Wentworth, South Yorkshire
There's more than one Wentworth in England—this is the South Yorkshire Wentworth, lying on the Fitzwilliam Estate. Nearby is the ancestral home, Wentworth Woodhouse, a house now owned by a preservation trust and open to the public. It's the largest private residence in the UK and has the longest frontage of any domestic building in Europe. The house is built in the Baroque and Palladian styles.
Wentorth is the adjacent village, the centre of the working estate. There is a strong effort to retain character and to reject developments that spoil its charm. There are, for example, no neon or pan-lit signs on commercial properties and most woodwork is painted in estate green.
Here's a converted windmill opposite the gatehouse to Wentworth Woodhouse. There's another, on lower ground, to the north-west of the village.
And above is the gatehouse.
The village is a ribbon development, mainly clinging to the main road running through it. This is a cottage at the eastern end of the village, opposite one of the village's pubs, The Rockingham Arms. I took no photographs of the hostelry on the day as there were too many cars parked around it. All the same, it consists of quite attractive rustic buildings.
The delightfully named Paradise Square, on the south side of the main road.
Though close to the extremities of urban development, there is plenty of open countryside around the village.
Cottages opposite Wentworth's Old Church. The village has two churches: one partly derelict and of much-weathered sandstone, which houses a small museum, and its Victorian replacement in the Gothic style (a fine and subtle building but with a surprisingly disproportionate spire).
I hadn't originally intended that this should be a black-and-white presentation, and I have to admit that there was a practical—rather than creative—reason that the photographs ended up in monochrome. The sun was low at the time I took them, casting strong shadows across the street in many images. I pulled as much out of the shadows as I could, but doing so made some of them look quite strange when left in full colour, so I made 'em mono. Then, having made some of them B&W, I thought I might as well turn them into a set.
In an effort to clarify the layout, here's a handy map which, thankfully, I didn't originate so it can be trusted. I have added red dot locations 1 and 2, the first being the position of the ex-windmill in the photograph, and the second being the gatehouse/lodge at the head of the drive to Wentworth Woodhouse, at the east end of the village.
Here are a few summertime images from 15+ years ago. That's a long time, but Wentworth hasn't changed that much since then: the Fitzwilliam Estate has been scrupulous in maintaining village character. The most significant difference that I've seen is that the telephone box now houses medical equipment rather than a 'phone.
The main road (B6090) through the village, looking north-west. My brother and (then-young) son are strolling toward the phone box. Beyond the green fence by the sunlit wall at the left of the frame is the location of Paradise Square, as seen in the prior batch of pictures.
Paradise Square, again, this time in bloom. The glazed wooden porch at the left of picture has been removed since the photo was taken.
Wentworth's K6 telephone boxes when they still housed 'phones.
Here's the post office, to the eastern end of the village. I'd say that the large, single-pane windows would have been multiple panes when the PO was built. Smaller, multiple panes have now been reinstated but, like these, still look too modern.
South of the village, looking NW-ish towards the 'new' (Victorian Gothic) church. For the size of church building, the tower is fairly high and the steeple exceptionally large.
It makes for a significant landmark but it's quite out of scale. The exterior is, in a way, quite austere and the fenestration a bit on the mean side, but the interior of the building is exquisitely judged and has very fine detailing and some fabulous stained glass which, photographed, would make excellent Christmas cards.
The south porch of the 'old' church, much weathered. The eastern end of the church is still roofed and contains Jacobean/Stuart funerary monuments of the land owning clan, as well as other small exhibits of local history. To my eye, its eroded dilapidation is artistically very attractive.
South of the village, again looking NW-ish towards Holy Trinity church.
Following are some shots of Wentworth Woodhouse itself, the former seat of the ennobled family. The Fitzwilliam Wentworth Estate now combines "a number of ownerships, including various charitable trusts," according to its website, though its holdings are overseen by members of the Fitzwilliam family.
