Wentworth Woodhouse: New chain will carry names of those who worked at Yorkshire country house through its history - including servants and WW2 personnel

Many of those who have donated to Forge a Link have paid to have their initials engraved on a 154-metre chain to be installed by the East Front in memory of a relative who has a connection to the estate and the Fitzwilliam family.

The chain, forged locally in Attercliffe blacksmiths’ workshop Ridgeway, will replicate one which was in place in front of the facade for two centuries. Each of the 1,800 links is handcrafted and can bear up to three initials.

Among those who have taken part so far are a woman whose great-great-aunt rose from humble chambermaid to become one of the Earls Fitzwilliams’ senior servants in the 19th century, and the daughter of a World War Two army clerk who was based at Wentworth when it was requisitioned for military use.

Jane Ainsworth was born in Hoyland, where her parents were teachers, and despite moving away, she and her husband retired to Barnsley a decade ago and discovered Wentworth Park during walks.

While researching her family history, she found that most of her father’s relatives were miners at Fitzwilliam pits and lived in houses owned by the estate.

Her mother’s great-great-aunt, Elizabeth Martha Horn, was recruited to work at Wentworth in 1861, and a decade later was a housemaid at the Fitzwilliams’ London residence. She returned for another spell in Yorkshire before being promoted to housekeeper at the Grosvenor Square house in a district popular with the aristocracy. She would have effectively been in charge while the family were away.

She was married in middle age to a check-weighman who worked for the Earl, and after leaving service they lived at the miners’ lodging house in the village of Elsecar.

The initials of Jane’s parents, Edith and John Charles Hardy, will be imprinted on two links of the chain.

“They were from Hoyland and Elsecar and their initials will represent their family connections to Wentworth Woodhouse. I think they would both be chuffed by that,” said Jane.

Another donor is Alison Neasom, whose engraving will have the initials of both herself and her mother, Olive Wedgwood. Both women, despite the generational divide, have close ties to Wentworth.

Olive was posted to the house in 1945, after joining the Intelligence Corps in a clerical role. In 1974, Alison arrived as a trainee teacher at Lady Mabel College, who had leased the house and grounds from the Fitzwilliam family.

“This is just a little way of giving back for the joy the house gave to my mother and I in our respective times at Wentworth Woodhouse. My mother loved the grandeur of the house, but as a nature-lover, having her place of work in such beautiful countryside was perfection to her.

“She spoke of the walks she took to Greasborough and through the grounds, and the fun she had skinny-dipping in the lakes.

"My mother was absolutely delighted when I went to train as a PE teacher there. She loved bringing me back to college and came to watch me in dance events.

“I don’t think any of us fully appreciated the magnificence of the building and grounds and how lucky we were to dance in the Marble Saloon, play lacrosse at the Deer Sheds and do our indoor sports and gym in the Stable Block.

“My husband decided to propose to me at the college ball because he knew how much Wentworth meant to me,” added Alison, who still attends Lady Mabel students’ reunions.

The house was sold to private owners in the 1980s, though the descendants of the Fitzwilliams retained the surrounding estate farmland after the direct male line became extinct. The Preservation Trust bought it in 2017 and are undertaking a major restoration of the mansion.