Today, many attractions are reopening for the start of the tourist season. CHRIS TITLEY visited one as it prepared to meet the public

Beningbrough Hall opened its imposing doors to the first visitors of the Millennium on October 11, 1999. The Georgian estate offers much for them to admire: life-size oil likenesses of the good and the dead, from the National Portrait Gallery; blue-and-white Chinese porcelain; a wide range of flora and fauna in the gardens.

With so much to take in, it is unlikely that anyone will have stopped to marvel at the doorknobs. But Ray Barker hopes just one of today's intake might do so.

Taking me on a tour of the hall last week, Mr Barker stretched his sweater over his hand when opening doors to protect the brass handles from smudgy fingerprints. Every one has been polished to gleaming point. Another job ticked off the list of a thousand that have to be done while the hall is closed.

"When we open it looks just as good as when we closed. But in fact we have done all sorts of things," said Ray, property manager at the National Trust estate since 1989.

"If they come on Saturday and everything looks the same, and it all looks nice, we have done our job."

From the outside it appears that Beningbrough is simply emerging from winter hibernation today. But a hard core of staff have been busy since it closed five months ago maintaining, repairing and cleaning - preparing for 80,000 visitors.

"We shut at the end of October. We have a timetabled programme that begins then and which is focused on the opening on April 1. If we don't start instantly it doesn't all get done.

"We clean every room to a high standard. In some of them that means putting up scaffolding and cleaning the gilt with paint brushes and small, weak vacuum cleaners."

Every electrical appliance and every fire extinguisher has to be checked and marked with a sticker. Hundreds of valuable items are taken out of safe storage, cleaned and placed back on public display.

Down in the cellar, brass goblets and plates are laid out. Soon children from a school party will be set to work polishing them to gain an insight into the labours of a Victorian servant.

Outside, volunteers have built a new pond while gardener Stephen Hodges has been busy with his chainsaw. He has pruned countless trees in the six acres of show gardens and 360 acres of park. He has also repaired the children's play area so it is braced for another onslaught of young feet and hands.

Other estate workers have been busy with the brush. "There's a lot of sweeping on this estate," one grumbled. "Gardeners don't like sweeping."

Flo Rawling doesn't much like filling the salt and pepper pots, either, but it's got to be done. The restaurant is a popular part of Beningbrough Hall and everything has to be ready for the hungry visitors. With Mothering Sunday tomorrow, Ray Barker is expecting a run on cakes and pastries. Many have been baked and frozen in advance.

He has to be ready for every eventuality. "In my first Easter here somebody said there was a smell in the car park," he recalls.

"I went to look and for some reason the septic tank had started to overflow. There was a pool of sewage threatening to engulf the car park."

Ray will be hoping Beningbrough Hall comes up smelling of roses today - and that someone notices those sparkling doorknobs.

Beningbrough Hall is eight miles north-west of York off the A19. Telephone (01904) 470666 or see www.nationaltrust.org.uk for opening times.

PICTURE: Acorn sculpture at Beningbrough Hall. Nigel Holland