500-year-old kitchen restored at Athelhampton House
It was officially opened by West Dorset MP Chris Loder
One of the country's oldest kitchens in use has been restored and unveiled at Athelhampton House in Dorset.
The kitchen has been in use for around 500 years and has now been restored to its original design including a large Elizabethan Fireplace, Tudor bread ovens, and hatchways for serving food.
West Dorset MP Chris Loder officially opened the renovated kitchen on Friday.
He said:
"We're at the beginning of July now and bringing people here to enjoy beautiful West Dorset and to stay here and spend their money and contribute to the economy is very important.
"To be perfectly honest with you I think people would rather come to West Dorset than they would go abroad. I think this work here, the fact that Athelhampton is now open with it's glory, means even more so that people should come here rather than go elsewhere."
The kitchen will continue to be used to cook traditional Tudor meals most days of the year.
Athelhampton is a Tudor house, built in 1485 with the Kitchen added in 1560, and is one of Dorset's prime tourist attractions with some 25,000 visitors a year.
Giles Keating owns the attraction. He said:
"Over the years the Tudor origins got really hidden behind thick layers of white paint and there was a bread oven here which completely disappeared behind the wall and had modern kitchen units in front.
"Obviously we knew there was probably something there because you could see the shape of the arch, we had no idea what condition it was in.
"We're going to have re-enactments here and so really people will be able to come in on a regular basis and see what's happening."