Secrets of Wentworth Woodhouse revealed as restoration marks milestone

The South and North Pavilions were the 1st Marquess of Rockingham’s finishing touches to his ever-expanding Georgian home, near Rotherham.

But after falling into disrepair when the Fitzwilliam family, who owned the house in the 19th and 20th centuries, vacated, they have needed substantial restoration.

Leaking roofs have caused substantial damage to the house, and the restoration efforts led by the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust will take years if not decades to complete.

But an £885,800 restoration to the South Pavilion, which followed one to the North Pavilion last year, now means the frontage of the house is a step closer to how it would have looked in its heyday.

As specialists restored and rebuilt, new information about the South Pavilion’s previous life was discovered.

The North Pavilion was used for staff and storage.

In a 1750 inventory the ‘lumber room’ on the ground floor was a store ith old furniture, slabs of marble, leather portmanteaux ,two iron dripping pans and a cheese press were among its contents.

The first floor was the Tower Bedchamber containing a fire grate, two pairs of bedsteads with stiff hangings, two feather beds and bolsters, blankets, coverlets, three old chairs, two stools, a small looking-glass and a small square table.

In the 1820s part of the North Pavilion’s tower was the estate manager’s office and on 1832 plans the ground floor is listed as a sick room and and the first floor as a ‘Doctor’s Shop’

But the South Pavilion had more importance.

House historians have found that the room on the top floor was stylishly furnished with feminine touches and may well have been used in the mid 18th century by Mary, the wife of the Second Marquess of Rockingham.

Dorian Proodfoot, the architect behind the restoration, said: “Wentworth Woodhouse’s east front is almost twice as long as Buckingham Palace. The South Pavilion is almost the last piece of the puzzle in terms of restoring that incredible elevation.

“As with a lot of the mansion it was in very bad condition. It was at risk of being lost. The rain was getting in through the roof - the main issue with a lot of this building has been the roof coming to an end of its useful life.

“Half of the weathervane had been lost in a storm, and an urn had fallen off in the past, it had been lugged up to the stables and put in a room somewhere.

“The top floor is called the Adam Room - it was Lord Milton’s study. It was an amazing room with plaster decorations and water was coming in.

“The roof urgently needed to be fixed, as did the windows which were rotting.

“From that study on the top floor there is a private bridge into the gardens and that was leaking too.

“It’s really important in terms of preserving the building. We fixed the stonework, repaired the bridge and fixed the ironwork.”

or Mr Proudfoot, conservation architect at Donald Insall Associates, the work is far from over.

“We’re only just beginning really. We’ve used initial funding to fix the roof, but there’s not been much work on what goes on underneath.

“We’ve moved our attention to the Camellia House, and that’s the first masterplan development project to bring the building into new use and generate funds to help with the restoration.

“There’s still 90 per cent of the job left to do to restore the interiors to their original, magnificent condition.

“We’re about four years into our 20 year masterplan.”

Sarah McLeod, CEO of Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust said: “So much has been achieved. The most architecturally-important areas of the Mansion are now water-tight and the East Front is almost as it would have been in its Georgian heyday.

“This is all thanks to the work of many talented heritage specialists and the organisations which have generously given over £9.75m to the repair programmes we have staged since taking ownership of the site in 2017.”