While the Fitzwilliam Wentworth Estate owns much of the property hereabout, the elaborate edifice of Wentworth Woodhouse passed out of the family and the estate in 1989. After having been requisitioned by the army as an intelligence training facility in WWII, leased to the West Riding County Council as the Lady Mabel teacher training college (which I remember passing each summer holiday as we drove to the East Coast in the 1960s) and later becoming a remote annexe for Sheffield Polytechnic, it was then sold into private ownership where several abortive attempts at renovation were attempted.
Eventually, the house was sold to the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust in 2017, who have instigated renovation works and have opened part of Wentworth Woodhouse to public view. The works are being carried out in partnership with the National Trust, ironically, which had rejected an invitation to buy the property some decades earlier when an incumbent Earl had tried to flog it to them.
Wentworth Woodhouse seen from the south east, a position just by the Rockingham Monument.
And here's the façade from a nearer standpoint.
Here are more photos I took while wandering about the Wentworth estate over the years. They feature the various monuments and follies built by the elevated family from wealth which they made, to quote the estate's publicity, by operating (amongst other enterprises) "coal mines reputedly [employing] some 2,000 men at their peak". I think it's the collieries that were at their peak. The men were probably worn out.
The Minister for Fuel and Power in the post-war Labour Government (having nationalised the British coal industry) proceeded to mine coal by open cast means in the grounds of the great house, with excavations extending up to its front door. This was felt in some quarters to be a spiteful act against a landed family. There may be some truth to that.
The Wentworth-Woodhouse clan are said in some quarters to have been known for fair treatment of their workers—whatever that might mean in terms of 18th- and 19th Century values compared to those of the 21st Century. Whether the Wentworth family demanded or tolerated female and child labour in their pits I cannot say (my scant research is insufficient) but "employment" of the same was commonplace in the industry. Conditions were even intolerable for men at that time, so how much worse must they have been for women and children put to the same wretched work?
Whatever, the Wentworth-Woodhouses spent the wealth they obtained from their mines, at least part, on nothing more than self-aggrandisement and fawning over their own social superiors (ie the King). As handsome, interesting or as photogenic as their material displays of wealth might be, the sweat and blood that provided them can't be forgotten.
Three views of Hoober Stand. From a distance it is easily mistaken for a conical structure, like a windmill, with an off-centre cupola, but it's actually a tall but shallow-tapering pyramid, built as a viewing platform, with a central cupola. It commemorates the defeat of Scots Jabobites and the first Marquis of Rockingham's elevation to that title for his assistance in the matter. The pale insets are new stone, replacing badly corroded original fabric.
The panorama was taken from atop Hoober Stand.
The Needle's Eye, completed in 1748 so that the First Marquis could win a bet on whether he could drive a coach and horses through the eponymous object. Presumably, the people with whom he made the wager were unaware that he'd make a hundred-foot-high version in order to win, but I suppose gambling is concerned with knowing something the other fellow doesn't.
Three views of the Rockingham Monument, erected by the fourth Earl Fitzwilliam to honour his deceased uncle, the second Marquis of Rockingham who, in the absence of a direct heir, left the Earl his estate. It's sometimes incorrectly referred to as a mausoleum, but there are no remains within it, despite a carved sarcophagus sitting within the arches of the first (second) storey. It was completed in 1789, with the railings and the obelisks added some time afterwards. Within is a statue of the Marquis, hand raised in benefaction. The statue is by the foremost sculptor of the day, Joseph Nollekens, as are some of the series of busts of his nibs' close friends (including the Viscount Admiral Keppel) that surround the chamber. Below are photos of the statue and of the bust of Keppel, the latter Classically attired in toga:
The monuments are impressive and they're quite handsome after a narcissistic and ostentatious fashion. But really, this kind of pointless luxury, even for a twice Prime Minister, is questionable when the wealth that paid for them involved treating other human beings like beasts. But it's all history, isn't it?
Also see Wentworth Castle.
Part of Roaming South Yorkshire.