I went on a 2 hour guided tour of Wentworth Woodhouse.....

one of those once in a lifetime dreams.
What a place !
It is pricey, at 25 quid, but all the money is going towards the complete restoration of the area's biggest treasure.
The weather was great so lots of good photos.
I used to walk round the park when I was a kid, so to be able to actually go inside the house for the first time was a wonderful experience.

The downside.... we went yesterday and I had the "thrill" of not knowing the score until about ten minutes from time..... one nil down at home to some tin pot conference team. Nothing changes. And it sounded as if it was pretty awful.

 

You made the right decision

 

Crawley Town are a league 1 side like....er....Barnsley...don't be getting Billy Big Time "Badge"

 

Is it open as a regular visit or was it a one off?

 

Sorry, but aren't we massive, or at least fairly big ?

 

Why, you going instead of the next home match?:tongue:

 

My wife booked it months ago.
As far as I know it is a regular thing now, there were 2 or 3 tours yesterday, as ours began the previous one had just finished.
There were about 60 people in our tour which they split into 2 lots, each with 2 guides.
The guides are very well informed and the whole thing was very interesting.
Until recently I didn't know that there is an older large original house behind the one we are used to seeing, dating from about mid 1600s. You get to see this one too but only from the gardens at the back as it is lived in by the current owners. This "hidden" house is beautifully decorated in brick and stone with fabulous carvings. An extra treat if you didn't know about it.
You'll have to check on internet for availability of the tours.

 

It actually sounds good, as I get older I'm becoming more intereted in local history, I didn't give a damn when I was younger....thinking of going to the mining museum as well, whats that like.

 

http://www.wentworthwoodhouse.co.uk/

I've been on a couple. The first one around 18 months ago was just a few rooms. As more restoration work is carried out, it gets extended. I went on the big one a few months ago, which stretched to nearly 3 hours on this occasion. It is pricey, but it is worth it when you compare it to football prices. At least at Wentworth you are guaranteed a good result!

It is South Yorkshire's jewel and many reckon the finest house in the country. And with the village and surrounding follies, it's an amazing place right on our doorstep. A lot of people don't like the aristocratic side of Wentworth, but that's a bit short-sighted. There is an amazingly rich 500 years of history there from the Wentworths on through the Rockinghams and Fitzwilliams. And let's not forget, the Fitzwilliams ran some of the best pits in the country and brought employment to that side of Barnsley and Rotherham. They also built a fantastic relationship with their workers. Even now, you won't hear a bad word said about the Fitzbillies round here.

 

I worked there for a few months earlier in the year. It is a great place but needs a lot of work. The tours are on most days, sometimes two or three a day

 

mining museum is good and its free.Ex miners take you on a guided tour throughout the underground galleries that have been built to replicate different ming scenes/practices.

 

My brother is one of the guides at Caphouse. When I went, we walked down the road rather than getting the lift. That was the best bit for me.

 

I think we've talked about this before,i've a couple of mates who are guides there,lads who I used to work with.Another ex collegue was the electrical engineer for caphouse.they still have to have the same cover,ie,electrical engineer,colliery manager and deputies that any other working colliery has to have.That road you walked down is the old drift where the coal came out.

 

I think we have, mate. My brother's a deputy. I remember him hanging his lantern on the wall and it hanging at a totally unusual angle, because visual perception had gone all skewiff.

 

My mum used to work there in teh 80's when Sheffield Polytechnic had the lease on teh buildings including the old stable block. Spent one NYE in the accomodation block behind the main building. Went through the main area many times as a kid including some basement areas which had only jsut been opened after many years locked up. Cracking place, can still picture the main entrance hall and the staircase leading up from it. Glad to here that plans are in place for its restoration.

 

Wentworth is two houses in one, which is why the biggest house in England claim is a bit of a con even if it's true. The older Baroque west front went up in the 1720s. It was hardly finished when the Palladian style became fashionable and work started on the grand east front, that we know best. That was finished in the 1750s. There are some bits of the original Strafford house from the early mid 1600s, including the Well Gate that you will have passed through on the way to the terrace and the west front.

The different builds were part of an ego driven battle between Rockingham and the 2nd creation Strafford at Wentworth Castle to outbuild each other. It's fair to say Rockingham won that one by a stretch.

I have hundreds of old postcards of Wentworth and the area. Stainborough too. I have them all scanned and plan to put them online. Possibly a facebook page. I'll let you know.

 

I suspect many of the above posters will know, but for those that don't, "Black Diamonds" by Catherine Bailey (Penguin) relates some of the history of the house and the Fitzwilliams. Terrific read.

 

I am interested because the deeds for my property in Hoyland have a detailed history of the land on which is was built (Fitzwilliam Estate) dated from 1st Jan 1926. "Abstract of the title". By vesting deed between the most honourable Lawrence Marquis of Zetland and Sir Edward Willis Duncan Ward Baronet G.B.E, K.C.B, K,C,V,O. of 5 Wilbraham place, Sloan Street, Chelsea, London. Late colonel in His Majesty's Army. Etc etc.. on the one part and, The RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM CHARLES DE MEURON EARL FITZWILLIAM.

 

That's really interesting. Whereabouts is your house? Is it leasehold? The fella to ask about this is Roy Young, the old headmaster at Wentworth school. I haven't seen him for a couple of years and he was in his 80s then. He knows a lot about the dispersion of the Wentworth estate, including the bit where I grew up on the site of Jump Hall. Most of Hoyland was sold off to the local authority to house the influx of miners, most working in the EFW's collieries, the biggest being Elsecar Main. But the estate still owns a lot of land right over to Birdwell and Tankersley, including I dare say, where your house is built. I don't know everything they still have, but I know it's in strategic 'pockets' - access points which become very profitable when someone wants to develop land or build. Very canny. They raked in an absolute mint from the Dearne Valley bypass and I heard, a 35k fee just to allow the clearance of the the old Barber St WMC.

The RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM CHARLES DE MEURON EARL FITZWILLIAM - this is 'Billy' the 7th Earl, the one of dubious parentage who split the family, if you believe the story in Black Diamonds. Zetland was the father of Billy's wife, Maud Countess Fitzwilliam. Not sure about the other fella, but a quick google suggests he and Billy may have served together in the Boer War or in India. Billy and Maud's son was Peter (They're all called William, then usually known by the second name - Billy was William William, no lie!) - Peter was married but had no children. He was having a fling with JFK's sister Kick Kennedy, they both died when his light aircraft hit the Pyrenees in 1948. After that, the lineage and land ownership gets a bit more complicated.

 

Go and have a look now mate, when you can. The guides are also very interested in stories from that time. Many old students of Lady Mabel's have been back for a visit since it opened.