A CURIOUS house built for Sir Francis Drake's descendants in rural north Oxfordshire is opening its landscaped gardens again.

Bignell House in Chesterton last threw open its gates to the public in the summer of 1994 when a fair was held on the 20-acre estate - the first such event for 530 years.

Now owners Paul and Diane Gordon are ready to show off the Victorian gardens once again and are opening their gates for one day only on Easter Sunday.

Mr Gordon, principal of Cherwell Tutorial College in High Street, Oxford, said: "We are hoping for good weather and a good turnout."

He is expecting visitors from Yorkshire as well as people who stayed at the house when it was a school for young evacuees during the Second World War.

Money raised from the event will be shared between local district nurses, the Cancer Relief Macmillan Fund and the Gardens Fund of the National Trust.

Nature groups including the Swan Lifeline and Friends of the Earth will have stalls and there will be tea and plants for sale.

The grounds were first laid out in 1860 but successive owners and bad weather brought significant change. Eight years ago a four-minute storm blew down 68 ornamental trees, including a 130-year-old Cedar of Lebanon.

In its heyday in the 1930s the grounds were maintained by a team of 13 gardeners. Now it is kept in order by just the Gordons and a youngster who helps on Saturdays.

The house itself was built for the Misses Tyrwhitt-Drake family, five-generation descendants of the famous naval hero.

Designed by architect William Wilkinson it took six years to construct and was completed in 1866 at a cost of £5,500. Wilkinson also designed the Randolph Hotel in Oxford.

But only the nursery wing, which was added to main house in 1892, remains today because the rest was demolished in 1953-54.

Bignell House will be open on Sunday April 12 from 2pm-6pm. Admission for adults is £1.50. Children get in free.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.