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Chatsworth goes bling! Duke of Devonshire spends £33million revamping his famous home and reveals it was prompted because he wanted to install Wi-Fi

19:05, Saturday, 17 March, 2018
Chatsworth goes bling! Duke of Devonshire spends £33million revamping his famous home and reveals it was prompted because he wanted to install Wi-Fi

Not since the Windsor Castle fire has there been a makeover of one of our national treasures on such a scale. Indeed, the restoration of Chatsworth House has cost only a few million pounds less than the £37 million lavished on the castle.

However, the facelift of Chatsworth, in Derbyshire — where Keira Knightley’s heart as Miss Bennet first fluttered over the brooding Mr Darcy in the big-screen version of Pride And Prejudice — was prompted not by adversity but because its owner, the Duke of Devonshire, had no wifi.

That became the trigger for the biggest, costliest and longest refurbishment of his family seat, garden and surrounding parkland for almost 200 years.

And this week, as the last of the scaffolding came down, the Daily Mail was given an exclusive preview of the results of the ten-year, £32.7 million programme that has seen Chatsworth’s blackened sandstone facade meticulously cleaned and restored to a honey glow, and the finials — decorative ornaments — on the roof coated in dazzling gold leaf.

Chatsworth goes bling! Duke of Devonshire spends £33million revamping his famous home and reveals it was prompted because he wanted to install Wi-Fi
Chatsworth goes bling! Duke of Devonshire spends £33million revamping his famous home and reveals it was prompted because he wanted to install Wi-Fi
Chatsworth goes bling! Duke of Devonshire spends £33million revamping his famous home and reveals it was prompted because he wanted to install Wi-Fi
Chatsworth goes bling! Duke of Devonshire spends £33million revamping his famous home and reveals it was prompted because he wanted to install Wi-Fi
Chatsworth goes bling! Duke of Devonshire spends £33million revamping his famous home and reveals it was prompted because he wanted to install Wi-Fi
Chatsworth goes bling! Duke of Devonshire spends £33million revamping his famous home and reveals it was prompted because he wanted to install Wi-Fi
Chatsworth goes bling! Duke of Devonshire spends £33million revamping his famous home and reveals it was prompted because he wanted to install Wi-Fi
Chatsworth goes bling! Duke of Devonshire spends £33million revamping his famous home and reveals it was prompted because he wanted to install Wi-Fi
Chatsworth goes bling! Duke of Devonshire spends £33million revamping his famous home and reveals it was prompted because he wanted to install Wi-Fi
Chatsworth goes bling! Duke of Devonshire spends £33million revamping his famous home and reveals it was prompted because he wanted to install Wi-Fi
Chatsworth goes bling! Duke of Devonshire spends £33million revamping his famous home and reveals it was prompted because he wanted to install Wi-Fi
Chatsworth goes bling! Duke of Devonshire spends £33million revamping his famous home and reveals it was prompted because he wanted to install Wi-Fi
Chatsworth goes bling! Duke of Devonshire spends £33million revamping his famous home and reveals it was prompted because he wanted to install Wi-Fi
Chatsworth goes bling! Duke of Devonshire spends £33million revamping his famous home and reveals it was prompted because he wanted to install Wi-Fi
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