Royal visit to stately home’s new centre

STATELY HOME Chatsworth House welcomed a special visitor when Princess Anne opened the estate’s new learning centre.

The senior royal was greeted warmly by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire and civic leaders from across Derbyshire before officially opening the facility yesterday. Children from nearby Pilsley Primary School were also in attendance.

The new learning centre has been created by converting a potting shed in the heart of the historic garden. Now the Old Potting Shed is a fully accessible bespoke indoor learning space capable of hosting up to 70 students at a time.

Run by the Devonshire Educational Trust (DET), it has been in use since May and has hosted a range of learning activities for primary, secondary, higher education and community groups.

The facility has been funded with money from the Derbyshire Charity Clay Shoot, the Duke of Devonshire’s Charitable Trust and the Garfield Weston Foundation.

As well as 20,000 formal educational visitors a year, Chatsworth’s education team works with a range of disadvantaged groups including children in care, young carers, refugees and local BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) community groups.

The new centre will allow them to develop and improve their educational programme and increase the numbers of people taking part.