Summary
Formal gardens which were laid out in the period around 1713-30 with mid C18 additions surrounded by parkland of early and mid C18 date.
Reasons for Designation
Wentworth Castle Gardens, formal gardens laid out in the period of around 1713 to 1730 by Thomas Wentworth, first Earl of Strafford (2nd creation) with mid-C18 additions by William Wentworth, second Earl of Strafford, and parkland of early to mid-C18 date, is listed at Grade I for the following principal reasons:
Historic interest:
* as a remarkably complex and well-surviving example of an early- to mid-C18 country-house designed landscape retaining a significant proportion of the principal features of the layout and design by both the first and second Earls of Strafford;
* the creation and development of the gardens are particularly well documented in estate archives, published and personal writings, paintings and illustrations, including a 1714 engraving by Knyff and Kip and a perspective view of 1730 by Badeslade, resulting in an unusually complete record of its layout and evolution.
Design interest:
* the gardens demonstrate the latest designed landscape fashions of the age in the planting, as well as positioning and appearance of a fine collection of high-quality buildings and structures, with an extra intellectual dimension presented by a number that conveyed coded political messages about the family's allegiances to well-educated contemporary visitors.
Group value:
* the gardens’ interest is notably enhanced by containing a large and varied group of listed garden buildings and structures, which together shape the designed landscape and form the setting for the Grade I Wentworth Castle, Conservatory (Grade II*), St James’ Church (Grade II) and Home Farm (various buildings listed Grade II).
History
The Everingham family settled at Stainborough Hall around 1567. The estate was then sold to the Cutler family in the mid C17 and sold again in 1708 to Thomas Wentworth (1672-1739). Wentworth bought the estate to impress a rival branch of the family, the Watson Wentworths of nearby Wentworth Woodhouse which his cousin left to a nephew rather than Thomas, much to his annoyance, and to press his claim to the title of Earl of Strafford. The development of the house and grounds has been seen as a demonstration of these ambitions and as an outlet for his energies following the end of his political career after the death of Queen Anne in 1714 (Garden History Vol 14, no.2 1986). The site at this time is illustrated in an engraving of 1714 by Knyff and Kip and by a perspective view by Badeslade of 1730, published in Vitruvius Britannicus IV in 1739 (both reproduced in Ray 1992). Wentworth renamed the estate Wentworth Castle in 1731.
The gardens and parkland were altered and embellished by Wentworth’s son William, the second Earl of Strafford (1722-1791), who was a friend of Horace Walpole and may have been advised by him. Walpole, who described Wentworth Castle as “my favourite of all great seats, such a variety of ground, of wood and water; almost all executed and disposed with so much taste” (quoted in Lemmon 1978), was certainly involved in the design of a gothic temple in the park. In 1802 the estate passed to Frederick William Thomas Vernon who took the name Wentworth.
During the Second World War the house and estate were requisitioned by the army for a variety of uses, including a military hospital. Vernon Wentworth’s grandson sold the house and 60 acres of gardens and parkland to Barnsley Council in 1948: the wider parkland and estate remained in private ownership. The walled garden was used by the Council as a municipal plant nursery and the house was used as a college to train primary and nursery teachers: new college buildings were built close to the house in 1965 to 1966. From the late 1940s open cast coal mining saw the felling of much of the parkland belt woodland, particularly Boom Royd and Ivas Wood; this has subsequently been partly replanted. In 1966 to 1968 the M1 was cut through the eastern side of the historic parkland. In 1978 the house was bought for use as the Northern College of Residential Adult Education, who also leased 40 acres of gardens. The college remains as an independent adult education centre.
In 2001 the Wentworth Castle and Stainborough Park Trust was formed which brought much of the parkland into public ownership and undertook an ambitious programme of restoration alongside creating new visitor infrastructure. In 2007 the gardens opened full-time as a visitor attraction, closing in 2017 when the Trust folded. The lease was taken over by the National Trust in 2019 and the gardens reopened to the public.
Details
Formal gardens which were laid out in the period around 1713-30 with mid C18 additions surrounded by parkland of early and mid C18 date.
LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING: Wentworth Castle is situated around 3km south-west of Barnsley in an area which is predominantly rural and agricultural. The site of around 3,000 hectares is on land which slopes gently downwards to the south and east. The boundary is formed by Lowe Lane to the north, where there is a wall and a steep bank. The south-west of the site is bounded by Stainborough Lane as far as Cold Bath Farm, and from that point south-eastwards by fencing along the edges of fields and farmland. The south-east and east boundary is marked by fencing and walls along the edge of Wallside Plantation, Ivas Wood, Walker’s Pond and Menagerie Wood.
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES: historically there have been a number of entrances into the estate of varying importance at various times. The main access from the south created by Thomas Wentworth in the early C18 was via Birdwell Lodge with three miles of avenues passing Rockley, entering by a lodge and gateway (1734 for the first Earl of Strafford, Grade II*, NHLE: 1192441), leading to Queen Anne’s Obelisk (1734 for the first Earl of Strafford, Grade II*, NHLE: 1192441). The route then ran through Ivas Wood and then to Menagerie Wood before turning up the hill and culminating in a straight avenue perpendicular to the centre of the new east front. The drive and avenue met the enclosed court containing the Octagon Pond at a set of gates at a set of gates, shown on the Knyff and Kip engraving of 1714, perspective view by Badeslade of 1730 and estate map of around 1730. Another C18 route is shown on the estate map and Badeslade’s view but not on Knyff and Kip’s engraving. It ran from the east front down an avenue (now replanted) extending southwards through the park to Broom Rod Lodge and on towards Rockley.
Around 1720 the public road shown on the Knyff and Kip engraving, which ran roughly south-westwards between the house and walled garden, up Lady Lucy’s Walk towards Hood Green, was moved northwards to form Lowe Lane, its new position shown on by Badeslade.
From the mid-C18, after the Serpentine Bridge (dated 1758 for the second Earl of Strafford, Grade II, NHLE: 1286990) was built and the formal court in front of the house had been swept away to extend the parkland up to the east front, the drive up the slope moved a little to the north, crossing the Serpentine Bridge and finishing between the house and home farm. This route is clear on historic Ordnance Survey maps, with remnants of the avenue trees to the east of the house shown on the 1:10560 OS map surveyed in 1850-51 and published in 1855. It is still evident on the ground today from the house across the bridge.
The main access from the north was past the now demolished Strafford Lodge and through the arched Strafford Gate (now repositioned). It is likely that this entrance became more important in the C19 after the coming of passenger railways: Prince Albert Victor arrived by this route in 1889 from Barnsley Station. There were also secondary routes to the north from Lowe Lane between Stainborough and Hood Green. Initially this was along the line of Shed Lane, but later was between Gothick lodge called Steeple Lodge (started in 1758 for the second Earl of Strafford to design by Horace Walpole copying Hawking Tower which Walpole had designed for William at Broughton Hall, Northamptonshire. Grade II, NHLE: 1151059) and the Pillared Barn (Grade II*, NHLE:1315049), which replaced Shed Lane as the main route before 1850. These routes would have given service access to Home Farm and the walled garden, now the college drive with late-C20 parking areas for the college on the north side of the house.
The main site entrance is now via a new access road created prior to the site opening in 2007. It passes through Coronation Wood, planted in 1910, and leads to the present visitor carpark. Stafford Gate (around 1768 for the second Earl of Strafford, Grade II, NHLE:1315050) was moved from its original location and rebuilt prior to 2007 to allow vehicular access to the new visitor carpark.
