If walls could talk, what secrets would they tell? From August 7, the grand state rooms will be whispering memories from their past.

Our new fascinating sound and vision experience, will take families back in time to hear the inside story of King George V and Queen Mary’s visit in 1912. The King and Queen were guests of Earl Fitzwilliam. Their stay, which included a visit to Cadeby Colliery, scene of a mining disaster, made many a headline.

Now it is being told from a new perspective. Housemaids and manservants, and even the characters of an oil painting from the 1600s, will be coming to life to talk to visitors. Servants gossip as they work and the children of the 1st Earl of Strafford recall the visit they witnessed from their portrait by Van Dyck, which hung in the State Dining Room for centuries.

The pilot project uses the latest technology and has been made possible with the support of a £40,000 Respond and Reimagine Grant from Art Fund, the UK’s national charity for art.

If These Walls Could Talk begins on August 7 and can be seen by visitors on house and gardens admission tickets from Wednesday to Sunday and Tuesday to Sunday in the school holidays.