Knole is considered to be one of the great noble houses of England and its story spanning over 500 years also makes it one of the most extraordinary. Surrounded by a medieval deer park, Knole is vast in scale. Its remarkable complex of stone ranges around seven courts has, with its turrets and gables, been likened to a medieval town and covers an area of four acres. Though its size suggests long organic growth, it remains largely as it was by about 1610, built by archbishops of Canterbury in the later 15th and early 16th century and dramatically recast by Thomas Sackville (1536-1608), 1st Earl of Dorset, in a few astonishing years from 1605 to 1608. The Sackville family has lived here ever since, with the National Trust accepting ownership and responsibility for its care in 1946. It is physically the largest private home in England and the only one of its scale to remain, retaining all of its accretions and preserving substantial medieval elements. The Showrooms project involved creating visitor access to some of the most precious and fragile State Rooms within the house, opening up new spaces for the visitor experience, and enhancing the climatic and servicing requirements of the other prestigious visitor rooms. The Conservation Studios project involves conversion of the Grade I listed Medieval Barn and Brewhouse to create facilities in which artefacts from the main house may be conserved within public view. The aim of the project is to encourage visitor participation in protecting and caring for fragile and precious historical artefacts from the Knole collection. Full interpretation facilities within the Barn will bring Knole’s heritage to life. A new café, temperature controlled artifact storage facilities and a shop will also be created. The project is due for completion in 2016. Works to the external fabric, including roof and masonry repairs and structural strengthening has also been carried out throughout the site.