The original Jacobean house was remodelled to its current form by Thomas Watson–Wentworth, 1st Marquess of Rockingham (1693–1750), and vastly expanded by his son. The 2nd Marquess served as Prime Minister for two brief periods – for twelve months from July 1765, and again for four months in 1782.
Wentworth Woodhouse's east front is over 200 yards wide, and is the longest facade of any country house in Europe. After World War II, Europe's largest open–cast coal mine was opened in front of that facade, but mining stopped in the 1950s. From 1949 to 1979 the house was home to the Lady Mabel College of Physical Education, and from 1979 to 1988 it was used by the Physical Education and Geography & Environmental Studies departments of Sheffield Polytechnic.
The house was then sold to a local businessman, who started a programme of restoration, but in 1998, after the failure of his business, it was repossessed by a Swiss bank and put back on the market. At this point it was bought by Clifford Newbold, an architect from Highgate (London), who began a programme of renovation and restoration; but in 2014, with the cost of the work required being estimated at £40 million, Newbold offered it for sale. He died the following year, and in 2017 the house was bought for £7 million by a charitable trust.
Chancellor Philip Hammond allocated £7.6 million in the 2016 budget as a grant towards restoration. As of 2020, this is the latest news we seem to have.
Hammond mentioned the supposed Jane Austen connection in his budget speech. The Jane Austen Society dismissed the idea, pointing out that the novelist had never visited the estate; however, Wikipedia notes that there is a character named Frederick Wentworth in Persuasion, and the surname of the eponymous heroine of Emma is Woodhouse. Not only that, but the first name of Mr. Darcy (owner of Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice) is Fitzwilliam; Wentworth Woodhouse was owned from the 18th century, until 1979, by the Earls Fitzwilliam.
© Haydn Thompson 2020