Stafford House was built for show: something that would appear suitably impressive as visitors to Greystoke Castle, near Penrith, approached via the sweeping drive or gazed out of the castle’s windows.

The castellated parapets are the building’s dominant feature but they aren’t used on the rear of the building, where there is an ordinary roof and far fewer of the property’s distinctive arched windows. Clearly Charles Howard, the 11th Duke of Norfolk, intended it to look magnificent from the front but decided to cut corners away from public view.

But while its original use was mainly ornamental, its owner, Hazel Knight, is now putting the Grade-II listed Stafford House to good use by welcoming B&B guests. Her partner, garden designer Ian Corri, helps her with the business and has overseen a transformation of the grounds.

Hazel has won a number of awards for the business, including one from LateRooms.com, which named Stafford House best small hotel, based on customer reviews left on the website.

Stafford House is believed to have been built at the end of the 1700s or in the early 1800s. Hazel and Ian have been hampered in their research about its origins because the deeds for the house are believed to have been destroyed in a fire at Greystoke Castle. They do know, however, that the house was once home to the estate’s head gardener.

Hazel is a fan of what is sometimes referred to disparagingly as brown furniture - including oak and mahogany - and has become skilled at picking up saleroom and auction bargains.

There are several examples of saleroom finds in the second-floor guests’ lounge, which Hazel has decorated in a traditional style that she calls olde worlde. While she was renovating the room,she took down the ceiling which she intended to renew and replace. The exposed beams were so attractive, however, that she decided to leave the full-height ceiling exposed.

The lounge’s three arched windows, set in the thick stone walls, have been left without curtains, drawing attention to their attractive shape. The cast-iron radiator, which had previously been used in a school, was so heavy that it needed six people to carry it upstairs.

Hazel picked up the three-piece leather Chesterfield suite for a good price after spotting an advert in a local paper. A corner table was made by the late Dickie Breaks, a well-known estate worker and personality who was a friend of the family.

The artwork throughout the property is a mixture of paintings that the couple likes or which have been chosen to tie in with a colour scheme.

Ian says Hazel is relentless in tracking down the right furniture for each room: “As soon as she’s found one piece she starts looking for the next piece.”

Hazel says Ian, a former head gardener at Hutton-in-the-Forest, has transformed the garden since moving to Stafford House in 2011. His first act was to remove a 60ft-long leylandii hedge which was blocking the view of the front of the property, replacing it with a large border which has been divided into three.

Having always lived on the estate (her father Fred was the farm manager), Hazel says she’s apt to forget how attractive it is: “I’m glad that I’ve been lucky enough to be in such a lovely place. Sometimes you feel as though you take it for granted because you don’t actually get out and enjoy the scenery as you should.”

She says she’s still taken aback by the reaction of guests who book after seeing pictures on the website: “They get here and say, ‘It’s brilliant, it’s fantastic, your photos don’t do it justice’ but I think I would rather have it that way than have fantastic photos then not be up to standard.”