Heritage workers back on site at Yorkshire's largest stately home

The Grade I-listed house and gardens near Rotherham are closed to the public and tours have been suspended while events and wedding bookings have been cancelled.

However much-needed restoration to the house's Georgian roof is now gaining momentum again after this month’s Government guidance for the construction sector.

Owners, the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust, have brought in a host of new safety measures to protect the heritage stonemasons, joiners and roofers back on site.

Trust chief executive Sarah McLeod said: "Sadly our great house and visitor attractions must remain closed to the public until the Government’s Covid-19 policy changes.

"But we are delighted that vital repairs to our roof are now running again."

Strictly followed precautions to ensure social distancing rules include outdoor meetings, staggered break times and careful planning of working area between trades.

Additional scaffold walkways have also been created to give workers a one-way system around the vast site.

Leaks, water damage and dry rot have left many rooms in the mansion at risk and waterproofing the roof has been an urgent priority since the trust bought the house in 2017.

Contractors, from the Woodhead Group, who are undertaking the work, moved onto the site in 2019 to undertake the first repairs to the roof since the 1970s, and the first major overhaul in more than a century.

Mrs McLeod said: "By the end of the year we hope to see the magnificent East Front of Wentworth Woodhouse uncloaked from the scaffold which has shrouded it from view for over a year."

The house, once home to the Fitzwilliam family, has survived adversity before - its future has been uncertain at several points in its history, including just after World War Two when its grounds were destroyed by open-cast mining and the male line became extinct.

In the 1980s, the Fitzwilliam family put it up for sale and it was saved by a private buyer, who could do little to prevent it falling into decay. Restoration efforts since the trust took over have been supported by public funding grants and it appeared to finally have been saved for the nation.