Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust (WWPT)
Wentworth Woodhouse is a Grade I listed stately home in South Yorkshire, with the longest façade of any country house in England.
Wentworth Woodhouse was built for the 1st Marquess of Rockingham from circa 1735, the work continuing over four decades, and then passed to the Fitzwilliam family. During World War II, the mansion was taken over for use by Military Intelligence and after 1945, the onset of open cast coalmining in the garden and park, made it impossible for the family to return. The greater part of the house was let in 1947 to West Riding County Council, on a long lease, shortly before the death of the 8th Earl Fitzwilliam, in a plane crash in 1948. The house was used as a Women’s Physical Education College for training teachers.
Following local government reorganisation in 1974, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council became the lessee and the property was taken over as a student campus, for Sheffield Polytechnic College (now Sheffield Hallam University). Faced with mounting costs, Rotherham paid to surrender the lease in 1988. The house and 87 acres of grounds and parkland, were sold to W.G. Haydon-Baillie, in 1989. In 1998, the property went back onto the open market and was bought by the Newbold family in 1999, who continued in residence until 2017, when the property was purchased by Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust, on behalf of the nation.
WENTWORTH WOODHOUSE PRESERVATION TRUST
SAVE Britain’s Heritage and numerous other individuals and organisations helped initiate the new Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust (WWPT) to serve the following purposes:
1. To preserve the house and grounds on a long term sustainable basis with extensive public opening;
2. To find sustainable and sympathetic uses for those parts of the property not open to the public;
3. To raise funds both for acquisition and repairs and other essential works.
The Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust is a charitable company limited by guarantee and has been established to secure a long-term future for Wentworth Woodhouse. The WWPT charity number is 1155374 and the company number is 08809187.
Morning tours of the house are available as well as entry to the house and gardens to enjoy at your leisure. With a Tea Room, Shop and new Afternoon Tea in the Long Gallery there is plenty to keep you and your family entertained.