This imposing Elizabethan red-brick mansion in Crow Lane has now been fully and sympathetically restored to its original splendour and has recently opened its doors to the public.

It is so named to commemorate the visit of Charles II on the evening of his restoration to the throne in May 1660.

The interior preserves unique early paintwork. There is a fine collection of English furniture and portraits from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Charles Dickens used the house as the home of Estella and Miss Havisham in his novel Great Expectations but curiously, borrowed the name Satis House from another house nearer the castle and attached it to Restoration House.

The day before Dickens died, he was reported to have been staring through the gates of Restoration House (www.restorationhouse.co.uk). Was he reliving scenes from Great Expectations or planning to give the house a new identity in The Mystery of Edwin Drood? Nobody knows.

Open: June - September, Thursdays and Fridays, 10am-5pm and some additional days during the summer Dickens Festival.