The women who made Wentworth Woodhouse what it is are honoured in a new tour

“The theme for this year’s event is Moving Forward Together! Women Educating and Inspiring Generations - and that could not be more fitting for the Trust. Wentworth Woodhouse has had a history of extraordinary women which continues today,” she says. “Dame Julie Kenny DBE DL, our chair of trustees, fought a long campaign to purchase the house and rescue it from its decline, and leading its £155 million regeneration is Sarah McLeod OBE, our CEO. But what of the women who went before? Little was known so our researchers trawled through old letters, documents and diaries and thanks to their work, we have fascinating stories to tell during Women's History Month and beyond as we want these stories to be told was beyond March and hopefully they will help people really engage with Wentworth Woodhouse.”

The six women featured in Women of Wentworth Woodhouse a new tour throughout March were each ‘women of substance’, who forged their own path and changed lives along the way. Some of them challenged authority and society’s dictates. One actually changed the future of the house itself.

The 2nd Marchioness of Rockingham, Mary Watson-Wentworth, who emerges from the shadow of her husband’s successful political career. “In the 1700s, the Marquess was Prime Minister twice and led the Whig opposition to Britain’s war with the colonists of North America,” says Ryves. “But It is now known that Lady Mary was a skilled politician in her own right. Wentworth Woodhouse’s researchers have found that Opposition party members often sent their letters straight to her, and her husband so valued her political acumen he compared her to the Roman goddess of wisdom. I like to think they were a real power couple. “After the Marquess’s death, Lady Mary developed her passion for horticulture and botany, collecting plants from the far corners of the British Empire and corresponding with leading botanists.

Some 100 years later, another woman in the aristocratic family occupying Wentworth Woodhouse carved her own political path. Lady Mabel Florence Harriet Wentworth-Fitzwilliam was the daughter of Viscount Milton, the eldest son of the 6th Earl, who died before inheriting the title. While her brother became the 7th Earl, she became a Socialist politician in South Yorkshire, stating her social conscience developed after seeing the conditions of children who lived on the Wentworth estate. But Lady Mabel also goes down in history as the woman who saved Wentworth Woodhouse. In the 1940s, the house was in the hands of her nephew Peter, the 8th Earl, and the high cost of running and maintaining the vast stately home was weighing heavily. Mabel came up with a solution. She brokered a deal which saw much of the house leased to West Riding County Council for the creation of the Lady Mabel College of Physical Education. All-importantly, the lease agreement meant the lessee was responsible for the building repairs and maintenance. Negotiations became even more vital after Peter died in a plane crash in 1948, bringing further death duties. Wentworth Woodhouse could have joined the 2,000-plus country houses demolished by their owners in the 1900s, but the college opened in 1950 and the family could afford to keep the house going. The tour also introduces the college’s first Principle, Miss Nancy Mollar, a woman so redoubtable she took on the Local Education Authority in a bid to get better-quality local food for her students. She lost the battle and was so angry about the provisions sent by Local Authority-approved suppliers, she resigned. Also featuring, thanks to support from Dig Where You Stand, the archival justice movement unearthing untold stories of South Yorkshire’s Black and racially marginalised people, is the story of Sarah Senegal, a laundry maid, who had two inter-racial marriages in the 1700s. She firstly married George Senegal, a house footman who had been brought from Senegal and worked his way up in the household. He and their child are both buried in Wentworth churchyard, after early deaths. Sarah later remarried another person of colour, who had been a witness at her wedding to George. “Not only is Sarah’s story interesting in its own right it is also a sign of what was happening in Georgian England at the time,” says Ryves. Countess Maud, the 7th Earl’s wife, comes into the spotlight on the tour, as does her beloved childhood nanny, Miss Katherine Moffat. The relationship between the two women was strong; Miss Moffat was invited to the wedding of Lady Maud and Viscount Milton, the future 7th Earl Fitzwilliam, and moved to Wentworth Woodhouse when they had children. Miss Moffat died in London, aged 71, in 1929 and is buried in the Fitzwilliams’ private area of Wentworth churchyard. Although the researchers have unearthed these stories, Victoria Ryves says they are always on the look out for more. “Thousands of people must have worked at Wentworth Woodhouse and we would love to hear from anyone who had family members who worked here by emailing [email protected].”

Women of Wentworth Woodhouse - March 2 to March 28, running Weds, Fri and Sunday. wentworthwoodhouse.org.uk