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Visitors
to Stainborough Park today come for one of two reasons: to take
a tour of the gardens or to study at Northern College, which occupies
Wentworth Castle.
What
they get to see is just a fraction of the heritage of the estate
near Barnsley.
Now
the trustees are hoping for a 拢15m grant from the Heritage
Lottery Fund to begin restoring the whole site for visitors.
When
the Victorian Conservatory and Gothic Folly - known as Stainborough
Castle - appear on Restoration, it will be just the first phase
of their attempt to restore the estate to its former glory.
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| Several
of the farm buildings are listed and could be opened to the
public if restored. |
Wentworth
Castle is actually a Grade I listed country house which dates back
to 1672. It sits at the heart of a designed landscape created in
the Formal and Picturesque styles in the 18th century.
Victorian
and Edwardian additions, like the Conservatory, are of comparable
quality.
The
trustees believe that the estate's importance rests in the unique
combination and variety of architecture, gardens and designed landscape
achieved by the Vernon-Wentworth family.
The
ownership of the estate became divided in 1948 and since then lack
of funding has seen many of the buildings and much of the landscape
fall into disrepair.
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| The
Great Avenue of oak and lime trees, facing south, is now overgrown. |
If
the restoration work takes place, visitors will be able to wander
around three centuries of landscape, horticultural and architectural
history. But it's going to be a mammoth task.
There
are temples, monuments, an obelisk, an orangery, a folly, a Palladian
bridge, 300 species of rhodedendron, 100 varieties of camellia,
several formal gardens, historical farms, a church, a great avenue....
See
the maps for the location of historical monuments within
Stainborough Park.
|
Listed
buildings and structures |
Grade |
| 1 |
Wentworth
Castle |
I |
| 2 |
Stainborough
Castle (folly) |
II* |
| 3 |
Pillared
Barn |
II* |
| 4 |
Statue
of Thomas Wentworth |
II* |
| 5 |
Duke
of Argyll's Monument |
II* |
| 6 |
Rotunda
Temple |
II* |
| 7 |
Conservatory
and linking bridge |
II* |
| 8 |
The
Strafford Arms |
II* |
| 9 |
Entrance
Gateway and Gates, Park Drive |
II |
| 10 |
Menagerie
House |
II |
| 11 |
Serpentine
Bridge |
II |
| 12 |
Gun
Room |
II |
| 13 |
Two
pairs of gates adjoining the east front of Wentworth Castle,
including iron railings enclosing the garden |
II |
| 14 |
Corinthian
Temple |
II |
| 15 |
Obelisk
to Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu |
II |
| 16 |
Battlemented
wall including triple archway along south side of the Wilderness |
II |
| 17 |
Church
of St James |
II |
| 18 |
Gates
and gate piers with adoining walls enclosing churchyard |
II |
| 19 |
Former
stable block of Home Farm and attached archway |
II |
| 20 |
Barn
at Home Farm and attached wall on east |
II |
| 21 |
Cart-shed
at Home Farm |
II |
| 22 |
Cottage
to east of cart-shed at Home Farm |
II |
| 23 |
Former
cowhouses and calf houses at Home Farm |
II |
| 24 |
Dairy-house
at Home Farm |
II |
| 25 |
Former
orangery |
II |
| 26 |
Queen
Anne's Obelisk, Rockley Lane |
II |
|
