A local stately home is set to star in a new Hollywood blockbuster starring Gwyneth Paltrow.

Carnforth's Leighton Hall will hit the big screens later this month as the mystery romance 'Possession' goes on general release.

The Lancashire home of the Gillow family plays an important role in the film, which was shot almost two years ago.

With its Gothic facade, turrets and tower, Leighton Hall was chosen as a suitably-romantic location for key scenes.

Preparing Leighton Hall for its screen debut was an extensive process, with almost 90 people involved over a full week.

The limestone walls were decked with lorry loads of real and

artificial ivy.

Wood work was aged with emulsion and washing up liquid! Suzie Gillow Reynolds said: "We're all very excited about seeing Leighton in such a big film.

' Possession' is being billed as a romantic mystery and I'm sure that we will reap real

benefits from being part of it."

It is hoped that Leighton Hall could be used for other film locations.

An adaptation of AS Byatt's Booker Prize winning novel, 'Possession' features Paltrow as an English academic who is researching the life and work of the poet, Christabel LaMotte.

Roland Michell is an upstart American scholar in London on a fellowship to study Randolph Henry Ash (Jeremy Northam), best known for a collection of rapturous poems, dedicated to his wife.

When Maud and Roland discover a cache of love-letters which appear to be from Ash to LaMotte, they follow a trail of clues across England to the Continent, echoing the journey of the impassioned couple a century earlier.