July takes us into Lancashire for private guided tours of two historical gems. First up it's Queen Street Mill in Burnley, a former weaving mill built in the 1890s to house 900 single-shuttle looms. Production ceased in 1983 but the building was saved and now operates as a working textile museum, the last surviving steam-powered weaving mill in the world.

After a pub lunch it's off to Gawthorpe Hall, in the heart of industrial Lancashire, to explore this splendid example of an Elizabethan mansion. Gawthorpe probably began life in the 14th century as a pele tower, with the country house constructed around it in the early 1600s. By the mid-19th century the building had been reduced to ruin but it was remodelled in its original style by Sir Charles Barry, the architect who rebuilt the Palace of Westminster - better known as the 'Houses of Parliament'.