff were on furlough, though the gardening team kept working, otherwise the place would have gone to rack and ruin. There was something slightly pathetic about watching the lawns being mown and the beds being tended, all for no one.’

With the gradual easing of lockdown, though, Castle Howard is tentatively unfurling. There are little children running round the grounds once more, dogs snuffling at rose bushes, takeaway coffees being consumed (ah, the simple pleasure of a hot drink you haven’t made yourself) and visits to the garden centre and farm shop are in full swing.