STAIRS which have been hidden from public view for at least 120 years at a North Yorkshire stately home could be re-opened as the owners try to make visits easier.

They lead off the main staircase on the first floor of Norton Conyers Hall, a grade II* listed building near Ripon, which dates from the fifteenth century and has literary connections with Charlotte Bronte.

Whether the long-disused stairs can eventually be re-opened as a short cut to the second and third floors depends, however, on a structural inspection and permission being granted by English Heritage to remove part of the oak panelling which conceals them.

Norton Conyers visitors who want to see the attic rooms once occupied by maids at present have to use back stairs and negotiate passages in the labyrinthine building, which has been in the hands of the Graham family since 1624.

The present owners, Sir James and Lady Halina Graham, believe that re-opening the disused stairs will offer a more direct route.

Floorboards on the second floor, where original users of the stairs emerged, have been taken up for a preliminary inspection, which has revealed that they have woodworm and a possible subsidence problem which was due to be assessed by an architect this week.

The Graham family home was visited in 1839 by Charlotte Bronte, author of Jane Eyre, in which Thornfield Hall is believed to be based partly on Norton Conyers.

Her stay at the hall is thought to have inspired references in the novel to Mr Rochester ascending the main staircase to the attic rooms to visit his wife.

Sir James Graham said: "We decided to look at the old stairs partly out of curiosity but also because we thought they might be useful as a quick way for visitors to get from the main staircase rather than having to go up the back stairs and get through passages.

"We have found an original door with a spring on it to make sure it was always shut so that draughts would not blow down the stairs, but no treasure has been found and the only other discoveries have been woodworm, subsidence and a tiny object that looks like a collar stud.

"We don't know exactly why the stairs were blocked off in the first place, but it may have been shortly after my great-grandfather, Sir Reginald Graham, bought Norton Conyers back in 1882.

"It may have been partly because he wanted to exclude the servants from using the gentry, or grander, part of the house on the main staircase and made them use a back route instead.

"Sir Reginald stood very much on his own dignity and it has been said that he never spoke to servants except to give them orders.

"At the moment, we just don't know when the stairs could be re-opened for the benefit of the public. Much depends on a structural survey and permission by English Heritage to remove some of the panelling which conceals them on the main staircase, but there could be some considerable expense involved."

The stairs are also a short cut to a room once occupied in the eighteenth century by the so-called "mad woman,'' about whom nothing is known, but Lady Graham said this would be out of bounds to visitors for safety reasons because of the condition of the floor. Charlotte Bronte was said to have used ''Mad Mary'' as the inspiration for Mrs Rochester in Jane Eyre.

Norton Conyers is visited by people wanting to see the great hall, pictures, furniture, bedrooms and two-acre walled garden dating from the eighteenth century.

Family legend has it that a scar in the woodwork on the main staircase is a hoof mark made by the horse ridden by Sir Richard Graham, wounded at the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644.

The animal carried him home, galloped across the stone-flagged hall and the shoe, heated by the long ride, burned its way into the wood.