PRINCIPAL BUILDING: Wentworth Castle (Grade I, NHLE: 1151065) was initially built in 1670-1672 for Sir Gervase Cutler (“The Cutler House” is incorporated on the north front). The east wing was added in 1710-1720 to a design by Johann Bodt with work overseen by Thomas Archer, who made some alterations to the design, for Thomas Wentworth, first Earl of Strafford. The south front was added around 1760 by his son William, second Earl of Strafford, to his own design. In 1894 to 1897 a wing was built which squared off the house in the north-west corner and added new kitchens and bedrooms. The building has had C20 alterations and additions in connection with its present use as a college, and a number of late C20 buildings lie to the north of the house. Immediately west of the house is a conservatory (Grade II*, NHLE: 1191675) thought to be of 1877 by Crompton & Fawkes for Thomas Frederick William Vernon-Wentworth, restored in 2013 (the 1910 glazed bridge linking the conservatory to the house was removed in the early C21 after it became dangerous). The Home Farm is situated about 100m north-east of the house and consists of a complex of buildings including a barn and stable block of around 1715 (listed at Grade II, NHLE: 1315052; 1191779), and a variety of other ancillary buildings of later C18 and C19 date (most of them listed Grade II). The former estate Church of St James of 1841(Grade II, NHLE:1286916) is situated on the north side of the open courtyard formed by the farm buildings. It was deconsecrated around 1971 and the fittings later removed. The church and Home Farm buildings were converted to a visitor centre, accommodation and conference space in 2004 to 2006.
GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS: on the east front of the house there is a terrace with two pairs of stone gate piers, gates at the north and south ends, iron railings enclosing a lawn sloping down to the east and a stone balustrade (1912 with griffin and lion finial statues to south gate piers of around 1720 by John van Nost [understood to be presently undergoing restoration] (Grade II, NHLE:1151067). Immediately east of this is an early-C21 garden on the site of the former college carpark, known as the John Arnold Garden (after Thomas Wentworth’s head gardener), with a beech hedge, flower beds and paths and outer beech hedge with openings to the parkland beyond. There are also long-distance views from the terrace across the parkland to agricultural land beyond. The Knyff and Kip engraving shows that a terrace on the east front of the house had central steps leading to a forecourt with a central octagonal pond which was aligned with the avenue approach from the east.
Steps lead up from the east terrace to a lawn on the south front of the house. Thomas Wentworth appears to have had a ha-ha constructed along the southern side of the gardens in the 1710s. This was later extended and strengthened with construction underway by 1738. The ha-ha (Grade II, NHLE:1191749) has a bow front aligned with the front situated around 100m south of the house and then continues south-westwards along the edge of the pleasure grounds to a point around 600m south-west of the house where there is a scarp on the south and west side of Stainborough Castle (see below). A 2007 drystone bridge crosses the ha-ha on the west side of the bow front. The lawn below the south front rises to the west, overlooked by a temple called the Corinthian Temple (of 1766 for the second Earl of Strafford, Grade II, NHLE:1191736) situated around 70m south-west of the house. Both the Knyff and Kip and the Badeslade engravings show the lawn laid out as a formal garden with shaped beds and statues. On the higher ground west of the Temple there is a terraced walk which runs north from the ha-ha for a distance of around 120m, overlooking the west side of the house and the restored conservatory with a 2012-2013 courtyard on its south side and attached visitor centre on its north side. Three routes lead south-westwards from the terraced walk. On the south side a yew-lined path runs alongside the ha-ha. Parallel to this and around 80m to the north is Broad Avenue. A third route, called Lady Augusta’a Walk, runs at the mid-point between these. This area is planted with a mixture of shrubs and mature trees including cedars, yew and pines, and a system of gravelled paths and triangular hedged compartments radiates from Lady Augusta’s Walk and north side of Broad Avenue in a pattern shown on the Badeslade view and apparently maintained or periodically restored since that time, most recently in 2005. The framework of this part of the garden was established in 1713 when estate papers (quoted in Ray 1992) record the first Earl of Strafford initiating the laying out of two wildernesses in geometrical form on each side of a gravel path in a pattern which is probably reflected in the Knyff and Kip engraving (today called the Union Jack Garden, the compartments within the hedges are being replanted by local groups). Between 1850 and 1893 a curling rink was installed between Broad Avenue and The Avenue, parallel to the west front of the house. It was still there on the 1:2500 OS map surveyed in 1903, published in 1906, but had gone by 1929. The site was planted with azaleas and became known as the Azalea or Spring Garden.
