To be held on 18 October 2023
With a façade more than twice the length of Buckingham Palace and some of the finest 18th century rooms anywhere, Wentworth Woodhouse, seat of the Marquesses of Rockingham and then of the Earls Fitzwilliam, is now being awoken from more than half a century of slumber and privacy and is open for visits.
The country’s most palatial back-to-back, Wentworth Woodhouse, near Rotherham in South Yorkshire, is part of a story of the rivalry between two branches of the same family, between different political ideologies and between rival styles of architecture. It is a story of untold wealth and magnificence, political power, royal visits and enlightened social care. Yet it also encompasses political execution, accusations of insanity and of child-substitution, untimely deaths and socialist vindictiveness that almost saw this great house disappearing for ever.
This talk sets out the history of the aristocrats who owned Wentworth Woodhouse, and looks at the architectural heritage they bequeathed, both of the house itself and of the many follies within the grounds. It tells how the house was saved and of the current gradual reopening after many years of being inaccessible to visitors. And you can find out what part the shuttlecocks had to play in this dramatic and fascinating story.
David Winpenny
David studied English at Birmingham University and taught for several years before joining the Countryside Commission as Co-ordinator of its National Parks Campaign. He worked for the Central Office of Information in Leeds before setting up own public relations company. He is the author of Up to a Point – in search of pyramids in Britain and Ireland and has written and contributed to several books for the AA. He writes regularly for BBC Countryfile Magazine, is chairman of Ripon Civic Society and lectures on architectural and related subjects.