£7.6 million Government windfall for Wentworth Woodhouse

THE £50 million restoration of Wentworth Woodhouse was given a shot in the arm this week when Chancellor Phillip Hammond pledged £7.6 million for repairs to the crumbling mansion.

The Advertiser reported last month how preservation trust chairman Julie Kenny and Wentworth and Dearne MP had met Mr Hammond at Westminster to lobby him to support the revival of the subsidence-hit stately home.

And the pair must have proved persuasive because the Government’s money man announced during his Autumn Statement on today that a huge chunk of cash was heading to South Yorkshire.

The Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust (WWPT) has £7 million in place to buy the Big House, as the mansion is known in the village, from its current owners, the Newbold family.

But Ms Kenny told the Advertiser last month that the trust was keen to gather more funding for emergency repairs before pressing on to complete the deal.

Mr Healey said after today’s announcement: “The Chancellor made a special exception in announcing the £7.6 million grant to rescue and restore Wentworth Woodhouse.

“This is great news which gives the full go-ahead to plans to preserve one of Britain’s great houses for the nation.

"I met the Chancellor personally last month to press the case with the chair of the Trust Julie Kenny and Conservative MP Robert Jenrick, who is a heritage expert.

“We've been meeting ministers and civil servants behind the scenes for over a year, so I’m delighted that the Chancellor today recognised the scale of the challenge in saving Wentworth Woodhouse for the public and backed the huge potential boost it could bring to jobs, businesses and visitors in the North.

“The grant is a great vote of confidence for the work that the Trust and its chair Julie Kenny have been doing on the plans for the great house.”