HIDDEN strengths - and weaknesses - along with previously unseen architectural treasures have been uncovered during the current building works at Highcliffe Castle.

Workmen moved in during August on the current £1.2 million sixth phase in the restoration of the early 19th century grade I listed building, which was badly damaged by fires in the 1960s and left to crumble for almost three more decades.

The present scheme, which will lead to the re-opening of the state dining room, has exposed the underground world of the cellars, kitchens and servants' quarters, which housed the army of staff needed to cater for the aristocratic owners and their visitors - who included kings, Kaisers and shopping magnate Gordon Selfridge, who leased the castle in 1920.

But while the 1830 cast iron kitchen range made by the Bournemouth Eagle firm was state-of-the-art and continued in use until the 1960s Claretian seminary installed their own refectory, the castle never had a hot water supply.

That will change next spring when the vaults, currently a forest of steel struts, will house visitor toilets and pave the way for eventual access to the upper floors as part of future phases of the restoration.

More than 40 bookings have already been made to hold wedding receptions in the renovated dining room when it re-opens in February.

Meanwhile, digging up the floors has revealed some of the foibles of castle creator Lord Stuart de Rothesay and his architect Williams Donthorne, in order to include 12 barge-loads of French mediaeval masonry in the construction floor levels compromised by - or compromising - historic windows.

Digging up the floor of the Great Hall has also uncovered good and bad points in the original design, with double thickness brick vaulting and cast iron beams - some of the first to be used in house-building - still in pristine condition after 170 years contrasting against the rough brickwork of the foundations cannibalised from an earlier edifice on the site.

Removal of the floor has also shown up cost-cutting in the making of the Italianate terrazzo floor of the entrance hall too thin, leading to cracks which had to be hidden.