North of Broad Avenue another avenue, called The Avenue and flanked on its northern side by Lady Lucy’s Walk, which was replanted with limes in the early C20, has as a terminus of the vista looking east, a building called the Gun Room (mid-C18, Grade II*, NHLE:1151066), restored 2005-2008, which was probably built as a banqueting-house or bath-house. The Avenue runs at an oblique angle to Broad Avenue, so that the two converge at a point around 200m south-west of the house. It is on the line of the former public road and is shown as an avenue on the Badeslade view of 1730 by which date the road had been rerouted. On the north side of Lady Lucy’s Walk is a modern meandering path known as the Shrubbery Walk.
Lady Augusta’s Walk leads to a hedged rectangular area now called the Victorian Flower Garden around 200mT south-west of the house which is entered via a stone archway with a viewing platform reached by stone steps. Opposite this, on the west side of the garden, there is a garden shelter which also has a viewing platform reached by stone steps. This garden has a central circular lawn and flower beds, and was laid out in approximately its present form with the entrance and shelter during the late C19. This area is not shown by Knyff and Kip, but it appears on the Badeslade view and on the estate map of around 1730 as a bowling green, which is referenced in estate papers and was constructed in 1719. By 1853 it was referred to as a flower garden (Wilkinson, “Stainborough & Rockley, their historical associations and rural attractions”). It has various previous names, being known as the Flower Garden (1853-1887); Italianate Garden (1890s); Rose Garden (1920 to early 1980s); Secret Garden (1984 -1990s).
West of the Victorian Flower Garden there is a grassed clearing at the point at which the two avenues converge and on the south side of this there is a stone canted screen with three arched openings with ball finials (1752 for the second Earl of Strafford, Grade II, NHLE:1191749), restored 2005-2008. Initially called The Arcade (refs 1752 BlAddMss 22,241, f122.; 1771 Arthur Young, A Six Months Tour through the North of England, p135), it is now known as Archer’s Hill Gate. The ha-ha continues on the west side of this, from which point it has a crenelated stone parapet and changes direction to run west rather than south-west. At the south-western edge of the clearing, around 300m south-west of the house, there is a stone obelisk (Grade II, NHLE:1151068) dedicated to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, now also called the Sun Monument, which forms the terminus of the vistas along the avenues. It was erected after 1730 and before 1746. The dedication appears to be later by the second Earl in memory of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who introduced small pox inoculation to England from Turkey in 1720; the original marble inscription plaque, now almost illegible, has an S for Strafford, a marking device used by the second Earl. The axis of the garden changes at this point and the focus is to the west and a Gothick folly called Stainborough Castle (Grade II*, NHLE:1151069) which stands, framed by trees, on the earthwork remains of what is thought to be an Iron Age fort (THAS 1991). The folly is a particularly early and ambitious example of a Gothick mock castle which was erected in 1726-1730 by the first Earl and is shown in the Badeslade view. It was built by the Bower family, who had worked for over six generations on the estate, and was rebuilt in 1755 by John Platt, a master mason from Rotherham for the second Earl after its partial collapse. It included a banqueting room on the first floor (Jane Furse, NAJ 63/64 2nd Ed. p 126). The four towers were named after the second Earl’s four children and he also placed a posthumous statue of his father by Rysbrack in the centre of the castle, moved in 1970 outside the northern end of the east front of the house (1744, Grade II*, NHLE:1191709). The banqueting room and two towers collapsed during the early 1960s. Woods to the north, called The Wilderness on the 1893 OS map, are divided from parkland by a ha-ha which continues along the outer edge of Lady Lucy’s Walk. The layout is much as shown by Badeslade, though at that time the Castle was approached by an avenue.
PARK: parkland surrounds the house and consists largely of pasture and land under arable cultivation. The east front of the house overlooks open parkland with scattered trees. Around 500m east of the house is the Serpentine River, a long, serpentine water feature with stone sides aligned approximately north-south, now partially dry. The Serpentine was started by Thomas, the first Earl, with the southern and longest stretch built first and completed by 1738. Further ponds extended the river and provided a “mirror” for reflections of the Rotunda Temple (Jane Furse, NAJ 63/64 2nd Ed. p 128). Beside the Serpentine was a folly, called the Temple and in the C19 the Tuscan Temple, included in estate bills for Thomas in 1739. It had four columns and two pilasters, black and white marble floor and slate roof. Remains of the structure and its components remain in the Serpentine and on its dam edge. William, the second Earl, had extended the Serpentine north by 1750 and added the Serpentine Bridge dated 1758; the balustrades were reinstated 2005-2008.
