Wentworth Castle and Wentworth Woodhouse: Georgian rivals united through 21st-century restoration and public access.

Winter Lecture Series organised jointly by the Gardens Trust and the London Gardens Trust
14 December 2020, 6-7pm
Wentworth Castle and Wentworth Woodhouse
Dr Patrick Eyres, Editor of the New Arcadian Journal

The family rivalry was both dynastic and political. Until the mid-1740s, the Wentworth Castle dynasty was superior in aristocratic rank and cultural display. It was once the Hanoverian monarchy was securely embedded, that the Whigs at Wentworth Woodhouse began to eclipse their Tory cousins in social status and estate embellishment. We are fortunate that the rivals are being united by the endeavours of charitable trusts to conserve as a public amenity this magnificent legacy of competitive country house building and landscape gardening.

For over a decade, the Wentworth Castle Heritage Trust restored the splendour of the mansion, estate buildings, gardens, park and monuments, and the future of Wentworth Castle Gardens is now secure in the care of the National Trust. At Wentworth Woodhouse, the Fitzwilliam Wentworth Amenity Trust has restored the Georgian fabric of the landscape monuments and the four serpentine lakes, while the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust is undertaking the Herculean task of re-roofing the gargantuan Palladian mansion.

All lectures and booking online via London Gardens Trust. Tickets: £4 for Gardens Trust/London Gardens Trust/all County Gardens Trusts members, £6 for non-members; season tickets for 12 lectures £40/£60. The lecture will be live online on the day but will be available as a recording afterwards. All ticket holders will be sent a link to the recording the day after the lecture. The recording will be available for one week.
Image:- Wentworth Woodhouse and distant Wentworth Castle, illustration by Chris Broughton, 2014.