Goldsborough Hall, Goldsboroug is appearing on the Christmas special Bargain Hunt.
It will go to air on BBC1, Friday 20 December at 12:15pm.
Filming for the show took place in October so the 17th-century Jacobean Library of Goldsborough Hall was dressed up for Christmas early.
In this episode of Bargain Hunt presenters Charles Hanson and David Harper hunted for festive bargains at Wetherby Racecourse in West Yorkshire. While Charlie Ross headed to Goldsborough Hall to learn about a special royal Christmas gift sent to troops during the First World War. The gift was from HRH Princess Mary, the Queen’s aunt, to all those serving in WW1 and by the end of the war 2.6 million of them were sent out.
Mark Oglesby, the Hall’s owner, said:
We were delighted Bargain Hunt chose Goldsborough Hall for their location to discuss Princess Mary’s royal Christmas gift.
It was the perfect location to film as Princess Mary and her husband Viscount Lascelles, later 6th Earl of Harewood, lived at the Hall after their marriage in 1922 and throughout the 1920s.
The Princess Mary Gift Fund box was an embossed brass box that originally contained items such as tobacco and chocolate. It was intended as a present to those serving at Christmas in 1914 and was paid for by a public fund backed by Princess Mary, the only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary.
Contents included a packet of tobacco and a packet of cigarettes, a portrait photograph of Princess Mary, and Christmas cards from Princess Mary and King George and Queen Mary.
Mark said:
We hope that everyone enjoys the show and learns how such a young royal – Mary was only 17 at the time – made such a big difference to the soldiers and sailors during the First World War.
A Princess Mary Gift Fund box and its contents is on display at Goldsborough Hall.