Some 150m east if this is a crescent of woodland called Menagerie Wood. On the inner edge of this, alongside the drive, is an early-C18 building called Menagerie House (Grade II, NHLE:1151062), built as a banqueting house to a design by James Gibbs for the first Earl and shown on the Badeslade view, extended by the second Earl with the addition of a rear wing, probably to include accommodation for live-in servants, and converted to cottages in the C19 and C20. In the woods was a Gothick folly with a brick grotto below, also known as the Umbrello, constructed in 1759 to the designs of Richard Bentley with advice from Horace Walpole. It is now lying dismantled but much of the stonework remains on the ground. The landscape within the Wood contained a series of cascades, small streams and ponds built in the 1720s shown on the estate map of around 1730, where it is marked “Menezery”, and on the Badeslade view. It held a collection of birds such as Muscovy ducks, pheasants and guinea fowl.
On the south-east side of the park, on the edge of Ivas Wood, there is a temple called the Rotunda Temple (Grade II*, NHLE:1191615) which was erected in 1742-1746 by the second Earl to a very similar design to the Temple of Sybil at Tivoli, which he may have seen when on the Grand Tour of Europe. The date 1746 is on an inscribed date stone, also with the device S for Strafford. Having become largely ruinous, it was restored in 2010. Ivas Wood is shown on the estate map of around 1730 and the Badeslade view with a pattern of drives/rides radiating from the centre. Many new trees were planted in 2006-2007 to recreate its original appearance. On the south-west side of the park is a remnant of Broom Royd Wood, which was largely felled in the mid-C20, with some subsequent replanting. The general shape of the wooded area as shown on the 1850 OS map is preserved in the pattern of field boundaries. The Wood is shown on the Knyff and Kip engraving with a geometrical pattern of rides cut through it, and on the estate map of around 1730 and Badeslade view with a simpler pattern of rides. On the north side of the Wood , around 800m south-west of the house, is the Duke of Argyll’s Monument (Grade II*, NHLE:1151064), a statue upon a monumental column, which was erected by the second Earl in 1742 and then dedicated in 1744 as a memorial to his father-in-law, John Duke of Agyll, who had died in 1743. The statue, which is of Minerva or “Fame” was not included in the bills for the monument and so may have come from elsewhere within the existing gardens. The parkland to the north and west of the monument is shown on the Knyff and Kip engraving as an enclosed deer park, and the area may have originated as Gervase Cutler’s C17 deer park.
A complex system of avenues running over the park is shown by Badeslade, and was based around an axis orientated approximately north/south and east/west, which centred on the house. The estate map of around 1730 shows a very similar arrangement of avenues. By 1771 these had been removed in the eastern part of the park (Jeffery’s county map), while some vestigial avenues were evident in the western part of the park, which had largely disappeared by the 1990s.
KITCHEN GARDEN: kitchen gardens lie immediately north of Home Farm, on the east side of the college drive from Lowe Lane. They are on the site of a walled garden shown by both Knyff and Kip and Badeslade. The walled garden occupies a site of approximately 2.5 hectares. It was begun by Thomas, the first Earl, and then expanded with the building of the orangery (1724, Grade II, NHLE:1151072) and creation of the orangery garden, shown on the 1830 Badeslade view and the estate map. Stove walls were built in 1722 running east-west in line with the long axis of the later orangery; remains of the stove wall remain to the east of the orangery, but most of the wall and stove house were demolished in 1978, along with C19 glasshouses. The red-brick walls surrounding the garden have been partially rebuilt in the late C20 and the garden has been used as a municipal nursery in the latter part of the C20, with its associated late- C20 glasshouses. Set into the north-west outer wall is a mid-late C19 head gardener’s cottage with a canted wing projecting into the garden.
Description written: November 1998
Edited: November 1999
Edited: November 2023
