The 56-year-old, from South Kirkby, was the last servant employed at the mansion near Doncaster before it was purchased by English Heritage, who then opened it to the public in 1995 after a £4 million conservation project.

As the sole keeper of the Hall's 50 rooms after her mother, Constance Douglas, retired as the last housekeeper, Ruth strove to keep the place looking spick and span. She performed many of the duties once done by an army of 17 servants in the 19th century.

This week she ws back on familiar ground to help English Heritage unveil four fascinating new rooms, previously unseen by the public, ready for Brodsworth's re-opening on Good Friday. They include two grand Victorian bedrooms, an atmospheric aga kitchen and a scullery, each soaked in history. As part of the year-long project, over 1,000 objects, fixtures and fittings have been returned to their original place, ranging from biscuit tins to a luxurious boat bed.

Ruth Thomas recalls: "I started working at the Hall to help my mother, Constance. She gave a good part of her life to the place, spending 15 years at Brodsworth. There might not have been an army of servants any more, but she was a stickler for high standards.

"By that stage only the owner, Mrs Sylvia Grant Dalton, lived in the house and many of the rooms were closed. But the atmosphere was always really nice and not at all spooky. It's quite moving to come back and see the rooms I knew so well open to the public."

Brodsworth Hall was built by Charles Sabine Thellusson in 1865 at a cost of £50,000. Designed in an Italianate style, it has been described as the most complete Victorian country house in England – a "time capsule" retaining many of its original fittings.

English Heritage has chosen to conserve, rather than restore the rooms, displaying them much as they were left in the 1980s. In a style that has become Brodsworth's trademark, they combine high Victorian grandeur with 20th century kitsch and retro-fittings.

English Heritage Curator Crosby Stevens said: "Everything we removed from the rooms in the early 1990s during the Hall's conservation was kept safe and we also took photos of how they were left. Because of that we've been able to put things back where they were found, even down to a bar of soap and a nail brush."