Harewood House is selling tickets at 1986 prices for its 40th anniversary weekend

Four hundred tickets at £3.50 for adults and £1.50 for children, a Fabergé owl display for Leeds 400 and a rare tour with the house’s former butler. Here’s what’s on across 16 to 18 October.

Harewood House Trust turns 40 this year. The independent charity was set up in 1986 to look after the house, its collections and the 100 acres of Capability Brown landscape north of the city, and it is marking the milestone with an anniversary weekend from Friday 16 to Sunday 18 October.

The headline for anyone who has winced at a day-ticket price recently: 400 tickets for Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October will be sold at what they cost in 1986. That is £3.50 for adults and £1.50 for children. Bookings open on Monday 14 September and, at those numbers, it is safe to assume they will not hang about.

The weekend is billed as a look back at the Trust’s four decades of exhibitions, events and conservation work, alongside a glimpse of what comes next for Harewood, including the reimagined gardens and a new welcome centre in the former Bakehouse. Here’s what is programmed.

Princess Mary’s owls

The one with the Leeds angle. Princess Mary, who lived at Harewood from 1922 until her death in 1965, collected owls throughout her life and kept them in her private rooms. The owl also happens to be the emblem of Leeds, and she once described Yorkshire as “the best place”, so to mark Leeds 400 and Harewood 40 her most treasured pieces are being brought together in the Yellow Drawing Room for the first time in more than a decade. They were made by Fabergé and Cartier and carved from precious hardstones. Included with day tickets and membership, 17 and 18 October.

A tour with Harewood’s last butler

Molly Kelly has been at Harewood for more than 36 years, 25 of them working directly with the Lascelles family. She became Under Butler in 2001 and Butler in 2006, one of very few women in the role at the time, and looked after the 7th Earl and Countess in the private apartments. For the anniversary she is leading tours of those apartments, which is not something that comes around often. 17 and 18 October, 10.30am and 1pm, Entrance Hall, £15.

The Head Gardener’s walk

Trevor Nicholson has looked after Harewood’s gardens for more than 30 years, which covers the reopening of the Walled Garden, the redevelopment of the Himalayan Garden, the planting of some 40,000 bulbs and the move to no-dig growing. His guided walk takes in the Terrace, West Garden, Pleasure Grounds and South Garden, with a look at what is planned for the landscape next. 17 and 18 October, 12pm, from the Terrace, £15.

In Conversation with David Lascelles

The Friday night event. David Lascelles, the 8th Earl of Harewood, discusses his new book Out of Colditz, which tells the story of Gottlob Berger, a senior Nazi figure who played an unexpected part in saving the life of David’s father George Lascelles, then heir to Harewood, in the closing days of the Second World War. Drawing on family archives, it is a little-known chapter in the family’s history. 16 October, The Gallery, £15.

Time capsules in the Servants’ Hall

For families, and for anyone who fancies leaving something behind. Visitors can make a personal time capsule in the Servants’ Hall, filling it with a memory, a message, a drawing or whatever captures the moment, to be kept for future visitors to find. Included with day tickets and membership, 17 and 18 October.

The details

Harewood 40 runs Friday 16 to Sunday 18 October at Harewood House, Harewood, Leeds LS17 9LG. The house is open 11am to 3.30pm and the gardens and grounds 10am to 6pm. The 400 tickets at 1986 prices go on sale on 14 September at harewood.org, with standard pricing available once they are gone.