It is known worldwide as the Black Diamonds house built on coal.
And while it’s true that a seam runs beneath Wentworth Woodhouse, Rotherham’s Grade I listed architectural masterpiece was actually built before the black stuff reaped gold for its noble owners.
The saying has now been debunked by a team of local history buffs responsible for the first exhibition exploring the mansion’s 200 year coal-mining history.
Wentworth’s Coal Story explains how the fossil fuel industry affected the mansion’s rise and fall, with all information painstakingly collated by 15 of Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust’s team of research volunteers.
Staged in two of the mansion’s ground floor rooms, the exhibition explores the stories of the men who worked underground on estate land and their relationships with their aristocratic employers.
One of the researchers, former teacher Joan Jones, commented: “We have been totally absorbed in the house’s mining history for months and found out many interesting things. What stood out for me was the fact that, when the First Marquess of Rockingham began building Wentworth Woodhouse in 1724, he had only one mine.
“It had opened in 1723 and employed just a handful of men. It certainly didn’t fund his architectural ambitions. Income from his vast estates paid for that.
“At the end of the 18th century the entrepreneurial 4th Earl Fitwilliam inherited just as mining techniques and transportation were improving and by the mid-1800s, his income from the mines rocketed.”
At the heart of the exhibition is a fascinating collection of cherished memorabilia and old photographs loaned by local people after an appeal from the Trust.
Over 30 exhibits will include a pair of rabbit skin gloves hand-made by a miner, a Fitzwilliam Medal presented by Countess Maud Fitzwilliam in 1904 to a collier who displayed great kindness to a pit pony, numerous commemorative plates, miners’ lamps, photographs and never-before displayed items from Wentworth Woodhouse’s archive.
This summer the Preservation Trust will also present its George Stubbs exhibition, opening on 30th July,
Seven Stubbs works will feature – four of which were actually painted at Wentworth Woodhouse during the artist’s residency in 1762.
Alongside them will be works by nine contemporary artists including Tracey Emin and Turner Prize winner Mark Wallinger.
Beneath the Surface: George Stubbs and Contemporary Artists celebrates the 300th birthday of the acclaimed Georgian artist.
Mares and Foals with an Unfigured Background, Whistlejacket with the Head Groom and Two Other Principal Stallions, Portrait of Scrub in a Landscape with John Singleton Up and the painting Five of Lord Rockingham’s Stag Hounds in a Landscape are to be loaned from a private collection, along with Stubbs’s acclaimed book of detailed anatomical studies, Anatomy of A Horse, published in 1766.
The exhibition, sited in the mansion’s State Rooms, will also feature Stubbs’ A Monkey, Two Horses Communing in a Landscape and Phillis’ a Pointer of Lord Clermont’s.
Victoria Ryves, the Trust’s Head of Culture and Engagement, said: “Beneath The Surface is the most ambitious exhibition we have ever undertaken and it firmly places Wentworth Woodhouse as a cultural hub for the North, an ambition set out in our Cultural Strategy.
“Bringing seven world-class Stubbs paintings from private collections or museums to Rotherham is a real coup for us and we are thrilled that four of them are ‘coming home’. They were painted here, they graced the family’s private rooms for centuries and now they will be on show here to the public for the first time.”
She added: “We are very grateful to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England, who arranged the provision of the Government’s Indemnity Scheme for us. Without it, the exhibition would not have been possible.”
Find out more at www.wentworthwoodhouse.org.uk.