ILKLEY Manor House will be turned into a real-life advent calendar throughout December.

The creative team of Louise Hepworth-Wood, Joanne Tinker and Lorraine Dowson have been exploring ideas for the house for Christmas 2021.

“Following the success of ‘Peeping In’ which was held in the Manor House at Christmas 2020 we have decided to focus the Christmas installation on the Manor House itself again,” said Sarah Thomas, Chair of the Manor House.

“This year the beautiful windows on the front façade of the Manor House will be turned into a real-life advent calendar and to make it extra special we asked members of the community to send in images of their Christmas and festive season and Louise has hand drawn and coloured her interpretation of their images.

“As well as the images we asked for three words that sum up the Christmas and festive season and Lorraine has turned these into poems to accompany the calendar. So it really is a community effort.”

A new window will be revealed at 4pm each day from December 1st to 24th. It is planned that the unveiling will be streaming on Facebook and as well as recordings of the poems.

“As well as the Manor House being turned into an advent calendar a unique beautifully produced paper calendar is being printed. This would be a lovely memento of this Christmas event which we hope everyone will want to purchase,” added Louise Hepworth-Wood.

The calendars are available to purchase on-line from https://www.discoverilkleyart.co.uk/product-page/advent-calendar and from the Manor House when it is open at weekends and Ilkley Visitor Information Centre.

“We really hope that the town will enjoy the 2021 Christmas installation at the house,” said Sarah.

The Manor House will also be opening its doors for the annual Christmas Makers’ Fair over the last weekend in November (Friday 26, Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 November from 10am to 4pm).

“It is such joy to be welcoming visitors to the Makers’ Fair again this year after Covid made last year’s fair impossible to run,” said Sarah. “To be able to bring the work of our talented artists and makers to the community is a real pleasure.”

There will be 20 stalls of beautifully created gifts for family and friends. “To recognise that there is still a level of concern about crowded inside spaces we have planned a few less stalls this year and we will have two outside stalls to offer tea and coffee in the courtyard too,” said Nick Robinson, Operations Manager. “As in previous year’s we are making a small admission charge for adults to the fair of £1. The money raised from the Fair will be enormously helpful in supporting the Manor House into 2022.

“We look forward to welcoming friends old and new to the Fair this year. Make a note in your diary!”