Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

Cost £49  per person

This tour will depart at 8.30 a.m. from Memorial Gardens, Leeman Road, York and goes to Wentworth near Barnsley to visit Wentworth Woodhouse and then Wentworth Castle. We shall first stop at the Wentworth Garden Centre which was carved out of the Woodhouse estate and still has maintained within it part of the restored historic Woodhouse gardens and bear pit which can all be visited (recommended) and there is a large café where refreshments may be bought before we visit Wentworth Woodhouse.

There were Woodhouse family members living at Wentworth from the 13^th century – probably in a “wood house”. In the early 1600s, Thomas Wentworth rose to high rank within parliament and became 1^st Earl of Strafford. He lived in what was then the modest Jacobean building (now part of the Wentworth Woodhouse West Wing) until beheaded for treason in 1641. On the death of the 2^nd Earl of Strafford the estate passed to his nephew Thomas Watson – to the dismay of other members of the Wentworth family who in retaliation bought nearby Stainborough Hall estate and began building what is now Wentworth Castle, thus starting a long rivalry between the families. Watson went on to become 1^st Marquess of Rockingham and added a Baroque wing to the earlier Woodhouse building. His son, Thomas, became an important Whig; was twice Prime Minister; and began developing the estate to reflect his position by building the follies and the huge East wing – essentially a separate but conjoined building which at over 600 ft frontage made it one of the largest houses in Europe. He also added “Wentworth” to his name. When his son Charles died without issue, the estate passed to his nephew William 4^th Earl Fitzwilliam who improved estate villages, and built factories and mines to benefit from the considerable quantities of coal at Wentworth. He was believed to be the 6^th wealthiest person in Britain.

By the early 1940s the family fortunes had waned due to a combination of two lots of swingeing death duties and the nationalisation of Britain’s coal industry which combined to make Wentworth Woodhouse unaffordable. House contents were auctioned in 1948, 1986, and 1998, or loaned out by the family Trust, leaving the house largely empty. The 7^th Earl offered to donate the house to the National Trust who rejected the offer. In 1949 his sister, Lady Mabel Fitzwilliam arranged for the West Riding County Council to take on the running and maintenance of the whole of the large East Wing as a training college for female physical education teachers, leaving 40 rooms in the older West Wing as family accommodation. Just before his death in 1979, the 10^th and last Earl Fitzwilliam put the bulk of the estate lands and buildings other than Wentworth Woodhouse itself into two trusts. In 1988, the upkeep of the building was too high for the College and occupation ended. It was bought firstly by a local businessman, whose business failed and 10 years later in 1999 it was bought by the present owners Mr Clifford Newbold and family.  Mr Newbold, a retired Architect, has the ambition of restoring Wentworth Woodhouse to its previous glory. A substantial claim for subsidence damage caused by coal mining has been lodged against the Coal Board, and is believed to be close to a settlement which will release funds for restoration.

We shall be given a guided tour of parts of 15 rooms of Wentworth Woodhouse (1.25 hrs) including the wonderful Saloon. Although most rooms are only sparsely furnished at present, they are well worth seeing as there are some splendid ceilings and some paintings, notably by Van Dyck and a copy of the stunning Whistlejacket racehorse painting which once belonged to the family. There is also a statuary room. The future of this magnificent building is still in the balance and there is no guarantee that it will still be accessible to visitors in future years. We shall not visit the main gardens which are undergoing restoration.

We shall then re-join our coach and drive to the rival nearby Wentworth Castle (see above) which tried to show equal or better status than its neighbouring relation. We shall have a simple included lunch there. After lunch we shall be given a guided tour of parts of the Castle building, which is now used as the Northern F.E. College and not normally open to the public. Exactly which rooms we shall see will depend on College requirements at the time, but we are assured that what we shall see will be well worth the visit. After the tour we shall visit the Castle gardens built on the hillside above the Castle and notable for its National Collections of Rhododendra, Magnolia, and Camellia which are mostly found in the informal Wilderness. The John Arnold Dahlia garden, Union Jack garden, Azalea garden, Victorian Flower Garden and recently restored Conservatory are among the many other things to be seen at Wentworth and culminating at the folly ruins of Stainborough Castle at the top of the hill. There is also a well stocked deer park. Warning – outdoor shoes recommended. There will be an included cup of tea to end the visit before we drive back to York, where we expect to arrive about 6.00 p.m.

Please complete and return the form below as soon as possible if you would like to join the visit. The outing includes transport, gratuities, guided tours of both “Wentworths”, lunch, admission to the Garden Centre historic gardens and tea.

Alan Owen

Tour Organiser

Note

The tour is offered exclusively to YPS members and their friends until the end of 2013, after which it will be opened up to other like-minded bodies.

The Yorkshire Philosophical Society accepts no responsibility for any loss of injury suffered while taking part in one of its visits.  Participants are advised to consider appropriate insurance cover.

To : –  Alan Owen,  Yorkshire Philosophical Society, The Lodge, Museum Gardens, York  YO1  7DR

A day at the Wentworths – Thursday 26 June  2014

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